Ngapare Hopa

Ngapare Kaihina Hopa MNZM (1935–30 April 2024^[1]) was a Māori academic of Waikato Tainui descent.

Hopa in 2008

Early life and education

Hopa attended Gordonton School in Gordonton.^[2] Later she moved to Auckland to attend Queen Victoria School and Epsom Girls’ Grammar.^[2]

Hopa later became the first Māori woman to complete a D.Phil degree from the University of Oxford.^[2][3][4]

Academic career

Hopa participated as a researcher at the University of Waikato in completing the research that informed the Waikato Raupatu claim.

Hopa headed the Māori Studies department at the University of Auckland.^[5][6]

Service

Beginning in 1989, while she was a senior research fellow at Waikato, Hopa became a member of the Waitangi Tribunal. She retired from the tribunal in 1993.^[7]

Death

Hopa died on 30 April 2024 at the age of 88.^[1][8]

Awards and honours

In the 2008 Queen's Birthday Honours, Hopa was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to Māori.^[9]

In 2011 Hopa was recognised for her contribution to Māori arts by Creative New Zealand, receiving its Te Waka Toi awards.^[10][11]

Hopa's collaboration with Jennifer Curnow and Jane McRae, Rere Atu, Taku Manu! Discovering History Language & Politics in the Maori-Language Newspapers was included as part of the Te Takarangi Significant Maori non-fiction publications in 2017.^[12] The list is a collaboration between Nga Pae o Te Maramatanga and The Royal Society of New Zealand to celebrate Maori thinkers, writers, and authors since the foundation of the Royal Society.^[13] In 2017, Hopa was also selected as one of the Royal Society Te Apārangi's "150 women in 150 words", celebrating women's contributions to knowledge in New Zealand.^[14]

Bibliography

• Curnow, J., N. K. Hopa and J. McRae (Eds). (2002). Rere Atu, Taku Manu! Discovering History, Language & Politics in the Maori-Language Newspapers. Auckland: Auckland University Press. ISBN 978-1-86940-279-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)^[15]