scholarly journals Lady-Husbands and Kamp Ladies: Pre-1970 Lesbian Life in Aotearoa/New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Alison J Laurie

<p>This study explores pre-1970 lesbian life and lives in Aotearoa/New Zealand before the impact of women's and gay liberation and lesbian-feminism, using written sources and oral histories. The thesis argues that before 1970 most women could make lesbianism the organising principle of their lives only through the strategies of discretion and silence. Despite apparent censorship, many classical, religious, legal, medical and fictional discourses on lesbianism informed New Zealand opinion, as regulation of this material was one thing, but enforcement another, and most English language material was available here. These discourses functioned as cautionary tales, warning women of the consequences of disclosure, while at the same time alerting them to lesbian possibilities. Though lesbian sexual acts were not criminalised in New Zealand, lesbianism was contained, regulated and controlled through a variety of mechanisms including the fear of forced medical treatment, social exclusion and disgrace, as well as the loss of employment, housing and family relationships. Class and race affected these outcomes, and this study concludes that learning how to read a wide variety of lesbian lives is essential to furthering research into lesbian histories in New Zealand. The study examined pre-1970 published and unpublished writing suggesting lesbian experiences by selected New Zealand women, within a context informed by writing from contemporaries who have been identified as lesbian, and oral histories from pre-1970 self-identified lesbians.. Many of these women led secretive, often double lives, and of necessity deceived others through silence and omission, actual denial, or sham heterosexual marriages and engagements. The lies, secrecy and silence of self-censorship has often meant the deliberate destruction of written records such as letters or diaries, by women themselves, or later by family members and friends. The study concludes that the private lesbianism of most pre-1970 lesbian lives cannot be understood in isolation, and that scholars must move beyond the women's necessary masquerades to place their lives into a lesbian context in order to recognize and understand them. Each life informs an understanding of the others and by considering them together the study provides a picture of lesbianism in pre-1970 New Zealand, with the stories of the narrators illuminating the written experiences. Silences should not be mistaken for absences, or heterosexuality assumed for all pre-1970 New Zealand women. The stories of resistance and rebellion told by the self-identified lesbian narrators indicate that the women whose lesbian experiences are suggested by their writings similarly resisted societal expectations and prescriptions. Learning how to interpret and understand these materials is essential for moving beyond superficial and heterosexualised accounts of their lives. Towards the end of the period, influenced by other social changes, some lesbians in this study began to resist the need for caution and discretion, providing the basis for the liberation movements of the 1970s.</p>

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Alison J Laurie

<p>This study explores pre-1970 lesbian life and lives in Aotearoa/New Zealand before the impact of women's and gay liberation and lesbian-feminism, using written sources and oral histories. The thesis argues that before 1970 most women could make lesbianism the organising principle of their lives only through the strategies of discretion and silence. Despite apparent censorship, many classical, religious, legal, medical and fictional discourses on lesbianism informed New Zealand opinion, as regulation of this material was one thing, but enforcement another, and most English language material was available here. These discourses functioned as cautionary tales, warning women of the consequences of disclosure, while at the same time alerting them to lesbian possibilities. Though lesbian sexual acts were not criminalised in New Zealand, lesbianism was contained, regulated and controlled through a variety of mechanisms including the fear of forced medical treatment, social exclusion and disgrace, as well as the loss of employment, housing and family relationships. Class and race affected these outcomes, and this study concludes that learning how to read a wide variety of lesbian lives is essential to furthering research into lesbian histories in New Zealand. The study examined pre-1970 published and unpublished writing suggesting lesbian experiences by selected New Zealand women, within a context informed by writing from contemporaries who have been identified as lesbian, and oral histories from pre-1970 self-identified lesbians.. Many of these women led secretive, often double lives, and of necessity deceived others through silence and omission, actual denial, or sham heterosexual marriages and engagements. The lies, secrecy and silence of self-censorship has often meant the deliberate destruction of written records such as letters or diaries, by women themselves, or later by family members and friends. The study concludes that the private lesbianism of most pre-1970 lesbian lives cannot be understood in isolation, and that scholars must move beyond the women's necessary masquerades to place their lives into a lesbian context in order to recognize and understand them. Each life informs an understanding of the others and by considering them together the study provides a picture of lesbianism in pre-1970 New Zealand, with the stories of the narrators illuminating the written experiences. Silences should not be mistaken for absences, or heterosexuality assumed for all pre-1970 New Zealand women. The stories of resistance and rebellion told by the self-identified lesbian narrators indicate that the women whose lesbian experiences are suggested by their writings similarly resisted societal expectations and prescriptions. Learning how to interpret and understand these materials is essential for moving beyond superficial and heterosexualised accounts of their lives. Towards the end of the period, influenced by other social changes, some lesbians in this study began to resist the need for caution and discretion, providing the basis for the liberation movements of the 1970s.</p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 907-919 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darren N. King ◽  
Wendy S. Shaw ◽  
Peter N. Meihana ◽  
James R. Goff

