Erica's research interests include indigenous kinships structures and child circulation practices (the movement of a child from their birth parents to another familial household, often mistaken as the European practice of adoption), the European effect on indigenous kinship structures, and the historical and contemporary effects of cross-cultural and inter-country adoption practices.
Her research has included challenges of identity for Māori adoptees and she is progressing this research to investigate the challenges of adoption for descendants of Māori adoptees. Erica has a particular interest in cross-cultural and inter-country adoption and the indigenous practices of child circulation. She has recently completed her PhD looking at the Colonial interventions of guardianship and adoption practices in Fiji during the colonial period of 1874 to 1970.
Erica's other research interests include the representation of indigenous people through film and media, and the historical perspectives of inter-racial relationships within urban settings.
Sera Perham, PhD, Uncoiling the Sau back to New Zealand: The contribution by New Zealand educators that helped shape Fijian education 1916-1979
Jay Jomar Quintos, PhD, The Material Histories of the Cinema on the Indigenous Peoples in Mindanao and Sulu
Leighton Williams, MInds, Colonising sexual attitudes: the socio-cultural context of sex in Māori society
Zay'Yen Benson-Brown, MInds, The Impacts of a Global Pandemic on Ngāti Hine: Tikanga, Tangihanga and Covid-19
Completed
Nicola Andrews, MInds, Historical Trauma, Indigenous People, and Libraries (2021)
Sharon Moreham, MIndS, Identity and Belonging in a Contested Space: A case study of a Pākehā adoptee into a Kāi Tahu whānau(2021)
Ella Walsh, MInds,Ka hoki ki te kāinga: a case study of how one family's Māori identity has changed over three generations (2019)
Distinctions
2014: Skinner Fund
2012: University of Otago PhD Scholarship
2006: Te Tumu Kawakawa Prize
2005: Te Tumu Tōtōweka Prize
Publications
Thomas, D. Q., Paterson, L., Wanhalla, A. C., Christie, S. C., & Newman, E. M. (2024). Māori and field hockey from 1900: More than a game. International Journal of the History of Sport, 2309945. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1080/09523367.2024.2309945
Journal - Research Article
Newman, E. (2023). Fiji's colonial orphanages. In A. Wanhalla, L. Ryan & C. Nurka (Eds.), Aftermaths: Colonialism, violence and memory in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. (pp. 127-138). Dunedin, New Zealand: Otago University Press.
Chapter in Book - Research
Powell, E., & Newman, E. (2022). Growing into: Pacific intellectual genealogies and indigenous development. Pacific Dynamics, 6(2), 104-117. doi: 10.26021/10639
Journal - Research Article
Newman, E. (2022, August). Acknowledging Māori adoptees and their descendants. Verbal presentation at the Whāngai Wānanga, Wellington, New Zealand.
Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Newman, E. (2021, July). Researcher looking at descendants of Māori adoptees reconnect to their birth whānau. Interview hosted by Neil Waka, Te Ao Tapatahi (season 2, episode 19), Māori Television. Retrieved from https://www.maoritelevision.com/shows/te-ao-tapatahi/S02E019/te-ao-tapatahi
Other Research Output
Newman, E. (2021, June). Māori patterns of adoption. Verbal presentation at the Cambridge Centre for Applied Research in Human Trafficking (CCARHT) Summer Symposium, [Online].
Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Newman, E. (2020, November). Research to examine impact on the identity of descendants of Māori adoptees. Interview hosted by Dale Husband, Paakiwaha program, Waatea: 603AM: Urban Māori Radio. [Radio Broadcast].
Other Research Output
Newman, E. (2020). Practice of adoption in Aotearoa before the 1881 Adoption of Children Act. Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work, 32(3), 43-53. doi: 10.11157/anzswj-vol32iss3id768
Journal - Research Article
Newman, E. (2019, October). Colonial intervention on guardianship and 'adoption' practices in Fiji 1874-1970. Verbal presentation at the University of Otago's Biennial Māori Research Symposium: Hui Poutama, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Newman, E. (2019, November). Fiji's colonial orphanages. Verbal presentation at the Afterlives: Intimacy, Violence and Colonialism Symposium, Wellington, New Zealand.
Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Newman, E. (2019, June). Descendants of Māori adoptees. Verbal presentation at the Native American & Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) Conference, Hamilton, New Zealand.
Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Newman, E. (2019, September). Practice of adoption in Aotearoa before the 1881 Adoptions of Infants Act. Verbal presentation at the 1869 Conference and Heritage Festival: Ka mua, ka muri, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Newman, E. (2018). The effect of the colonialist terms “orphan” and “adoption” on the citizenship status of indigenous Fijian adoptees within their own community. AlterNative, 14(4), 309-318. doi: 10.1177/1177180118813503
Journal - Research Article
Newman, E. (2018). Colonial intervention on guardianship and 'adoption' practices in Fiji 1874-1970 (PhD). University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10523/8493
Awarded Doctoral Degree
Kawharu, M., & Newman, E. (2018). Whakapaparanga: Social structure, leadership and Whāngai. In M. Reilly, S. Duncan, G. Leoni, L. Paterson, L. Carter, M. Rātima & P. Rewi (Eds.), Te Kōparapara: An introduction to the Māori world. (pp. 48-64). Auckland, New Zealand: Auckland University Press.
Chapter in Book - Research
Patterson, J., Newman, E., Baddock, S., Kerkin, B., & See, R. (2017). Strategies for improving the experiences of Māori students in a blended Bachelor of Midwifery programme. New Zealand College of Midwives Journal, 53, 45-52. doi: 10.12784/nzcomjnl53.2017.6.45-52
Journal - Research Article
Newman, E. (2016, August). The care of Fiji's orphans during the colonial period, 1874-1970. Verbal presentation at the Postgraduate Symposium, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Newman, E. (2015, August). The care of Fiji's orphan's during the colonial period, 1874-1970. Verbal presentation at the Colonial Families: New Perspectives Symposium, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Kerkin, B., Newman, E., Patterson, J., & Baddock, S. (2015). Māori students' experiences in the blending learning model of the Bachelor of Midwifery: An exploration using a Kaupapa Māori framework. Whitireia & Weltec Research Symposium. (pp. 67). Retrieved from http://www.whitireia.ac.nz/about/Pages/Research.aspx
Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract
Newman, E. (2014). [Review of the book Matters of the heart: A history of interracial marriage in New Zealand]. Journal of the Polynesian Society, 123(1), 94-95. [Book Review].
Journal - Research Other
Newman, E. (2014). [Review of the book Disturbing history: Resistance in early colonial Fiji]. Journal of the Polynesian Society, 123(4), 433-434. [Book Review].
Journal - Research Other
Newman, E. (2014, November). Guardianship in early colonial Fiji. School of Māori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies: Te Tumu, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. [Department Seminar].
Other Research Output
Newman, E. (2014, May). The established and continued necessity of orphanages in Fiji. Verbal presentation at the Sixteenth Berkshire Conference on the History of Women: Histories on the Edge, Toronto, Canada.
Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Newman, E. (2013). What is the experience of Māori students in the blended bachelor of midwifery programme? Dunedin, New Zealand: University of Otago. 14p.
Working Paper; Discussion Paper; Technical Report
Newman, E. (2013). [Review of the book Strangers in the South Seas: The idea of the Pacific in the Western thought]. Journal of the Polynesian Society, 122(1), 85-87. [Book Review].
Journal - Research Other
Newman, E. (2013). History of transracial adoption: A New Zealand perspective. American Indian Quarterly, 37(1-2), 237-257. doi: 10.1353/aiq.2013.0010
Journal - Research Article
Newman, E. (2012). "A right to be Māori?" Identity formation of Māori adoptees (MA). University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10523/2219
Awarded Masters Degree
Newman, E. (2011, June). Transracial adoption: A New Zealand perspective. Verbal presentation at the Fifteenth Berkshire Conference on the History of Women: Generations: Exploring Race, Sexuality, and Labor Across Time and Space, Amherst, USA.
Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Newman, E. (2011). Challenges of identity for Māori adoptees. Australian Journal of Adoption, 3(2), 1-30.
Journal - Research Article
Bryant-Tokalau, J. (director, narrator), Irwin, J. (camera man, editor), & Newman, E. (editor) (2008). Making poverty history? The Fiji squatter story [Film]. Dunedin, New Zealand: University of Otago.
Film/Video/CD Rom
