Amy Mihi Brown

Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Koroki, Ngāti Maniapoto

1940 - 1996

Amy was born in Otaki and grew up in Taranaki. She was educated at the State Primary School in Otaki, Sacred Heart Convent in New Plymouth, Hukarere College, Horowhenua College and Victoria University. In the 1960s she compiled Māori programmes for the NZBC. For thirty years she worked in the communications industry in copywriting, public relations, market research, journalism and radio talks. She had a long-term involvement with art and crafts. At the age of forty-three, she gave up her previous career in order to become a writer. She wrote for Thursday for ten years and also wrote a six-part series on the Health Department computer for the National Business Review. In 1984 she attended a TVNZ Television workshop, and in 1989 participated in a Fay Weldon Weekend Seminar. During 1988-89 she worked on a non-fiction work about Māori and Pakeha relationships in New Zealand. She wrote: "I found I got polarised and immensely angry. My objectivity disappeared and it was necessary to put the work away. Not until Witi Ihimaera contacted me in early 1991 did I begin to think about it seriously again. He gave me the courage to submit two stories for consideration for the first volume of Te Ao Mārama. Their acceptance turned a switch on in my head, and ever since I have been quietly, but with intent, plodding my way down the lonely road that is writing." Amy wrote short stories, radio plays, works for theatre, television scriptwriting, craft reviews, and non-fiction articles. She returned to Otaki in 1996 in order to write a book on Mana Tane and died ten days later.

Biographical sources

  • Correspondence with Amy Brown, 14 Nov. 1992.
  • Correspondence from Campbell Brown, July 1998 and 17 June 2004
  • Phone conversation with M. J. Johnson, 25 July 1998.
  • Phone conversation and correspondence with Georgia Hapeta, July 1998.

    Fiction

  • "Power of Attorney." Te Ao Mārama: Contemporary Māori Writing. Comp. and ed. Witi Ihimaera. Contributing ed. Haare Williams, Irihapeti Ramsden and D. S. Long. Vol. 1: Te Whakahuatanga O Te Ao: Reflections of Reality. Auckland, N.Z.: Reed, 1992. 228-237.
  • Mere, torn between her desire to keep the family ancestral land or sell it to pay her dying father’s debts, eventually succumbs to the latter in order to preserve her father’s good reputation.
  • "A Promise for Jake." Te Ao Mårama: Contemporary Måori Writing. Comp. and ed. Witi Ihimaera. Contributing ed. Haare Williams, Irihapeti Ramsden and D. S. Long. Vol. 1: Te Whakahuatanga O Te Ao: Reflections of Reality. Auckland, N.Z.: Reed, 1992. 237-248.
  • Kate returns to the site of her brother’s grave in the deserted mining village, and keeps her promise to her dying father.

    • Films/Video

  • Māori food. Shown over six-segment weeks. No details.
  • "The murmur." No details.

