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Dr Erica Newman

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

Contact

Office 3S9a Richardson Building, South Tower
Tel +64 3 479 3975
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

  • Ella Walsh, MIndS, Ka hoki mai ki te kāinga: A case study of how one Māori family's identity has changed over three generations
  • Sharon Moreham, MIndS, Identity and Belonging in a Contested Space

Distinctions

  • 2014: Skinner Fund
  • 2012: University of Otago PhD Scholarship
  • 2006: Te Tumu Kawakawa Prize
  • 2005: Te Tumu Tōtōweka Prize

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Publications

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.

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.

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

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

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

Film/Video/CD Rom

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.

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Working Paper; Discussion Paper; Technical Report

Newman, E. (2013). What is the experience of Māori students in the blended bachelor of midwifery programme? Dunedin, New Zealand: University of Otago. 14p.

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Other Research Output

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].

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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.

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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

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

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

Newman, E. (2011). Challenges of identity for Māori adoptees. Australian Journal of Adoption, 3(2), 1-30.

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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].

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].

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].

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Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

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

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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Awarded Doctoral Degree

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

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Awarded Masters Degree

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

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