Search

Cherry Raymond was a broadcaster, journalist and opinion-leader, and a household name during the 1960s and 1970s when few women achieved such prominence in the media. Although she particularly campaigned on women’s…

Norris Frank Davey, who would in adult life change his name to Frank Sargeson, was born in Hamilton on 23 March 1903, the second of four children. His father, Edwin John Davey, had taken over his father's general store…

Henry Sewell came to New Zealand in 1853 at the age of 45 as an official of the Canterbury Association and spent about 17½ years in the colony in three periods: 1853–56, 1859–66 and 1870–76. He became one of the leaders…

Takaanui Tarakawa was born, according to his own account, in 1852. His mother, Te Whakaumata, also known as Patumoana, of Ngāi Te Rangi, was one of three or four wives of Te Ipututu Tarakawa, Takaanui's father. Takaanui…

Sir Leonard Thornton was New Zealand’s outstanding military leader in the second half of the twentieth century. He demonstrated leadership, administrative skill, and diplomacy in both war and peace, becoming New Zealand…

Yorkshireman Kenneth Cumberland was the first qualified geographer to teach the subject at university level in New Zealand. He joined the new Department of Geography at Canterbury University College in 1938, and soon…

Ruth Dallas, one of New Zealand’s most distinguished and widely read poets, had a deep connection to the southern South Island. This shaped her reputation as a regional poet, but her work was also strongly influenced by…

Early yearsJanet Frame was born on 28 August 1924 at St Helen’s Hospital, Dunedin, to Lottie Clarice Godfrey (who had worked as a maid in the Picton home of Katherine Mansfield’s family, the Beauchamps), and her husband…

John Hall, the leading 'conservative' politician in nineteenth century New Zealand, was born at Hull, England, probably on 18 December 1824, and was baptised on 31 January 1825. He was the third son of George Hall and…

Ramai Hayward was a pioneering documentary and feature film-maker. She trained as a photographer in the mid-1930s and had established her own studio in Auckland when she starred in Rudall Hayward’s landmark film…

The Holyoake connection with New Zealand goes back to 1843, when the great-grandparents of Keith Jacka Holyoake settled at Riwaka, near Motueka, and it was there that he spent much of his youth and began his farming…

Rēweti Tūhorouta Kōhere was born on 11 April 1871 at Orutua, Horoera, near East Cape. He was the first of five children of Hone Hiki Kōhere and Henarata Peretō, the daughter of Umutahi, who belonged to Te Whanau-a-…

George Laking was one of New Zealand’s key twentieth-century public servants. In a career lasting more than 40 years, he was adviser on international relations to successive governments and an important diplomat during…

Hilda Phillips was one of the best-known and most persistent critics of the Māori land, resource rights and autonomy campaigns of the 1970s and 1980s. She attacked the foundations of Māori grievances against the Crown,…

Matiu Rata was a greatly respected and influential Minister of Māori Affairs and of Lands in the third Labour government, and progenitor of the Waitangi Tribunal and the Mana Motuhake movement. He spent much of his life…

William Rolleston was born at Maltby Hall, Yorkshire, England, on 19 September 1831, the ninth child and youngest son of the Reverend George Rolleston and his wife, Anne Nettleship. He married Elizabeth Mary Brittan (…

Te Purewa was born at Whaitiripapa, in the valley of Rūātoki. His date of birth is unknown. When he was young he was also known as Te Oripa, but this name is rarely used. Te Purewa had links with many hapū of Tūhoe: Ngā…

Communist and trade unionist Bill Andersen was one of the best-known figures in New Zealand’s radical left in the middle decades of the twentieth century. An influential union leader in the 1950s and 1960s, he…

Film buff, archivist, award-winning radio producer and film critic Jonathan Dennis had a sardonic wit, a brutal honesty and a genuine passion for his work. As founding director of the New Zealand Film Archive he…

Public servant Bing Lucas was responsible for developing New Zealand’s modern national park system from the early 1970s, balancing conservation and recreational values. Under his direction its workforce was…