Marama Laurenson

Tūhourangi, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Āti Haunui a Pāpārangi, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāi Tahu

1950 -

Marama Laurenson "began writing in the late 1970s. She is a history researcher, editor and publisher.... [and] works for the Ministry of Health as a senior analyst." She edited Te Hono ki Ripia, Ki te Whei-ao, ki te Ao Marama, and Whakapohane. In 1990 she wrote a series of articles for the Kapiti Mail on Māori issues.

Biographical sources

  • Phone conversations with Marama Laurenson, 5 July and August 1998.
  • Te Ao Mārama: Contemporary Māori Writing. Comp. and ed. Witi Ihimaera. Contributing ed. Haare Williams, Irihapeti Ramsden and D. S. Long. Vol. 5: Te Torino: The Spiral. Auckland, N.Z.: Reed, 1996. 181.

    Fiction

  • "Displace." Te Ao Mārama: Contemporary Māori Writing. Comp. and ed. Witi Ihimaera. Contributing ed. Haare Williams, Irihapeti Ramsden and D. S. Long. Vol. 5: Te Torino: The Spiral. Auckland, N.Z.: Reed, 1996. 181-184.
  • A short story highlighting the alienating environment of a high school for the solitary Māori student.
  • "Poroporoaki." Te Ao Mārama: Contemporary Māori Writing. Comp. and ed. Witi Ihimaera. Contributing ed. Haare Williams, Irihapeti Ramsden and D. S. Long. Vol. 5: Te Torino: The Spiral. Auckland, N.Z.: Reed, 1996. 184-188.
  • The despairing sentiments of a Māori woman fighting a racist system in the workplace and a loveless marriage in the home.
  • "Counterpoint." Te Ao Mārama: Contemporary Māori Writing. Comp. and ed. Witi Ihimaera. Contributing ed. Haare Williams, Irihapeti Ramsden and D. S. Long. Vol. 5: Te Torino: The Spiral. Auckland, N.Z.: Reed, 1996. 188-190.
  • A portrait of a woman living with an emotionally distant husband who constantly rejects her.
  • "He Wairua Kotahi." Te Ao Mārama: Contemporary Māori Writing. Comp. and ed. Witi Ihimaera. Contributing ed. Haare Williams, Irihapeti Ramsden and D. S. Long. Vol. 5: Te Torino: The Spiral. Auckland, N.Z.: Reed, 1996. 190-194.
  • A story of an unfolding relationship amidst the complexities of other commitments and involvements.

    • Non-fiction

  • Introduction. "Ki Te Whei-Ao" "Ki Te Ao-Marama" Dun Mihaka. Ed. Marama Laurenson. Wellington, N.Z.: Te Ringa Mangu Ltd. First printing 1989. Second printing 1989. 4-5.
  • Laurenson introduces Mihaka’s journey of unshackling himself from ‘an ineffective framework of religion’, and addresses the contradictions he perceives in the tangihanga. Laurenson urges the readers to ‘[r]espond to the challenge of "Ki te whei-ao, Ki te ao-marama" by recognising the journey of Mihaka’s as [their] own.’
  • "Bonds of Love and Brutality." Sunday Times 6 Sep 1993.

  • Other

  • Mihaka, Te Ringa and Prince, Diane. Whakapohane: I Na Tuohu Koe Me Mea Hei Maunga Tei Tei. Porirua: Ruatara, 1984. Re-issued as Whakapohane 1990. Ed. Marama Laurenson. Wellington, N.Z.: Te Ringa Mangu, 1989.
  • In this publication of ten chapters, with an introduction by Tim Shadbolt, the authors write a ‘Mihaka-Prince Prologue’ in which they describe their tactics at various court cases.
  • Mihaka, Dun. "Ki Te Whei-Ao" "Ki Te Ao-Marama" Ed. Marama Laurenson. Wellington, N.Z.: Te Ringa Mangu. First printing 1989. Second printing 1989.
  • The first part of this book is entitled "Ki Te Whei-Ao" and is composed of six chapters in which Mihaka gives an autobiographical account of different tangihanga he has attended. He also discusses his break with the ‘traditional spirits and gods’ and other Māori traditions. In the thirteen chapters of "Ki Te Ao-Marama" Mihaka outlines his belief in the materialist world devoid of spiritual origins. Quoting from Marxist philosophy Mihaka asserts that ‘all kaupapa or philosophies’ are either materialist or idealist and he discusses the six modes of production outlined by Marx. Mihaka examines some aspects of Māoridom from a Marxist viewpoint and quotes largely from Mao Tse Tung, Lenin, Marx and Engels
  • Te Hono Ki Riipia - The Libyan Connection. Ed. Marama Laurenson. Wellington, N.Z.: Te Ringa Mangu Ltd, 1989.
  • Te Hono Ki Riipia contains eight addresses presented by Muammar Al Qaddafi in Tripoli in the early 1980s at a series of meetings which were held for the purpose of ‘establishing a World Mathaba to form a united effort to resist imperialism - and in particular American imperialism.’

    • Poetry

  • "Tahu Brown Parata – Ol’ Rolly Eyes." Whetu Moana: Contemporary Polynesian Poems in English. Ed. Albert Wendt, Reina Whaitiri and Robert Sullivan. Auckland, N.Z.: Auckland UP, 2003. 114—115.
  • "Hana Te Hemara – Muru Raupatu." Whetu Moana: Contemporary Polynesian Poems in English. Ed. Albert Wendt, Reina Whaitiri and Robert Sullivan. Auckland, N.Z.: Auckland UP, 2003. 116-117.
  • "Plans For Christmas." Whetu Moana: Contemporary Polynesian Poems in English. Ed. Albert Wendt, Reina Whaitiri and Robert Sullivan. Auckland, N.Z.: Auckland UP, 2003. 117-118.