Dr Ngahuia Murphy (Ngāti Manawa, Ngāti Ruapani ki Waikaremoana, Tūhoe, Ngāti Kahungunu, Te Arawa) is a researcher and educator. In 2011 she gained her Masters with a groundbreaking study of Māori pre- colonial stories, ceremonies and practices regarding menstruation. Ngahuia extended her research through a doctorate examining the revival of Indigenous women’s rituals and relationships to pre-colonial feminine deities in Aotearoa, Hawai’i, Canada and North America.

Ngahuia is furthering her work through a Health Research Council New Zealand Postdoctoral Fellowship. She is committed to decolonisation and cultural restoration through research, activism, theatre and the arts. Her research has inspired international Indigenous theatre productions, art works and short films.

Ngahuia has published two books Te Awa Atua: Menstruation in the precolonial Māori world and Waiwhero: A Celebration of Womanhood, with two further publications on the way.

Verb Festival 2021 appearance:
Atua Wāhine, Sat 6 Nov,11:30am.

Books