  • Non-fiction

  • "Some Thoughts On The Future of Māori Chant." Te Ao Hou 48 (1964): 38-40.
  • This article is written in response to Mervyn Maclean’s two essays on the Māori chant in Te Ao Hou 47 (1964): 34-39, Amy provides a detailed discussion on the survival of the Māori chant in contemporary Māori society.
  • "Karanga Karanga." New Zealand Crafts: Craft Council Magazine 18 (1986): 4-6.
  • A comprehensive review of the Karanga Karanga exhibitions held at the Fisher Gallery in Pakuranga and the Wellington City Art Gallery.
  • "Wearable Works of Art." New Zealand Crafts: Crafts Council Magazine 22 (1987): 24-25.
  • A profile of New Zealand feltmaker Jeanette Green.
  • "The Dependent Exhibitor." New Zealand Crafts: Crafts Council Magazine 22 (1987). 32.
  • Brown provides guidelines for holding an exhibition and notes the goals of two New Zealand galleries promoting New Zealand craft: the Compendium in Auckland and the Villas Gallery in Wellington, N.Z.
  • "Stitches in Time." NZ Listener 16 May 1987: 48.
  • Brown writes a review of the touring exhibition Colour and Form from Sweden, which exhibited woollen handicrafts and fifty graphic prints from six artists.
  • "Art to Don or Display." NZ Listener 13 June 1987: 34-35.
  • A discussion on wearable art and a review of the fifth Wearable Art exhibition held at the Compendium Gallery in Devonport, Auckland, N.Z.
  • "Conferences and Conventions...a Big Business." Management 34.3 (1987): 39-45.
  • A detailed discussion on the emerging convention and conference organisation industry in New Zealand. Brown describes the scope of the New Zealand Convention Association, assesses New Zealand’s potential as a conference location and examines the current weaknesses in the local industry.
  • "Māori Art Today." Art New Zealand 45 (1987/88): 52-55.
  • In this review of the Māori Art today exhibition, Brown writes that Māori Art today, Te Aho Tapu - The Sacred Thread and other exhibitions which accompanied Te Māori - Te Hokinga Mai during its showings around New Zealand, had an important role to play, not only in celebrating the return of the taonga in Te Māori but also in their focus on areas not included in Te Māori such as Māori women’s art, contemporary Māori art and weaving.
  • "Māori Art Greets its Past." NZ Herald 11 July 1987: 2.2.
  • Brown writes of the confluence of traditional and contemporary Māori art in the simultaneous showings of Te Māori and Māori Art Today throughout New Zealand. She gives an overview of essential components of Māori art and discusses the emergence of Māori self-determinism.
  • "Landmark Gallery - Nelson." New Zealand Potter 30.1 (1988): 29-30.
  • Brown discusses the Landmark Gallery which opened in Nelson in December 1987.
  • "The Crafts in Māori Society." New Zealand Crafts: Crafts Council Magazine 28 (1989): 10.
  • Brown discusses the adaptations made to Māori weaving and carving as a result of changing climates, availability of flax and different kinds of timber, and the introduction of different materials by the European settlers. Brown comments on the "resurgence" of weaving and plaiting in the last two decades.
  • "The Human Touch - The Index Fingered at Rotorua." New Zealand Crafts: Crafts Council Magazine 31 (1990): 8-11.
  • A review of The Human Touch exhibition of work by members of the Index of New Zealand Craftworkers.
  • "Māori Attitudes to Menstruation." Standing in the Sunshine: A History of New Zealand Women Since They Won the Vote. Ed. Sandra Coney. Auckland, N.Z.: Viking; Auckland, N.Z., Penguin, 1993. 97.
  • The principal author and principal researcher of this text and its illustrations is Sandra Coney. Editorial advisers - Charlotte Macdonald, Anne Else, Dame Joan Metge, Tania Rei, Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, Angela Ballara, Merimeri Penfold, Rosemarie Smith. Brown writes of the traditional restrictions placed on Māori women when menstruating.
  • "Champions in Two Worlds: Māori Sportswomen in the 1950s and 1960s." Standing in the Sunshine: A History of New Zealand Women Since They Won the Vote. Ed. Sandra Coney. Auckland, N.Z.: Viking; Auckland, N.Z., Penguin, 1993. 260-261.
  • Brown writes of the sporting achievements of four Māori sportswomen of the 1950s and 1960s: Ruia Morrison, Jane Te Hira née Maxwell, Moana Manley, and Neti Davis.
  • Vision Aotearoa: Kaupapa New Zealand. Ed. Witi Ihimaera. Wellington, N.Z.: Bridget Williams, 1993.
  • Marie Bell, Vicki Buck, Eddie Durie et al, in conversation with Roslie Capper and Amy Brown. Twenty New Zealanders write their vision for Aotearoa/New Zealand.
  • Earthworms Unlimited: Backyard Earthworm Breeding: A Handbook for Earthwork Fanciers. Comp. and written by Amy Brown. Matakohe, Northland, N.Z.: Earthworms Unlimited, 1993. Rpt. Kangaroo Press, 1994.
  • A publication on the production of backyard breeding of earthworms.
  • Earthworms In New Zealand: Life Beneath The Surface. Auckland, N.Z.: Reed Publishing, 1995.
  • Mana Wahine: Women Who Show The Way. Ed. Amy Brown. Auckland, N.Z.: Reed, 1994. Extracts rpt. in He Wai: A Song: First Nations Women’s Writing. Ed. Trixie Te Arama Menzies. Auckland, N.Z.: Waiata Koa, 1996. 56-64.
  • Photographs by Jocelyn Carlin. Autobiographical statements by 25 Māori women.

    • Other

  • "Amy Brown Replies." New Zealand Crafts: Craft Council Magazine 21 (1987): 3.
  • Brown writes in response to criticism of her review of the Knitting Awards exhibited at Compendium gallery in Auckland, N.Z.

    • Poetry

  • "Census Night." New Zealand Crafts: Craft Council Magazine 18 (1986): 6.
  • A parody of the degrees of Māori descent that was formerly required in Census statistics.

    • Reviews

  • Rev. of Rata, by Anne Holden. Te Ao Hou 54 (1966): 57.

  • Sound recordings

  • "The Lesson." No details.