Contemporary researchers have pointed out that while historians and archaeologists are both interested in the behaviour and lives of those in the past their various research approaches are often disconnected from one another. Better integration of the study of the material remnants of ancient, historic, and even contemporary cemeteries with the available primary and secondary sources will help deepen our understanding of the lives and deaths of those in the past. This research takes focus on Addington Cemetery as a place that has local, national, and transnational connections and significance. This thesis explores and reveals attitudes towards death, memorial practices, and the dynamics of local society in Victorian and early Edwardian Christchurch through a close analysis of the remnant landscape of Addington Cemetery. I focus on three key areas; displays of colonial ethnic roots, the significance of the colonial family unit as seen in the cemeteries memorials, and the harsh reality of colonial life seen in the scale of children’s deaths recorded on memorials. This is an exploratory study that aims to reiterate what was intended by those that erected memorials at Addington Cemetery and display the important, although sometimes conflicting, views towards Christian beliefs about life, death, and notions of eternal life. By linking the historical and anthropological studies of death to the archaeology of the cemetery this thesis will begin to provide new understandings of colonial life and death.