Melissa Matutina Williams is a historian, author and academic in the field of indigenous studies. She has contributed research about the urbanisation of

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

in New Zealand that started in the 1960s.

Early life and education

Williams was born in

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

, and affiliates to the Māori nations of

Te Rarawa Te Rarawa is a Māori iwi of Northland, New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New ...

and Ngāti Maru. When she was 13 years old, she went to

Panguru Panguru is a community in the northern Hokianga harbour, in Northland, New Zealand. The Whakarapa Stream flows from the Panguru Range in the Warawara Forest to the west, through Panguru and into the Hokianga. Demographics The SA1 statistical a ...

, a settlement in the northern

Hokianga The Hokianga is an area surrounding the Hokianga Harbour, also known as the Hokianga River, a long Estuary, estuarine drowned valley on the west coast in the north of the North Island of New Zealand. The original name, still used by local Mā ...

in Northland, where she lived with her grandmother. Williams has qualifications from the

University of Auckland The University of Auckland (; Māori: ''Waipapa Taumata Rau'') is a public research university based in Auckland, New Zealand. The institution was established in 1883 as a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. Initially loc ...

. She completed

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degrees in sociology and history, the latter with first-class honours. She went on to earn a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

degree with first-class honours in history, and a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in history. Her doctoral thesis was titled ''Back-home and home in the city: Māori migrations from Panguru to Auckland, 1930–1970''.

Career

Since 2013, Williams has held a lecturer position at the University of Auckland. Her published book ''Panguru and the City: Kāinga Tahi, Kāinga Rua: An Urban Migration History'' (2015) highlights stories of Māori urbanisation the mostly unknown about 'dynamic Māori community sites' that were built from people who migrated from their home areas to the cities from the 1960s. Reviewer Coll Thrush praises the book saying, "the fertile intersections between past and present and between the urban and the Indigenous shape this important work, which should take its place among the best scholarship on urban Indigeneities." Williams and Aloha Harris collaborated on the book ''Te ao hurihuri : the changing world, 1920-2014'' (2018)''.'' Williams and Harris received a

Marsden grant Marsden Fund grants are contestable funding for investigator-led fundamental research in New Zealand. Grants are made in all areas of research in science, engineering, and mathematics. The grants are made from the Marsden Fund, which was establish ...

about how Māori held onto their aspirations for a healthy family while encountering state welfare policies.

Selected publications

* * *

Awards

* Post-Doctoral Research Award - Kate Edger Educational Charitable Trust / Dame Joan Metge * Copyright Licensing New Zealand Writers’ Award * E.H. McCormick Best First Book Award,

Ockham New Zealand Book Awards The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are literary awards presented annually in New Zealand. The awards began in 1996 as the merger of two literary awards events: the New Zealand Book Awards, which ran from 1976 to 1995, and the Goodman Fielder Wa ...

(2016) for ''Panguru and the City: Kāinga Tahi, Kāinga Rua: An Urban Migration History'' * Bert Roth Award (2016)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Melissa New Zealand academics New Zealand women academics New Zealand historians New Zealand women historians Ngāti Maru (Hauraki) people Year of birth missing (living people) Living people People from Auckland Te Rarawa people