Sheppard relative joins Suffrage Day walk
Inspired by the work of pioneering suffrage campaigner Kate Sheppard, about 80 people marched in Nelson yesterday to encourage voters to exercise their hard-earned democratic right.
Among the marchers on Suffrage Day was Elizabeth Coleman, the great-great niece of Sheppard’s second husband, William Sidney Lovell-smith. Coleman said she only learnt about her family’s connection with the great suffragist about 10 years ago. Sheppard features on a copy of Coleman’s family tree.
‘‘It’s wonderful,’’ Coleman said of the family link.
Since the discovery, Coleman said she had been researching Sheppard.
‘‘The next thing I’d like to do is find the house they were in,’’ she said.
Fellow Nelson resident Georgina Roden was also among the people who marched along Trafalgar St from the Church Steps to the advance voting place on Bridge St, where she intended to vote.
Roden said she did not initially plan to celebrate Suffrage Day until she discovered it was believed about 4000 Ma¯ ori women were among the voters who participated in the 1893 election – the first year women could vote.
‘‘It’s a vote for all women,’’ Roden said.
Sheppard, whose image is on the New Zealand $10 note, led the campaign to secure the right for women to vote. The suffrage campaigners travelled thousands of kilometres to collect thousands of signatures and submitted three petitions to Parliament before they were successful.
Once the 2017 marchers reached the advance voting place in Nelson, they gave three cheers for ‘‘the ladies who got us the vote’’ and many of them went in to cast their ballot.
Nelson Pay Equity Partnership spokeswoman Pip Jamieson said Sheppard and her campaigners canvassed signatures in homes, workplaces and the streets.
‘‘We are now walking through Nelson city to ensure our community utilise their hardearned democratic right to vote,’’ Jamieson said.