Feminist geographies in Aotearoa New Zealand: cultural, social and political moments

Abstract

Aotearoa New Zealand is a nation of promise, potential and enigma: it was the first country in the world where women gained the vote in 1893 and now boasts the youngest woman world leader in 2017. It is also a postcolonial nation where structural racism, homophobia, and sexism persist, yet it has also given legal personhood to a river. Our Country Report foregrounds Aotearoa New Zealand feminist geographic scholarship that responds to, reflects, and sometimes resists such contrasts and contradictions at the national scale. We employ the lens of the 2017 national election to critically engage with current gendered and indigenous politics in the country. Analyzing these politics through three ‘feminist moments,’ our paper highlights the breadth and scope of current Aotearoa New Zealand feminist geographic scholarship and directions.

Keywords:

• Care
• embodiment
• feminist collectives feminist geography
• intersectionality
• mana wahine

Acknowledgements

We thank the special issue editors for the opportunity to provide our Country Report and for Lynda Johnston’s encouragement to write this collectively. Ngā mihi nui to Sophie Bond, Gradon Diprose, Karen Fisher, Lynda Johnston, Sara Kindon, Naomi Simmonds, Amanda Thomas and other WGGRN members for their time and attention to detail which strengthened our report. We also thank each other for being committed to the journey.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gail Adams-Hutcheson

Gail Adams-Hutcheson is a teaching fellow in the geography programme at Waikato University. Her latest publication Challenging the masculinist framing of disaster research highlights her engagement with feminist geography in Aotearoa.

Ann E. Bartos

Ann E. Bartos is a senior lecturer at The University of Auckland in the School of Environment. Her research focuses on questions around political agency, politics of embodiment, sexual violence and geographies of care. Her recent publications can be found in Geoforum, Area, and Gender, Place and Culture.

Kelly Dombroski

Kelly Dombroski is a feminist geographer working at the intersections of body politics, technoscience and community economies, with a particular interest in care and mothering. She teaches geopolitics, feminist geography and postcolonial development geography, and is a member of the Community Economies Collective.

Erena Le Heron

Erena Le Heron is a Research Fellow (Geography) in the School of Environment, University of Auckland and a researcher with the National Institute of Water and Atmosphere. Her interests include ethics of care, more-than-human agency and narrative power, and engage with feminist, cultural and economic geographies in ANZ’s agrifood and environmental spaces.

Yvonne Underhill-Sem

Yvonne Underhill-Sem is a feminist post colonial development geographer interested in maternities, mobilities and markets. She teaches gender and development, theories of international development and Pacific development.