Ella Yvette Henry

Ella Henry was born in Kaitaia and educated at New Lynn Primary, Blockhouse Bay Intermediate, Kelston Girls’ High and Auckland Girls’ Grammar. From 1974-1984 she travelled and worked in Australia, Europe, Asia, Southern Africa and the USA. She attended the University of Auckland from 1986-1992 and graduated with B.A. in Sociology and Māori Studies in 1990. She has an M.Phil in Management Studies. She was President of the Auckland University Students’ Association in 1990 and attended Te Manu Aute Hui in 1991. She was New Labour Candidate for Mt. Roskill in 1990. She was awarded an MEF Scarce Skills Scholarship in Henry was appointed Executive Director of Greenpeace New Zealand in 1994. She has worked as a Senior Lecturer in Management at the Auckland Institute of Technology and has tutored and co-ordinated a postgraduate diploma in Māori Business and Development at Auckland University. Her first major literary work was the play Treat It Right!!. She also writes scripts for film and television production and does academic research. In 1989, she was writer/producer for "Na Te Whatu Māori", a documentary about the 1989 Māori Film Festival made with QEII support. In 1991 she was writer/script for "Māori Health", a documentary by Joe Bidois and Mark Teirney about Māori health and the marae made for Community Health Department. She was also writer/producer in 1992 for "Karanga", a script in development for NZ Film Commission which is a short drama about a Māori woman’s discovery of her heritage. In 1990 she wrote a Research Report entitled "Robertson Road Recapitation Forum" with Merimeri Penfold for the Ministry of Education. In August 1992, she wrote a conference paper entitled "Feminist Theory: an Overview" for the Women’s Studies Association Conference at the University of Auckland. In November 1992, she wrote a conference paper entitled "Study Skills for Māori Students" for the Australasian Association of Institutional Researchers’ "Futures" Conference at Waipuna Lodge. In February 1993, she gave a paper entitled "Diversity in Women’s Organizations" for the Fifth International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women at San Jose University, Costa Rica. She has also written an article entitled "Māori Business Values and Practice" for Business & New Zealand Society, a textbook by John Deeks published by Longman Paul in January 1994.

Biographical sources

• Correspondence from Henry, 16 Dec. 1992.
• Te Iwi o Aotearoa 31 (1990): 12.