![Sample our Area Studies journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5922/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Area-Studies.jpg"})
Abstract
This article is based on an extensive oral history with Raukura Te Aroha “Bubs” Hetet (1940–1993), a Māori woman from a small town in Aotearoa/New Zealand, who was aware of same-sex attraction from an early age, living in lesbian relationships for most of her adult life. She was seen as a tomboy in her small town, and describes some cross-dressing episodes when she was a teenager. Later, Bubs identified as butch in her social life and in her relationships. She worked for the New Zealand Post Office, joined the Women's Royal New Zealand Air Force, and made her home in the city of Auckland. The interview provides a rare opportunity to consider a life seldom documented in lesbian histories.
Notes
1. Interview with Raukura (Bubs) Hetet, 1992 by Alison Laurie, Oral History Centre, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. All quotations are from this interview.
2. From 1954 the Women's Auxiliary Air Force was renamed the Women's Royal New Zealand Air Force; in 1977 the integration policy of the NZ Defence Force meant the WRNZAF ceased to exist as a separate entity, and airwomen were transferred into the Royal New Zealand Air Force (http://www.geocities.com/nzwrac/WAAFHistory.html).
3. The New Zealand Post Office was restructured into three State Owned Entities (SOEs) in 1987—the Post Office Savings Bank, Telecom, and the NZ Post. Of these, only NZ Post is still within the Public Service, as the others were sold and privatized (http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/government-and-nation/6).
4. This was the Year 11 (Form 5) qualifying examination in New Zealand schools until 2002.
5. All names of other people mentioned by Bubs are given as pseudonyms.
6. NZ Truth, January 31, 1961, p. 15. “Thought Girl was a Queer.”
7. WRNZAF file for Raukura Te Aroha Hetet, Assessment, September 1, 1968 (in her possession).