Ngāhuia Murphy
(Ngāti Manawa, Ngāti Ruapani ki Waikaremoana)
2015 recipient of the Sir Hugh Kawharu Auckland Museum Scholarship
Dr Ngāhuia Murphy
She is a mana wahine researcher and author of the books Te Awa Atua: Menstruation in the pre-colonial Māori world and Waiwhero: A celebration of womanhood. The Museum Scholarship supported her PhD, completed in 2019, examining tohunga wahine in warfare and the resurgence of Indigenous women’s ceremonies in Aotearoa, Turtle Island (North America and Canada) and Hawai’i.
Ngāhuia then became a New Zealand Health Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow designing ceremonies and karakia bundles for wahine Māori to assist with rites of passage and connection with atua wahine.
The cover of Te Awa Atua: Menstruation in the pre-colonial Māori world.
Picture courtesy of Stuff:
Author back to her roots
Michele Ong 13:15, Aug 28 2014
Ngāhuia Murphy holds Waiwhero: A celebration of womanhood and talks about the ancient teachings that empower Maori women and the whole whanau.
Applications for the scholarship open each year. Please see the Auckland Museum Scholarship page.