Celebrate 125 years of Women’s Suffrage with HEALnz

Many years ago I was given a book on Ada Wells' life and her fight for women’s suffrage in

Aotearoa. It always moved me how Ada was a victim of family violence and that much of her

fight came from the need to have basic the human right to be safe. Ada showed the darker

side of the fight for women’s suffrage and because of her we have a voice that can be heard

125 years later. We owe it to her to use it and to continue to fight for the right to be safe in

our environment. Whether it is physical or sexual abuse, or the poisons in our environment,

no one has the right to make us to feel unsafe, to traumatise us. Ada showed us that.

I salute my sisters from the suffrage movement for their courage, persistence and bravery in

changing the world, and acknowledge the men who supported them and that it was only

collectively that this fight was finally won! Ciaran Torrington, HEALnz