The grave of James Campbell, Karen Dravitski's first Scottish ancestor to settle in New Zealand, has been unmarked until now. Karen Dravitski and her son William commemorated James Campbell’s life at his newly marked plot in November 2025, 125 years after his death.

Megan Ward (aged 34) and her fiancé Stephen Riddell at Emma's grave in Makaraka Cemetery, July 2025. Megan is a great great granddaughter...

Researched, written, and produced by M. T. Rusk, 2006. This story has close similarity with that of Makaraka Cemetery, which is described...

A Gisborne Herald photo from 1970 shows weed invasion around the boundary of the Cemetery. Many graves were covered by blackberry and...

A walk around Makaraka Cemetery to celebrate Margaret's birthday, International Women's Day (on March 8), and Women's History Month....

Restored grave - respect shown for Thomas and Vivie Haisman

In 2018 Sheridan Gundry wrote an application to the Lotteries Environment and Heritage Fund requesting funding to reinstate the recovered...

From Dot McCulloch, "This was a large number of unveilings. Families and friends gathered and Charlie Pera and Moerehu Pewhairangi...

The Smith family siblings - Irene, Moira, Malcolm, Kirk, and Susie honoured the life of their great great grandmother, Elizabeth (Bessie)...

On June 13th, 2021, HPT led a tour through Makaraka Cemetery for people to learn about Gisborne's development through the stories of some...

Was it the 2007 earthquake which twisted the top block of the Barker monument and shook the urn off the top? There are many other...

More than 200 Gisborne women signed the 1892 Gisborne petition that gave New Zealand women the vote in 1893. Many of these women are...

Click the link to view a document which includes brief sketches of the life stories of many of the people who are buried in the Old...

The Waerenga-a-Hika NZ Wars memorial is in Block B. This memorial records the names of six Hawke’s Bay Military Settlers who died on 18 November 1865 during the siege of Waerenga-a-Hika pā. In spring 1865, several hundred followers of the Pai Mārire religion from Poverty Bay’s Rongowhakaata and Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki iwi built a strongly fortified pā at Waerenga-a-Hika, 10 km inland from Gisborne (then known as Tūranganui). On 16 November, a force of about 300 Māori, mostly Ngā

William Donald Stuart MacDonald's beautiful red granite monument stands at the entrance to the cemetery at the corner of Block C. Known...

Victor Strachan Lardelli's grave is in Block E with a beautiful new headstone. Victor was an early Waimata settler who bought Kowhai...

Mihi Hetekia and her husband Rawiri Karaha are buried in Block F. The photo is from 1971, and unfortunately the headstones are no longer...

David John and Catherine Barry's grave is in Block G. DJ Barry owned a cordial bottling plant, and later took over William Crawford's...

The only wooden headstone remaining in Makaraka Cemetery is that of Mary Ann Fraser in Block H. It is likely that many early wooden...