Memorial unveiled for Gisborne suffragist Agnes Scott at Taruheru Cemetery

NZ Herald

05-05-2025

Group director operations at Gisborne Hospital John Swiatczak focused on the health emphasis to Scott's compassionate work and her role as the first woman elected to the hospital board in Gisborne.
Historian Jean Johnston said it was wonderful to commemorate someone who had been a formidable force in Gisborne but had been forgotten in the history of Tairāwhiti and lay in an unmarked grave in Taruheru cemetery.
Johnston featured Scott in her book Ambitious Gisborne Women – The organisations they established and their impact on Tairawhiti 1875-1929 and had discovered her unmarked grave while carrying out research.
It was the book that had prompted the idea to create the memorial headstone and the fundraising committee was formed to make it happen.
The gathering began at Stonehaven on Nelson Rd, where people were given a service sheet and then followed piper Robert Hunter from the Gisborne Highland Pipe Band to the graveside.
Dame Ingrid Collins and Swiatczak removed the tartan fabric that covered the headstone, unveiling the memorial.
The ceremony finished with the singing of Te Whakaaria Mai, How Great Thou Art.
A Scottish-themed afternoon tea was provided by the Gisborne Women's Institute before the unveiling ceremony.
Scott was the first woman elected to the Cook Hospital Board 100 years ago.
The former nurse was also part of the Gisborne Women's Political Association, secretary of the Cook County Woman's Guild and a trustee of the town's first children's creche, which was later named the Heni Materoa Children's Home.
Her name and address can be found on the 1892 Gisborne Suffrage petition, which 220 local women signed.
A strategic political worker in support of the liberal cause, she joined forces with and supported Margaret Home Sievwright when she addressed more than 200 women prior to Gisborne women voting for the first time in the parliamentary elections on November 28, 1893.
Her catchphrase to any visiting politician was 'just push us forward'.