Tributes: Dame Judith Binney

Historian, teacher, scholar and former Arts Council member Dame Judith Binney has passed away.

Read the tributes to her life and career below and use the comment box to add yours.

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• Creative New Zealand

Creative New Zealand is saddened by the news that historian Dame Judith Binney has died.

Dame Judith Binney has traversed cultural and academic barriers to produce writing that sets a benchmark for historical scholarship in New Zealand. Her work has informed New Zealanders about the relationships between Maori and Pakeha and demonstrated the dynamic history of our country.

Dame Judith Binney’s relationship with the people of Tuhoe afforded her a closeness to their stories that was reflected in the respect with which she treated them. This was shown in her early work Mihaia, a short biography of Rua Kenana, published in 1979; Redemption Songs, her ambitious biography of Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki , published in 1995 and her most recent work Encircled Lands, 2010. These seminal works exemplify Dame Judith Binney’s ability to balance western academic traditions and Maori oral history to create a unique way of telling New Zealand history.

Tuhoe honoured Dame Judith Binney with the title of endearment, “Te Tomairangi o te aroha/ Tears of love”.

Judith Binney was a member of the Creative New Zealand Arts Council from 2009-2010.

"Everyone at Creative New Zealand joins Dame Judith Binney's family and friends in mourning the loss of a great New Zealander. Her contribution to helping us understand ourselves and our nation will be admired and valued for generations to come," said Chair of the Creative New Zealand Arts Council, Alistair Carruthers.

E te whaea Judith, kua riro atu ra koe e te ringa kaha o aitua. Kei te hahae te tau o te ate. kei te moteatea nga mahara mo koe kua rere ra ki te kahui rangatira, te kahui o Matariki. Te kiki a manu, i tenei ra kua ngaro atu i te kitenga a kanohi. Ko te mamae ia ka kai ki te kiri. Kia kapo ake ko te maumahara. Ko koe tenei ka riro nei. Kia kakengia e koe to waka whakarei ki Te Reinga e titiro ake ai koe ki nga tai e rua e papaki mai ra. E kore a muri e hokia. Na reira haere, haere, haere atu ra.

Haere ra e te wahine rangahau korero. O mahi rangatira i awhina e koe nga iwi katoa o te motu. E tika ana te ingoa i tapaina e Tuhoe mou ara ‘Te Tomairangi o te aroha” Na tou aroha i waimarie tatou katoa ki ou mahi rangatira. Na reira moe mai ra. Ka huri atu ki tou whanau e noho pani nei. Kia kaha, kia maia, kia manawanui. Ma te atua koutou e manaaki, e tiaki.

• Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage - Christopher Finlayson

 “Dame Judith was a leader in a number of fields,” Mr Finlayson said. “She had been a valued member of the Arts Council and the Historic Places Trust, a pioneer in New Zealand history, and a widely respected teacher and scholar. Dame Judith did an enormous amount to further New Zealanders’ understanding of our own history.”

“Her work with Tuhoe will be an enduring legacy. Her magnum opus, Encircled Lands, recovered the ‘lost history’ of Te Urewera, the Ngai Tuhoe people and members of neighbouring iwi such as Ngati Whare.”

“In particular, it documented the first hundred years of Te Rohe Potae o Te Urewera – the “encircled lands” of the Urewera – following European contact.”

Encircled Lands won the Book of the Year Award in the NZ Post Book Awards in 2010.

Judith Binney, DNZM, was Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Auckland. Dame Judith was a pioneer of oral history in New Zealand, and used this methodology extensively in her work. Her approach was described as ‘history in the round’, which involved consideration of the landscape and listening to people speak about their experiences.

In addition to her teaching, Dame Judith edited the New Zealand Journal of History and wrote on a range of historical topics. She was awarded the Prime Minister’s Lifetime Literary Achievement Award for Non Fiction in 2006, and In 2009 she received the Polynesian Society’s Elsdon Best Medal. In 2006 she was awarded DCNZM (later DNZM) for her historical research.

Dame Judith appeared as an independent historian at the Urewera’s claimants hearings before the Waitangi Tribunal in 2005. Tuhoe bestowed the name Tomairangi o Te Aroha – the heavenly dews of love – on Dame Judith at Ruatoki.

“My thoughts go out to her family, friends and colleagues at this time,” Mr Finlayson said.

• University of Auckland

The University of Auckland has paid tribute to the late Emeritus Professor Dame Judith Binney.

“Dame Judith was the foremost New Zealand historian of her day,” the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stuart McCutcheon, said. “Her work as an oral historian, particularly of Maori, and chronicler of communal memories broke new ground and left a lasting impact in the wider community.

“Only last year her book Encircled Lands: Te Urewera, 1820–1921 received the country’s most prestigious literary accolade, the New Zealand Post Book of the Year Award. Another of her prize-winning histories, Redemption Songs: A Life of Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki, was Montana Book of the Year in 1996.”

“We look at our history in a different light thanks to Dame Judith’s exhaustive pioneering efforts.”

Dame Judith had a long family association with The University of Auckland, noted Professor McCutcheon. Her father, Sydney Musgrove, was a professor of English and one-time Deputy Vice-Chancellor.

Dame Judith became a lecturer in history in 1966 after completing a masters thesis at Auckland on an early missionary, Thomas Kendall, later published as a book, The Legacy of Guilt. She was appointed to a personal professorial chair in history in 1997, retiring from the University in 2004.

She served on various history bodies, worked as an historical consultant and helped Treaty of Waitangi claimants with historical research. For many years she edited the New Zealand Journal of History.

Dame Judith’s numerous honours included an inaugural Fellowship of the New Zealand Academy of Humanities and a Distinguished Alumni Award from The University of Auckland. She was made a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to historical research in 2006.

“Dame Judith’s passing is a major loss to the whole nation,” said Professor McCutcheon. “The University expresses its deepest sympathy to her mother Marjorie Musgrove, her partner Sebastian Black, other family members, friends and colleagues.”

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