Skip to content
Home/ Girl of New Zealand: Colonial Optics in Aotearoa
Girl of New Zealand: Colonial Optics in Aotearoa

Girl of New Zealand: Colonial Optics in Aotearoa

by Erai, Michelle
No customer reviews yet ISBN 9780816537020 University of Arizona Press

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.

Viewed through Māori, feminist, queer, and film theories, Erai shows how images such as Girl of New Zealand (1793) and later images, cartoons, and travel advertising created and deployed a colonial optic. Girl of New Zealand reveals how the phantasm of the Māori woman has shown up in historical images, how such images shape our imagination, and how impossible it has become to maintain the delusion of the "innocent eye." Erai argues that the process of ascribing race, gender, sexuality, and class to imagined bodies can itself be a kind of violence.

In the wake of the Me Too movement and other feminist projects, Erai's timely analysis speaks to the historical foundations of negative attitudes toward Indigenous Māori women in the eyes of colonial "others"--outsiders from elsewhere who reflected their own desires and fears in their representations of the Indigenous inhabitants of Aotearoa, New Zealand. Erai resurrects Māori women from objectification and locates them firmly within Māori whānau and communities.

About the author

Product details

BrandUniversity of Arizona Press
Pub dateMay 19, 2020
ISBN-10081653702X
ISBN-139780816537020
Paperback200.0 pages
LanguageEnglish
Dimensions9 × 0.5 × 6 in
Weight1 lb
Last updated 2026-04-13 19:16
$35.42
In stock soon — order now to reserve your copy
Delivery by Monday, September 14, 2026
Qty
Sign in to Add to Saved list
Free delivery on orders over $35.
15-day returns. Any reason.
Secure checkout. We never store card details.

Readers who bought this also bought

More from Indigenous Studies
See all
Right Story, Wrong Story: How to Have Fearless Conversations in Hell
Yunkaporta, Tyson
$14.16
Right Story, Wrong Story: How to Have Fearless Conversations in Hell
Yunkaporta, Tyson
$22.48
Mother Earth Is Our Elder: A Northern Indigenous Path Toward Sustainable Living
Lafferty
$22.48
Tourism and Politics
Available
$243.54
Mataloona and Mizh: Pukhtun Proverbs and a Frontier Classic
<em>Mataloona</em>, a rare collection of fascinating Pukhtun proverbs and sayings from over the ages, captures the beauty of Pukhtun literature and the wisdom of its people. What is perhaps most relevant is that these sayings are still in use today and people employ them in everyday language. With its sayings translated from Pukhto into English and with accompanying equivalent dictums in European languages, <em>Mataloona</em> is a labour of love and a rare literary gem. It should delight anyone interested in the culture, history, and anthropology of the Pukhtun people and will find an echo in tribal societies across the world. <em>Mizh</em>, written at the high noon of the British Empire by a top British civil servant in charge of Waziristan, is an important and classic historical work containing deep insights into the Pukhtun people, including their organisation, leadership, and relations with government authority. Concentrating on the Mahsud tribe, who remain one of the most important and influential Pukhtun tribes in Pakistan, <em>Mizh</em>, which means we, is a masterly analysis relevant to the present leadership in the Pakistan tribal region, central government in Pakistan who need to understand the local tribes better in order to bring peace and stability to the region, and all those interested in the Pukhtun and the workings of tribal societies.<br><br>
$16.76
Indigenous Audibilities: Music, Heritage, and Collections in the Americas
Minks, Amanda
$33.21