Girl of New Zealand: Colonial optics in Aotearoa - Michelle Erai (2020)
Through examining archival records and dozens of images of wāhine Māori to trace a violent ‘colonial optic’, this book analyses how colonial observers ascribed race, gender, sexuality and class to Indigenous women.
Publication details
M. Erai. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2020.
About the book
Girl of New Zealand presents a nuanced insight into the way violence and colonial attitudes shaped the representation of Māori women and girls. Michelle Erai examines more than thirty images of Māori women alongside the records of early missionaries and settlers in Aotearoa, as well as comments by archivists and librarians, to shed light on how race, gender, and sexuality have been ascribed to particular bodies.
Further information
This book is part of a series marking the publication of Books of Mana (Otago University Press, 2025). It builds on the project Te Takarangi: Celebrating Māori publications and adds 30 titles to a selected list of 150 non-fiction books, led by Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga in collaboration with Royal Society Te Apārangi.