New Zealand Interviews

Aleisha Amohia graduated from Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) in 2019 with a Bachelor of Science (majoring in Computer Science and specializing in Artificial Intelligence) and a Bachelor of Commerce (majoring in Management and minoring in Information Systems). While at VUW, she was President of VUW Women in Tech for two years. She is now the Koha Technical Lead at Catalyst IT, an open source software company, where she started as an intern in 2014. Aleisha is a passionate young advocate for diversity and equity in all spaces, particularly in the technology industry. She is currently Co-President of the Wellington Branch of the National Council of Women in New Zealand (NZ) and has previously served on the Boards of the YWCA Greater Wellington, the Wellington Alliance Against Sexual Violence, and the Māori Design Group at InternetNZ. In 2022, Aleisha was a finalist for the NZ Impact Awards for contributing a young, Māori, Asian and female lens to NZ's gender equity movement, and other diversity and inclusion initiatives. 

Keywords: activism during the COVID-19 pandemic, indigenous issues, intersectionality

Media: Transcript, YouTube Video

Ngāhuia te Awekotuku (Te Arawa, Tūhoe, 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 Ngā Tamatoa Māori activist group at the University of Auckland. As a Māori lesbian, Ngāhuia was at the forefront of a call to focus on reaching Māori 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 Māori 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 Māori women saw women’s liberation as a Pākehā concept with little relevance for them. They argued that Māori women’s rights were intertwined with the revival of Māori culture and the assertion of land rights. By 1973, separate Māori 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 Māori 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 tā moko (tattoo) in New Zealand, as well as Māori practices and traditions around death. She has served on many government boards in the arts and heritage sector. Ngāhuia is an Emeritus Professor of the University of Waikato, the first Māori female Emeritus in Aotearoa. She remains a leading feminist writer, lesbian rights activist, and advocate for Māori 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 Māori and Pasifika art in New Zealand.   

In recognition of her services to Māori culture, Ngāhuia 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 Ruānuku, or Esteemed Scholarly Elders, of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, the National Centre for Māori Research Excellence. 

Keywords: academia and women's studies, indigenous issues, LGBTQ+ rights

Media: Transcript, YouTube Video

Sandra Coney is a feminist, women’s health advocate, writer, environmentalist, and local body politician. She was one of the founders of Broadstreet feminist magazine and the advocacy group Women’s Health Action. In 1987, with Phillida Bunkle, she wrote the Metro magazine article ‘An Unfortunate Experiment at National Women’s’ that led to the Cervical Cancer Inquiry (also known as the Cartwright Inquiry) in 1987-88 and, subsequently, to significant reforms in health consumers’ rights. She wrote a regular column of political and social comment for New Zealand newspaper the Sunday-Times between 1986 and 2002, and has won both the Qantas Senior Feature Writers’ Award and the Jubilee Prize for Investigative Journalism. Sandra has written or edited over 18 books, including the major Suffrage Centennial publication Standing in the Sunshine: A History of New Zealand Women Since They Won the Vote (1993), and Stroppy Sheilas and Gutsy Girls: New Zealand Women of Dash and Daring (2004). Since 2001 she has been a councillor and board member in Auckland local government, serving on the Waitematā District Health Board for 10 years, and currently on the Waitākere Ranges Local Board; her particular interest is centered on parks and the environment. 

Keywords: community activism, gender and health, intersectionality

Media: Transcript, YouTube Video

Prue Hyman, born in England in 1943, is a feminist economist. She moved to New Zealand in 1969 to work at Victoria University, Wellington, eventually becoming an Associate Professor of Economics and Gender and Women's Studies until controversial restructuring between 2008 and 2010 abolished Gender and Women's Studies. She has also advised the New Zealand government through her work at the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (1989-1990). Hyman studies the personal aspects of economics, such as how work is valued, with a particular focus on living wages and pay equity. 

