Ngāhuia Te Awekōtuku
New Zealand academic and activist (born 1949)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ngāhuia Te Awekōtuku MNZM (born 1949) is a New Zealand academic specialising in Māori cultural issues and a lesbian activist.[1] In 1972, she was famously denied a visa to visit the United States on the basis of her sexuality.
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Ngāhuia Te Awekōtuku | |
|---|---|
Te Awekōtuku in 2019 | |
| Born | 1949 (age 76–77) |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | University of Auckland (MA, PhD) |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Māori studies |
| Institutions | |
Doctoral students | Mere Whaanga, Ngarino Ellis |
Notable works | Mau Moko: the world of Maori tattoo |
Biography
Te Awekōtuku is descended from Te Arawa, Tūhoe and Waikato iwi (tribe).[2][3]
As a student, she was a member of the activist group Ngā Tamatoa at the University of Auckland.[4] Her Master of Arts thesis was on Janet Frame[4] and her PhD on the effects of tourism on the Te Arawa people.[4][5]
Te Awekōtuku has worked across the heritage, culture and academic sectors as a curator, lecturer, researcher and activist. Her areas of research interest include gender issues, museums, body modification, power and powerlessness, spirituality and ritual.[6] She has been curator of ethnology at the Waikato Museum; lecturer in art history at Auckland University,[4] and professor of Māori studies at Victoria University of Wellington.[4] She was Professor of Research and Development at Waikato University.[2] She and Marilyn Waring contributed the piece "Foreigners in our own land" to the 1984 anthology Sisterhood Is Global: The International Women's Movement Anthology, edited by Robin Morgan.[7] Although now retired, she continues to write and mentor students. Notable students include Mere Whaanga and Ngarino Ellis.[8][9]
Visitor's permit denial
In 1972, Te Awekōtuku was denied a visitor's permit to the United States on the grounds that she was a homosexual. Publicity around the incident was a catalyst in the formation of gay liberation groups in New Zealand.[10] This may have been related to a TV interview she gave in 1971, in which she described herself as a 'sapphic woman'.[11]
Research
Tā moko
Te Awekōtuku has researched and written extensively on the traditional and contemporary practices of tā moko (tattoo) in New Zealand. Her 2007 (re-published in 2011) book Mau Moko: the world of Maori tattoo, co-authored with Linda Waimarie Nikora, was the product of a five-year long research project conducted by the Māori and Psychology Research Unit at the University of Waikato, funded by a Marsden Fund grant.[12][13]
Death practices in Māori culture
In 2009, Te Awekōtuku and Linda Waimarie Nikora received a $950,000 Marsden Fund grant as lead researchers in the Māori and Psychology Research Unit at Waikato University for the research project Apakura: the Maori way of death. A further $250,000 was received from the Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga National Institute of Research Excellence to explore past and present practices around tangihanga.[14]
Recognition
In the 2010 New Year Honours, Te Awekōtuku was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori culture.[15] In 2017, she won an Auckland Museum Medal.[16] Also in 2017, Te Awekōtuku was selected as one of the Royal Society Te Apārangi's "150 women in 150 words", celebrating the contributions of women to knowledge in New Zealand.[17]
Te Awekōtuku books, Mana Wahine Maori: Selected writings on Maori women's art, culture and politics, published in 1991, and Mau Moko: The world of Māori tattoo, published in 2007, were selected as two of the 180 most significant works of Māori-authored non-fiction through inclusion in Books of Mana.[18]
Her memoir, Hine Toa, was a finalist for the General Nonfiction Award at the 2025 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.[19]
Selected publications
- Hine Toa: A story of bravery, HarperCollins, 2024. ISBN 9781775492634
- He tikanga whakaaro: Research ethics in the Maori community: A discussion paper Ministry of Māori Affairs
On art and artists
- We will become ill if we stop weaving. From Mana Whina Maori Selected writings on Maori Women's art, culture and politics. Republished in ATE Journal of Māori Art, 2020, vol 2 pp. 90–103.
- E ngaa uri whakatupu – weaving legacies : Dame Rangimarie Hetet and Diggeress Te Kanawa, Hamilton: Waikato Museum Te Whare Taonga o Waikato, 2015. ISBN 9780473326036
- 'Traditions endure : Five Maori Painters at Auckland Art Gallery', Art New Zealand, Winter 2014, no. 150, pp. 58–61.
- 'A glorious tradition', Art New Zealand, Winter 2003, no.103.
- Unveiling our hidden treasures : the Seventh Pacific Festival of Arts 1996;', Art New Zealand, Summer 1996/1997, no. 81, pp. 42–45,84.
- 'Forgiving, but never forgetting : Shared Visions at the Auckland City Art Gallery', Art New Zealand, Winter 1996, no. 79, pp. 74–77.
- 'He Take Ano: Another Take – Conversations with Lisa Reihana', Art New Zealand, Spring 1993, no. 68, pp. 84–87
- 'Kura Te Waru Rewiri', Art New Zealand, Spring 1993, no. 68, pp. 91–93
- Mana wahine Maori: Selected writings on Maori women's art, culture and politics, Auckland: New Women's Press, 1991. ISBN 0908652631
- 'Art and the spirit', New Zealand Geographic, Jan/Mar 1990, no. 5, pp. 93–97.
- 'Mats of the Pacific', Art New Zealand, Spring 1989, no. 52, pp..88–90
- 'Te whakahoutanga o Te Winika (The restoration of Te Winika)', New Zealand Listener, 28 November 1987, p. 67.
- 'Ngahuia Te Awekotuku in conversation with Elizabeth Eastmond and Priscilla Pitts’, Antic, no. 1, 1986.
On tā moko
- 'Tā Moko: Māori Tattoo', in Goldie, (1997) exhibition catalogue, Auckland: Auckland City Art Gallery and David Bateman, pp. 108–114.
- 'More than Skin Deep', in Barkan, E. and Bush, R. (eds.), Claiming the Stone: Naming the Bones: Cultural Property and the Negotiation of National and Ethnic Identity (2002) Los Angeles: Getty Press, pp. 243–254.
- Ta Moko: Culture, body modification, and the psychology of identity, paper given at the Proceedings of the National Māori Graduates of Psychology Symposium 2002.
- Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, with Linda Waimarie Nikora, Mohi Rua, your face: wearing Moko – Maori facial marking in today’s world Archived 11 April 2024 at the Wayback Machine, paper given at Tatau/Tattoo: Embodied art and cultural exchange conference, Victoria University of Wellington, 21–22 August 2003.
- Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, with Linda Waimarie Nikora, Mohi Rua and Rolinda Karapu, Mau moko : the world of Māori tattoo, Auckland: Penguin Books, 2011. ISBN 9780143566854
On death practices in Māori culture
- Tess Moeke-Maxwell, Linda Waimarie Nikora, and Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, 'Manaakitanga: Ethical research with Māori who are dying', in M. Agee, T. McIntosh, P. Culbertson, & C. Makasiale (eds.), Pacific Identities and Well-Being – Cross Cultural Perspectives, London: Routledge, 2003, pp. 188–203.
- Vincent Malcolm-Buchanan, Lina Waimarie Nikora and Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, Cloaked in Life and Death: Korowai, kaitiaki and tangihanga, MAI Journal, vol. 1, no. 1, 2012.
- Tess Moeke-Maxwell, Linda Waimarie Nikora, and Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, 'End-of-life care and Māori whānau resilience', MAI Journal, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 140–152.
