6pm Suffrage Day Celebrations at Te Whare Waiutuutu Kate Sheppard House
Join us at our nation's suffrage campaign epicentre to honour and celebrate 132 years since New Zealand led the world granting women the right to vote.
This year, we are opening an extraordinary in-house photographic feminist exhibition honouring a diverse selection of nineteenth century women whose images and silent gazes challenge us to remember them, reckon with, and restore their stories that have too often been left untold.
When the Electoral Act passed in 1893, it granted a world first - voting rights to women in Aotearoa New Zealand. For the first time, the law declared that “person includes woman,” a landmark statement that recognised the legal and universal status of women in this country.
In recognition of that moment, this exhibition presents a powerful visual archive of women and girls captured by Whanganui photographer, William Harding in the decades leading up to this profound social and political change.
Recognised by UNESCO’s Memory of the World, Harding’s photographs offer a rare insight into a pivotal era; inviting us to reflect on the lived experience of women’s lives — while also confronting the enduring legacies of colonialism embedded in Aotearoa’s collective memory and identity.
Featuring both Māori and Pākehā women, their portraits navigate identity, resilience, and belonging — from childhood to motherhood, gender non-conformity to global entanglements. In an era when many women were denied full recognition or autonomy, the act of being photographed was itself a form of visibility, protest, and self-assertion. These portraits offer a rare and accessible record of lives often excluded from the official narrative — intimate moments of presence that push back against silence and erasure.
Curated by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Property Lead, Helen Gregan-Osborne. With thanks to the Christchurch Art Gallery; the National Library and Alexander Turnbull Library.
Time schedule: 6.00pm doors open, speeches, activities and exhibition viewing
Tickets: $10 - includes x 1 alcoholic beverage & nibbles. Cash wine bar will be open.
Parking: Street parking or park in University of Canterbury Carpark FREE after 5pm.