Abstract. Māori oral histories from the northern South Island of Aotearoa-New Zealand provide details of ancestral experience with tsunami(s) on, and surrounding, Rangitoto (D'Urville Island). Applying an inductive-based methodology informed by collaborative storytelling, exchanges with key informants from the Māori kin groups of Ngāti Koata and Ngāti Kuia reveal that a folk tale, published in 1907, could be compared to and combined with active oral histories to provide insights into past catastrophic saltwater inundations. Such histories reference multiple layers of experience and meaning, from memorials to ancestral figures and their accomplishments to claims about place, authority and knowledge. Members of Ngāti Koata and Ngāti Kuia, who permitted us to record some of their histories, share the view that there are multiple benefits to be gained by learning from differences in knowledge, practice and belief. This work adds to scientific as well as Maōri understandings about tsunami hazards (and histories). It also demonstrates that to engage with Māori oral histories (and the people who genealogically link to such stories) requires close attention to a politics of representation, in both past recordings and current ways of retelling, as well as sensitivities to the production of new and plural knowledges. This paper makes these narratives available to a new audience, including those families who no longer have access to them, and recites these in ways that might encourage plural knowledge development and co-existence.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 179
Author(s):  
Calum Bennachie ◽  
Annah Pickering ◽  
Jenny Lee ◽  
P. G. Macioti ◽  
Nicola Mai ◽  
...  

In 2003, Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) passed the Prostitution Reform Act 2003 (PRA), which decriminalized sex work for NZ citizens and holders of permanent residency (PR) while excluding migrant sex workers (MSWs) from its protection. This is due to Section 19 (s19) of the PRA, added at the last minute against advice by the Aotearoa New Zealand Sex Workers’ Collective (NZPC) as an anti-trafficking clause. Because of s19, migrants on temporary visas found to be working as sex workers are liable to deportation by Immigration New Zealand (INZ). Drawing on original ethnographic and interview data gathered over 24 months of fieldwork, our study finds that migrant sex workers in New Zealand are vulnerable to violence and exploitation, and are too afraid to report these to the police for fear of deportation, corroborating earlier studies and studies completed while we were collecting data.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Wilson ◽  
Janet Hoek ◽  
Nhung Nghiem ◽  
Jennifer Summers ◽  
Leah Grout ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTAimTo provide preliminary high-level modelling estimates of the impact of denicotinisation of tobacco on changes in smoking prevalence in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ).MethodsAn Excel spreadsheet was populated with smoking/vaping prevalence data from the NZ Health Survey and business-as-usual trends projected. Using various parameters from the literature (NZ trial data, NZ EASE-ITC Study results), we modelled the impact of denicotinisation of tobacco (with no other tobacco permitted for sale) out to 2025, the year of this country’s Smokefree Goal. Scenario 1 used estimates from a published expert knowledge elicitation process, and Scenario 2 considered the addition of extra mass media campaign and quitline support to the base case.ResultsWith the denicotinisation intervention, adult daily smoking prevalences were all estimated to decline to under 5% in 2025 for non-Māori and in one scenario for Māori (Indigenous population) (2.5% in Scenario 1). However, prevalence did not fall below five percent in the base case for Māori (7.7%) or with Scenario 2 (5.2%). In the base case, vaping was estimated to increase to 7.9% in the adult population in 2025, and up to 10.7% in one scenario (Scenario 1).ConclusionsThis preliminary, high-level modelling suggests a mandated denicotinisation policy for could provide a realistic chance of achieving the NZ Government’s Smokefree 2025 Goal. The probability of success would further increase if supplemented with other interventions such as mass media campaigns with Quitline support (especially if targeted for a predominantly Māori audience). Nevertheless, there is much uncertainty with these preliminary high-level results and more sophisticated modelling is highly desirable.


2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felicity Ware ◽  
Mary Breheny ◽  
Margaret Forster

In Indigenous culture, stories are a common repository of knowledge and facilitate the process of knowing. Māori academics (Indigenous to Aotearoa New Zealand) have developed approaches based on key principles of Māori research, oral traditions and narrative inquiry to express experiences as Māori. To extend this, a Māori approach called Kaupapa Kōrero was developed to gather, present and understand Māori experiences. The application of whakapapa (genealogy) as a relational analytical framework provided a way of identifying personal kōrero (stories) and integrating them within layers of interrelated kōrero about their whānau (family), te ao Māori (Māori culture) and society that influences contemporary experiences of being Māori. Whakapapa also enabled a cross-examination of kōrero and identification of common intersecting factors such as Māori ethnicity, age, parenting status and socioeconomic position. This Māori narrative approach revealed a more complex and nuanced understanding of the interrelatedness and influence of societal expectations, indigeneity, Māori culture and whānau.