She has written two books: Women and Economics: A New Zealand Feminist Perspective (1994), and Hopes Dashed?: The Economics of Gender Inequality (2017). In 2000, she was commissioned by the New Zealand Police Force to write an influential report titled Women in CIB: Opportunities for and Barriers to the Recruitment, Progress and Retention of Women in the Criminal Investigation Branch. While retired from university work, she continues to champion gender pay equity issues. 

Keywords: academia and women's studies, intersectionality, politics and the law

Media: Transcript, YouTube Video

Sue Kedgley was one of the early leaders of the women’s liberation movement in New Zealand. 

She set up the Auckland University women’s liberation group in 1971 and the National Organisation for Women in 1972. She helped organise a high-profile tour of internationally acclaimed feminist Germaine Greer to New Zealand in 1972 and co-authored the first book about women’s liberation in New Zealand, entitled Sexist Society. 

Kedgley attended the first international feminist conference at Boston in 1973 and then worked as a Communications Officer in the Women’s Secretariat at the United Nations, New York, helping to organise the first international women’s conference at Mexico City in 1975 and coordinate International Women’s Year 1975. She helped set up the UN women’s group and was active in it for the 8 years she worked at the United Nations. She was Assistant Secretary of the second United Nations Conference for Women, which was held in Copenhagen in 1980. 

Returning to New Zealand in 1982, she worked for a decade as a television reporter, director, and producer, then entered local politics as a Wellington City Councillor from 1992 until 1999 when she was elected a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Green Party, serving as an MP from 1999 until 2011. She was women’s spokesperson for the Green party and Deputy Chairperson (1999-2005) and subsequently Chairperson of the New Zealand Parliament Health Select Committee (2005-2008). Sue was a Wellington Regional Councillor for six years and has served on several boards, including the National Board of UN Women Aotearoa New Zealand. She continues to be active in women’s issues and is a Convenor at the National Organisation for Women New Zealand. 

Kedgley has written six books on feminist issues, including Sexist Society (1972; co-edited with Sharon Cederman), Mum’s the Word: The Untold Story of Motherhood in New Zealand (1996), and most recently, a memoir entitled Fifty Years a Feminist (2021). In 2016, she received a New Zealand Women of Influence Award in recognition of her work towards greater gender diversity in the workplace, and in 2020, she was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for services to women and governance. 

Keywords: community activism, politics and the law, reform of domestic/family roles

Media: Transcript, YouTube Video

Anjum Rahman was born in the village of Mahuwara in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Her family moved to New Zealand from Canada in 1972 when she was five years old. She became a naturalised New Zealand citizen in 1976. She was a chartered accountant for 30 years, working with a range of entities in the commercial, farming, and not-for-profit sectors.   

Rahman was a founding member of the New Zealand Islamic Women's Council, an organisation formed in 1990 to bring Muslim women together and represent their concerns and was the media spokesperson. She is also a founding member of the Shama Ethnic Women's Trust and served as a trustee on its board from 2002 until 2019. Shama supports ethnic minority women through its social work service, life-skills classes, and community development. Rahman has worked in the area of sexual violence prevention both as a volunteer and as part of Government working groups.   

Rahman was a spokesperson for the Muslim community following the Christchurch mosque shootings in March 2019, in which 51 people were killed and 40 injured. In media interviews following the attack, she voiced frustration at the failure of the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service and other government agencies to take concerns about violence towards the Muslim community, Islamophobia, and the rise of the alt-right in New Zealand seriously. In response to the attacks, Rahman established the organisation Inclusive Aotearoa Collective Tāhono to combat discrimination.   

Anjum was an active member of the Waikato Interfaith Council for over a decade, and was a trustee of the Trust that governs Hamilton’s community access broadcaster, Free FM. She is currently a trustee of Trust Waikato, the largest funder in the region, and on the governing council of InternetNZ. She is a member of international committees dealing with violent extremist content online, being the co-chair of the Christchurch Call Advisory Network and a member of the Independent Advisory Committee of the Global Internet Forum for Countering Terrorism.   

In the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours, Rahman was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to ethnic communities and women; she was also shortlisted for the New Zealander of the Year Award. 

Keywords: intersectionality, politics and the law, racial identity

Media: Transcript, YouTube Video