Back to suffragette city | Auckland News | Local News in Auckland

One hundred and seventeen years after the suffrage movement marked a great leap forward for women's rights, the battle goes on in downtown Auckland.

Commemorative steps and tiles in Khartoum Place have become a political flashpoint during local elections and will again be centrestage on Suffrage Day this Sunday, September 19.

On the same date in 1893, New Zealand Governor Lord Glasgow signed a new Electoral Act into law. As a result of this landmark legislation, New Zealand became the first self-governing country to grant all women the right to vote in parliamentary elections.

The passing of the Electoral Act was the culmination of years of agitation by the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and other organisations. As part of this campaign, a series of massive petitions - including one earlier in 1893 signed by almost one in four adult women in New Zealand - were presented to Parliament.

The landmark law change is celebrated with a series of tile murals in Khartoum Place between Lorne St and Kitchener St in Auckalnd's CBD. The Women's Suffrage Centenary Memorial was erected in 1993, one hundred years after the new Electoral Act passed into law. The memorial is made of over 2000 coloured tiles and was designed by artists Claudia Pond Eyley and Jan Morrison.

However, political tension remains high over plans by Auckland City Council's Citizens & Ratepayers' councillors to relocate the suffragette memorial to make way for a set of "Spanish steps" from Lorne St to the Auckland Art Gallery, which is having a $113 million upgrade.

Auckland City councillors have been presented with a petition of 4393 signature gathered by the National Council of Women to support retaining the memorial in Khartoum Place. Mayoral aspirant Len Brown joined the debtate by siging the petition to keep the memorial at Khartoum Place.

After months of debate and lobbying on the issue, Auckland City's arts, culture and recreation committee put off a decision until the new council takes office on November 1.

This Sunday afternoon however, the tiles are back in the spotlight with a Suffrage Day celebration.

In attendance will be Megan Hutching the author of Leading the Way, a history of the struggle for women's suffrage in New Zealand released this year. Also there to conduct tours of the memorial will be City Vision councillor Cathy Casey. The tours start at 2pm, 2.30pm and 3pm.

Members of the National Council of Women will be there to talk about women's issues, past, present and future and female pipers will welcome and close.

On the tiles

Suffrage Day Celebration
2pm-3pm, Sunday, September 19
Khartoum Place, Central City, Auckland