Multilingua ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tania M. Ka’ai

AbstractInspired by Joshua Fishman’s lifetime dedication to the revitalisation of minority languages, especially Yiddish, this paper presents my personal story of the loss of the Māori language in my family in New Zealand/Aotearoa and our attempts to reverse this decline over several generations. The paper includes a description of several policy reforms and events in Aotearoa/New Zealand’s history and the impact of colonisation on the Māori language, which, as seen in other colonised peoples around the world, has contributed to the decline of this indigenous language. The paper also presents the mobilisation of Māori families and communities, including my own family, to establish their own strategies and initiatives to arrest further language decline and to reverse language loss in Māori families in Aotearoa/New Zealand. This article, combining story and history, should be read as a historiography of the Māori language, based on the author’s acknowledgement that other indigenous minority communities, globally, and their languages also have experienced the effects of colonisation and language loss. This article, much like a helix model, weaves together a narrative and history of Māori language loss, pain, resilience, and hope and seeks to establish that no language, because it contains the DNA of our cultural identity, should be allowed to die. A table of key landmarks of the history of the Māori language also is included.


2020 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
pp. 26-34
Author(s):  
Lesley Dixon ◽  
Eva Neely ◽  
Alison Eddy ◽  
Briony Raven ◽  
Carol Bartle

Background: Maternal socio-economic disadvantage affects the short- and long-term health of women and their babies, with pregnancy being a particularly vulnerable time. Aim: The aim of this study was to identify the key factors that relate to poverty for women during pregnancy and childbirth (as identified by midwives), the effects on women during maternity care and the subsequent impact on the midwives providing that care. Method: Survey methodology was used to identify Aotearoa New Zealand midwives’ experiences of working with women living with socio-economic disadvantage. Findings: A total of 436 midwives (16.3%) who were members of the New Zealand College of Midwives responded to the survey, with 55% working in the community as Lead Maternity Care midwives, or caseloading midwives, and the remainder mostly working in maternity facilities. The survey results found that 70% of the cohort of midwives had worked with women living with whānau (family) /friends; 69% with women who had moved house during pregnancy due to the unaffordability of housing; 66% with women who lived in overcrowded homes; and 56.6% with women who lived in emergency housing, in garages (31.6%), in cars (16.5%) or on the streets (11%). The cohort of midwives identified that women’s non-attendance of appointments was due to lack of transport and lack of money for phones, resulting in a limited ability to communicate. In these circumstances these midwives reported going to women’s homes to provide midwifery care to optimise the chances of making contact. The midwives reported needing to spend more time than usual referring and liaising with other services and agencies, to ensure that the woman and her baby/ family had the necessities of life and health. This cohort of midwives identified that women’s insufficient income meant that midwives needed to find ways to support them to access prescriptions and transport for hospital appointments. The midwives also indicated there was a range of social issues, such as family violence, drugs, alcohol, and care and protection concerns, that directly affected their work. Conclusion: Recognising the impact of socio-economic disadvantage on maternal health and wellbeing is important to improving both maternal and child health. This cohort of midwives identified that they are frequently working with women living with disadvantage; they see the reality of women’s lives and the difficulties and issues they may face in relation to accessing physical and social support during childbirth.


2018 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. 140-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A.J. Teulon ◽  
Bingqin Xu

Brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB), native to Asia including China, is a major invasive horticultural and crop pest in North America and Europe, and now threatens the southern hemisphere. BMSB has not established in New Zealand although it is regularly intercepted at its borders. Relatively little is known about the impact of BMSB on kiwifruit, an important horticultural crop in New Zealand; at least in English language literature. Searches were conducted in the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) platform using Chinese characters for BMSB (茶翅蝽) and kiwifruit (猕猴桃), and also in English, in international platforms. We identified 17 and eight publications, respectively, indicating that BMSB and yellow spotted stinkbug (YSSB) (麻皮蝽 and 黄斑蝽) are major pests of kiwifruit in China. Little information on BMSB or YSSB and their pest status in kiwifruit was found in English language searches in international platforms. Searching Chinese databases with Chinese characters in combination with searches in international databases is necessary to ensure comprehensive coverage for biosecurity risk assessment.


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