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BA(Hons) MA (Otago) PhD (Otago)

Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi

Contact

Office 4S8 Richardson Building, South Tower
Tel +64 3 556 5799
Email erica.newman@otago.ac.nz

Research

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.

Teaching

Supervision

Current

  • 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

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. (2022, July). Ministry of Justice considering legal recognition of whāngai in adoption reforms: Interview with Dr Erica Newman, Indigenous Development Programme Coordinator. Interview with Zac Hoffman, Radio One 91FM Podcast. Retrieved from https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/the-detail/story/2018849156/growing-pains-our-outdated-adoption-laws
Other Research Output
Newman, E. (2022, July). Giving adopted tamariki Māori opportunity to reclaim identity’. Interview with Neil Waka, Midday News Bulletin, Te Ao Tapatahi, Whakaata Māori. Retrieved from https://www.teaomaori.news/giving-adopted-tamariki-maori-opportunity-reclaim-identity
Other Research Output
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
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
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. (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. (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
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. (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. (2011). Challenges of identity for Māori adoptees. Australian Journal of Adoption, 3(2), 1-30.
Journal - Research Article
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). [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. (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. (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, 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. (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, 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, 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, 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. (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
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. (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
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