Full Synopsis

In 1868 Kate Sheppard embarks on a long journey from the motherland. Three months on a ship sailing to the bottom of the world. To New Zealand. A South Pacific paradise. An egalitarian Eden. A land of, ‘limitless opportunity’ blind to race, class or creed. Or so the posters said.

She settles in the South Island, in Christchurch. She marries an accountant called Walter. She has a son named William. She meets her best friend Jennie and her husband William. More on him later.

The depression of the 1880’s leads to a culture of alcoholism and abuse all too common in New Zealand households. Women are being beaten in their homes. Men are getting drunk and drowning in the Avon River. Kate starts to see New Zealand for what it really is. A little Britain with the same old shit in. She sees the rampant social and economic inequities that exist for women but doesn’t yet know what to do about it.

Untill she goes to a freak show on May 10th, 1885 - Mary Leavett, from the Women’s Christian Temperance Union of the United States. Leavett speaks with more passion and soul than any man Kate has ever seen. This is the wake-up call Kate is waiting for. She establishes the Christchurch branch of the WCTU along with her sisters in arms Ada Wells and Jennie Lovell-Smith. They write letters, hand out leaflets, sing songs but nothing changes. Women have no power - socially, economically or politically. She realises nothing will change until women have the right to vote.

In 1891 she starts a petition to persuade the men in power to grant women the vote. Women cycle all over the country to collect signatures.A mobile militia. Pushing the pedals for a revolution. Ten thousand people sign but it’s not enough to win the vote. But it is enough to wake the dragon.

A dragon named Dick. King Dick. The Premier Dick. A barrel-chested behemoth who will stop at nothing to crush Kate and all who follow her. A stooge of the liquor lobby he leads his lackeys in the house to discredit and distort Kate’s message.

Kate tries again - a second petition gaining twice as many votes, but King Dick stymies her efforts again. She is devastated. Exhausted. Walter tells her he is taking their son back to England. She says no but a child is the property of the father so she has no say. She is also in love with William, her best friend’s husband, but nothing can happen there. Kate is alone. Her child has been taken away. Her cause has been taken away. .. By men. She is ready to give up.

But the women gather. Ada, Jennie, then more. They urge her to continue. They lift her up and give her the energy to lead them one more time. One final push. The women surge across the nation. An unstoppable tsunami. A wave of change sweeping all before them. Thirty thousand signatures. A quarter of the population. The petition goes to Parliament and the writing is on the wall. Dick’s men, like rats on a sinking ship, turn on him and the women’s franchise bill passes.

Kate has won. New Zealand becomes the first country in the world to grant women the right to vote in parliamentary elections. Kate has led a movement that changed a nation and changed the world.

“All that seperates of race, class, creed or sex is inhuman, and must be overcome.”