Interview with Ng_huia Te Awekotuku
Global Feminisms Project
2023-03-10
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Abstract
Ng_huia te Awekotuku (Te Arawa, T_hoe, Waikato, Ngapuhi iwi) was a leader of the women's liberation movement in New Zealand in the 1970s. As a student, she was a member of the Ng_ Tamatoa M_ori activist group at the University of Auckland. As a M_ori lesbian, Ng_huia was at the forefront of a call to focus on reaching M_ori and Pacific women, as well as lesbian rights. In 1972, she was famously denied a visa to visit the United States on the basis of her sexuality. She was the first M_ori woman to gain a doctorate from an Aotearoa/NZ university. At the outset, women's liberation groups adopted an all-inclusive 'sisterhood is powerful' approach. But it wasn't long before differing perspectives on a range of issues led to disagreements. Many M_ori women saw women's liberation as a P_keh_ concept with little relevance for them. They argued that M_ori women's rights were intertwined with the revival of M_ori culture and the assertion of land rights. By 1973, separate M_ori and lesbian groups had started to form and as the decade progressed ideological differences divided the movement further. Te Awekotuku has worked across the heritage, culture and academic sectors as a curator, lecturer, governor, researcher, and activist. Her areas of research interest include gender issues, culture and heritage, ritual and performance. She has been curator of ethnology at the Waikato Museum; senior lecturer in art history at Auckland University, and professor of M_ori Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. She was Professor of Research and Development at Waikato University, and has researched and written extensively about the traditional and contemporary practices of t_ moko (tattoo) in New Zealand, as well as M_ori practices and traditions around death. She has served on many government boards in the arts and heritage sector. Ng_huia is an Emeritus Professor of the University of Waikato, the first M_ori female Emeritus in Aotearoa. She remains a leading feminist writer, lesbian rights activist, and advocate for M_ori issues. She has published short fiction, poetry, and significant nonfiction. She continues to work and curate in the gallery sector. She is also an active practitioner of traditional chant and ceremony. In 2022, she presented the 3 episode video documentary Waharoa: Art of the Pacific that focuses on M_ori and Pasifika art in New Zealand. In recognition of her services to M_ori culture, Ng_huia was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2010. In 2016 she was made the inaugural Mareikura or Matriarch of the Pae Akoranga Wahine/Women's Studies Association of Aotearoa/New Zealand. In 2017 she was made a Fellow of the Auckland War Memorial Museum, and she also received the Pou Aronui Supreme Award from the Royal Society of New Zealand for outstanding service to the arts and humanities. Currently, she is one of three inaugural Ru_nuku, or Esteemed Scholarly Elders, of Ng_ Pae o te M_ramatanga, the National Centre for M_ori Research Excellence.Deep Blue DOI
Series/Report no.
Global Feminisms New Zealand Site Interview
Subjects
Global Feminism; Feminists New Zealand Feminists
Description
The Global Feminisms Project (http://www.umich.edu/~glblfem/en/index.html) is a collaborative international oral history project that examines the history of feminist activism, women's movements, and academic women's studies in sites around the world. The current archive includes interviews with women's movement activists and women's studies scholars in China, India, Nicaragua, Poland, and the United States. We are currently working on adding interviews from Brazil and Russia. The Project is based in the Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG) at UM, which is also the home for the U.S. site research team. Our international collaborators include: - Laboratorio de Historia Oral e Imagem - UFF (the Laboratory of Oral History and Images at the Federal Fluminense University in Rio de Janeiro) and Nucleo de Historia, Memoria e Documento - NUMEM (the Center for History, Memory, and Documentation at the Federal State University in Rio de Janeiro), BRAZIL - China Women's University in Beijing, CHINA - SPARROW, Sound and Picture Archives for Research on Women in Mumbai, INDIA - Movimiento Autonomo de Mujeres de Nicaragua (Autonomous Women's Movement), NICARAGUA - Fundacja Kobiet eFKa (Women's Foundation eFKa) in Krakow, POLAND
Types
Video
Metadata
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