Waerete Norman was born in Kaitaia and went to school at Te Kao Primary School, Ngataki Native School, Pukepoto School, Grafton Primary School, Normal Intermediate and Roskill Grammar School. Waerete worked on the tolls, got married and had children. She re-enrolled as an adult student with Continuing Education’s New Start Programme in Auckland in 1976, She went on to do a B.A. in Anthropology and Māori Studies and completed a Masters degree. Waerete was on the management committee for 18 years for the Muriwhenua Incorporation; she coordinated the research and chaired the research committee. Waerete served on the Runanga of Muriwhenua and on the Auckland Regional Council, and was chair of Māori University Teachers’ Association.
She was a member of the Māori Women’s Welfare League. Apart from her duties as lecturer of Māori Studies at the University of Auckland, Waerete was also national secretary of the Māori University Teachers’ Association and chairperson of Te Puna Manawa Kørero, Auckland Regional Council. She was a strong advocate for ngā take wāhine, was a fluent Māori speaker acting as an interpreter for the Waitangi Tribunal, and was the District Māori Council delegate. Waerete delivered a co-presentation on Matauranga Māori in a conference in Cairns. She went to the United States in 1996 where she was hosted by the Sioux Indian people and worked with Professor Beatrice Medicine. She visited various people on the Sioux Reserve, and visited scholars at the University of Regina at the Native Studies Department in Canada. She worked on a Ph.D on Māori Wahine, traditional and contemporary issues relevant to Māori women.
Biographical sources
- Correspondence and phone conversation with Waerete Norman, 18 Dec. 1992 and Sept. 1998.
- Te Iwi o Aotearoa 13 (1988): 7.
- Noman, Wairete. "The Muriwhenua Claim." Te Ao Mārama: Regaining Aotearoa: Māori Writers Speak Out. Comp. and ed. Witi Ihimaera. Contributing ed. Haare Williams, Irihapeti Ramsden and D. S. Long. Vol. 2: He Whakaatanga O Te Ao: The Reality. Auckland, N.Z.: Reed, 1993. 173.
- Kawharu, I. H. ed. Waitangi: Māori and Pakeha Perspectives. Auckland, N.Z.: Oxford UP, 1989. 180-210. Rpt. 1989, 1994.
Biography
- "Taura." Growing up Māori. Ed. Witi Ihimaera. Auckland, N.Z.: Tandem, 1998. 110-132.
Non-fiction
- "Submission from Māori Academic Women on the Status of Academic Women." W. Norman and M. Mutu-Griggs. Auckland, N.Z.: Auckland U, n.d.
- Presented as part of a group in Auckland, N.Z. for academic women. Argues for the inclusion of more Māori women and staff in areas in education.
- "The Muriwhenua Claim." Waitangi: Māori and Pākehā Perspectives of the Treaty of Waitangi. Ed. I. H. Kawharu. Auckland, N.Z.: Oxford University Press, 1989. 180-210. Rpt. 1989,1994. An extract rpt. in Te Ao Mārama: Regaining Aotearoa: Māori Writers Speak Out. Comp. and ed. Witi Ihimaera. Contributing ed. Haare Williams, Irihapeti Ramsden and D. S. Long. Vol. 2: He Whakaatanga O Te Ao: The Reality. Auckland, N.Z.: Reed, 1993. 173-177.
- Norman begins by outlining the economic base of the Muriwhenua tribes in the years following the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi which deteriorated during the course of the 20th century. She examines the depletion of the Muriwhenua taonga, fish, and looks at the history of over-fishing and government legislation that has effectively separated Muriwhenua from one of its traditional resources. In this paper Norman includes various extracts from the Muriwhenua Waitangi claim.
- "He Aha Te Mea Nui?" Te Pua 1.1 (Sept. 1992): 1-9.
- Norman provides a study of the different meanings and implications of the whakatauikii ‘He wahine he whenua i mate ai te tangata’ which she states is ‘generally translated’ as ‘for women and land men die’. She states that she has chosen to ‘explore’ it ‘in the traditional sense’ rather than subject it to ‘contemporary analysis’.
- "Whaea Whakahaere Hui: Women Organising Hui." Standing in the Sunshine: A History of New Zealand Women Since They Won the Vote. Principal author and principal researcher - text and illustrations Sandra Coney. Editorial advisers - Charlotte Macdonald, Anne Else, Dame Joan Metge, Tania Rei, Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, Angela Ballara, Merimeri Penfold, and Rosemarie Smith. Auckland, N.Z.: Viking-Penguin, 1993. 124-125.
- Norman provides short explanatory notes which accompany historic photographs of the activities of women during hui. The text also includes a poem in Māori and English by Norman entitled "Whaea."
- "Māori Women’s Land Rights: Traditional Ownership Rights and Inheritance." Standing in the Sunshine: A History of New Zealand Women Since They Won the Vote. Principal author and principal researcher - text and illustrations Sandra Coney. Editorial advisers - Charlotte Macdonald, Anne Else, Dame Joan Metge, Tania Rei, Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, Angela Ballara, Merimeri Penfold, and Rosemarie Smith. Auckland, N.Z.: Viking-Penguin, 1993. 189.
- Norman writes of the Māori link with the land through mythology and tradition and describes Māori women’s land inheritance rights and the impact of European and Christian values and legislation on these rights.
- "Wahine Māori Nga Ahika o Te Reo: Women’s Role as Keepers of Te Reo, Language." Standing in the Sunshine: A History of New Zealand Women Since They Won the Vote. Principal author and principal researcher - text and illustrations Sandra Coney. Editorial advisers - Charlotte Macdonald, Anne Else, Dame Joan Metge, Tania Rei, Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, Angela Ballara, Merimeri Penfold, and Rosemarie Smith. Auckland, N.Z.: Viking-Penguin, 1993. 196-197.
- Norman discusses the traditional role of Māori women in teaching and fostering te reo Māori in children and notes the impact of the 1867 Native Schools Act and education policies in the first three decades of the 20th century in discouraging the use of te reo Māori. She writes that since that time Māori women have strongly moved to rectify language loss through the Women’s Health League, the Māori Women’s Welfare League, Nga Tamatoa, and specifically through the establishing of the first Māori Language Day, Hana Te Hemara Jackson’s Parliamentary petition concerning te reo Māori and the subsequent founding of the Kohanga Reo movement and Kura Kaupapa Māori.
Poetry
- "Whaea." Standing in the Sunshine: A History of New Zealand Women Since They Won the Vote. Principal author and principal researcher - text and illustrations Sandra Coney. Editorial advisers - Charlotte Macdonald, Anne Else, Dame Joan Metge, Tania Rei, Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, Angela Ballara, Merimeri Penfold, and Rosemarie Smith. Auckland, N.Z.: Viking-Penguin, 1993. 124.
- Norman writes of the nurture and love of whaea.
Theses
- Muriwhenua. Thesis. U of Auckland, 1987.
Other
- Amoamo, Jacqueline. "WAHINE: Waerete Norman: ARA Candidate." Te Iwi o Aotearoa 13 (Sept. 1988): 7.
- Erai, Michelle, Fuli, Everdina, Irwin, Kathie and Wilcox, Lenaire. Māori Women: An Annotated Bibliography. [Wellington, N.Z.]: Michelle Erai, Everdina Fuli, Kathie Irwin and Lenaire Wilcox, 1991. 23.