Moana Sinclair worked as a journalist for Mana News and taught at Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Maungawhau. In 1991 she completed a law degree and worked as a solicitor at the Youth Law Project and as editor of the Youth Law Review. Her published work includes contributions to Te Pua; What is Going On with Māori Men? a collection of stories and articles written by Māori women, and to the International Workers’ Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA). She wrote "The Five O’clock Tune" as a tribute to her mother Mihikiturangi Durie (eldest sister of Eddie, Mason and Ra Durie). She writes: "My mother was brought up by the old kuia Mihikiturangi Matawha from Kakariki. Mum was not educated in the Pakeha way. My mother was incredibly strong, loving and totally honest. The standards she set for us are always hard to achieve." Sinclair stated "I write because it’s a form of healing/therapy, a way of ordering my thoughts, hopes and aspirations on paper." She worked on a Māori language play in te reo Māori. Annette Sykes writes: Ms Sinclair first came to prominence at the University of Auckland law school when she and then-partner Tony Sinclair started the group Te Kawau Maro to protest the then National Government's fiscal envelope policy of limiting the value of treaty claim settlements. She worked in Geneva and New York developing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and in Dubai and Nourmea before returning to Aotearoa to set up her own legan practice.
Biographical sources
- Huia Short Stories 1995. Wellington, N.Z.: Huia, 1995. 135.
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"Moana Sinclair fighter for Māori rights at law." waateaa.news.com June 07, 2024. https://waateanews.com/2024/06/07/moana-sinclair-fighter-for-maori-rights-at-law
nzherald.co.nz/nz/obituaries/nzherald-nz/name/moana-sinclair-obituary?id-55231948
Fiction
- "The Five O’Clock Tune." Huia Short Stories 1995. Wellington, N.Z.: Huia, 1995. 63-68.
- The narrator tells of her evening routine of preparing the dinner after school and then travelling with her mother to clean offices until ten. Behind this narrative the writer focuses on the struggles of solo parenthood, and issues of underlying racial and professional superiority. A finalist in the Huia Publishers Māori Writers short story competitions of 1995.
- "A Good Wine." Huia Short Stories 1997. Wellington, N.Z.: Huia Publishers, 1997. 81-89.
Non-fiction
- "What Is Going On With Men?" Te Pua. 1.1 (Sept. 1992): 24-27.
- Sinclair recounts a situation where she encountered sexist treatment when questioning gender roles in the Māori Department and in other educational groups.