The Graveyard Shift is a volunteer-led community group dedicated to reclaiming graves that would otherwise be lost to overgrowth.
Each month, volunteers of all ages, cultures, and backgrounds gather at Taitā Cemetery and St John's Upper Hutt to clear weeds, uncover headstones, and recover what time has almost taken: names, dates, memories.
For volunteers, it's meaningful because as long as a name can be read, the person it belongs to isn't entirely gone. The group grew from the Upper Hutt community, drawing in more people over time, and runs on the classic Kiwi grassroots spirit: home baking on working days, drinks in cans that get recycled.
$1,468 from the Community Decarbonisation Fund is helping The Graveyard Shift replace its petrol-powered weed eaters and leaf blowers with battery alternatives. In a cemetery, noise matters. Petrol tools get the job done but they're loud, and people visiting family members deserve peace and quiet. For a group already running as sustainably as possible, the change also means no fossil fuels on site and a smaller footprint with every working day.
