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In the second half of the twentieth century, Keith Sinclair transformed how New Zealanders understood themselves and their history. A prominent poet and New Zealand’s most important historian of the 1950s and 1960s, his…

Marie Bell was an educator and tireless campaigner for the rights of both children and parents, challenging educational orthodoxies to ensure more child-centred practices and an environment more supportive of parents.…

Elsie Locke was a writer, environmentalist, historian, peace activist, one-time communist, and a battler for women’s rights. She is best known as a writer for children, though her writing encompassed adult non-fiction,…

Rangiāhuta Alan Herewini Ruka Broughton was born on 21 April 1940 at Whanganui. His father was Ruka Rākei Broughton of Ngāti Hine, a hapū of Ngāti Ruanui; his mother was Rēhia Bella Toherangi Whiu of Ngāti Maika, a hapū…

Dorothy Ida Davies was born at River Bank, Whanganui, on 24 October 1899, the child of English-born parents David Davies, an engineer, and his wife, Martha Naomi Oakden. Dorothy was the seventh of eight children and the…

Christian Gottlieb Ferdinand Hochstetter is said to have been born on 30 April 1829 in Esslingen, kingdom of Württemberg, the son of Christian Ferdinand Hochstetter, a professor and parson, who had published works on…

Alwyn Keith Warren was born in Wellington, New Zealand, on 23 September 1900, the son of Thomas John Cory Warren, a merchant, and his wife, Lucy Frances Williams. Doreen Eda Laws was born at Portswood, near Southampton…

Sir Hugh Kawharu, a Ngāti Whātua rangatira, a distinguished anthropologist, and an eloquent statesman, was held in high regard by Māori and non-Māori alike. He was a prominent leader of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei in central…

Thomas Burns, the most important religious leader in the early settlement of Otago, was baptised at Mauchline, Ayrshire, Scotland, on 17 April 1796, the son of Gilbert Burns, a farmer and estate manager, and his wife,…

Denis James Matthews Glover, one of the most spirited, versatile and influential figures in New Zealand literature, was born at Dunedin on 9 December 1912. He was the third of four children of Irish-born Henry Lawrence…

Pei Te Hurinui Jones was the son of Daniel Lewis, a European storekeeper, and Paretekōrae Poutama of Ngāti Maniapoto. He was born on 9 September 1898 at Harataunga (Kennedys Bay) on the eastern coast of the Coromandel…

John Kinder was born on 17 September 1819 at London, England, the oldest surviving child of Thomas Kinder, a wealthy merchant, and his second wife, Fanny Pickworth. John's interest in art began early when he took walks…

Thomas Mackenzie was baptised on 10 March 1853 in Edinburgh, Scotland, one of five children of David Stewart Mackenzie, a gardener, and his wife, Rebecca Noble. His name was recorded at birth as Thomas Noble Mackenzie,…

Mary Muller  was one of the earliest advocates for women’s rights in New Zealand. Drawing on her own experiences of a disrupted childhood, a failed marriage and the loss of property, she developed a critique of…

Tony Druce was New Zealand’s pre-eminent twentieth-century field botanist. Over his lifetime he built up an extensive knowledge of New Zealand’s flora, through his many tramping trips, close observation of plants and…

Early life Hone Peneamine Anatipa Te Pona Tuwhare was born on 21 October 1922 at Kokewai, a rural area south-east of Kaikohe, Northland. He was of Ngāpuhi descent, with connections to Ngāti Korokoro, Ngāti Tautahi, Te…

The distinguished writer and journalist Christine Cole Catley was one of New Zealand’s leading independent publishers of the late twentieth century. She was co-founder of the Parents Centre movement in the 1950s, and an…

Whetū Tirikātene-Sullivan was New Zealand’s first Māori woman cabinet minister, its longest-serving woman MP, and a staunch advocate in Parliament for Māori interests. An accomplished academic, social worker, designer,…

Doreen Blumhardt was the one of the most important figures in New Zealand’s arts and crafts world in the second half of the twentieth century. Her twin passions, for education and for the arts, were to help…

Catherine Wilson Malcolm was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, probably on 10 March 1847, the daughter of Scots parents Jemima Crawford Souter and her husband, Andrew Wilson Malcolm, a clerk. She was called…