M膩ori writer J.C. Sturm was a 20-year-old student at mini传媒 University College (as the University of mini传媒 was then known) when she wrote 鈥楤rown Optimism鈥.
University of mini传媒听, is the literary executor for the M膩ori writer J.C. Sturm (Te Whakat艒hea, Taranaki, Te Pakakohi, Ng膩ti Ruanui), who was born Te Kare Papuni in 1927, and named Jacqueline Cecilia Sturm (Jacquie) when she was adopted by a P膩keh膩 family at the age of four. Professor Millar is currently preparing an edition of J.C. Sturm鈥檚听Collected Works听for publication.
A few weeks ago, while sorting through a large amount of unpublished and unattributed writing by her, he came across the poem 鈥, which听The Spinoff听is re-publishing after 70 years, along with听听introducing the poem and explaining its significance.
鈥淭he poem was published decades ago, but only recently attributed to Sturm,鈥 says Professor Millar. 鈥淲e were intending to publish it in the Collected, but when I heard National MP Paul Goldsmith say he thought that听, the poem leapt into my mind.
鈥淚 think it says something about our progress as a nation that a poem a young M膩ori woman wrote seven decades ago protesting colonisation still reads as an immediate response to a politician in 2021.鈥
The Spinoff听agreed that the poem offered an important perspective on a topical issue, and also that a听听was significant in its own right and worth publishing as a stand-alone piece.
Professor Millar believes it鈥檚 possible that Sturm was a 20-year-old student at mini传媒 University College (as the University of mini传媒 was then known) when she wrote 鈥楤rown Optimism鈥.
鈥淲e only have a clipping from a periodical but on current evidence, I think the poem was first published in a student magazine in the late 1940s, though I haven鈥檛 yet discovered where. It might even have been composed around 1948 when she was a student at mini传媒, studying anthropology. This was an important time for her, and events around this period sparked her activism,鈥 he says.
鈥淎s one of a tiny number of isolated M膩ori students in the New Zealand university system, she was questioning for the first time the heavy expectations on her to succeed in the P膩keh膩 world. In a later poem she described the experience of being the only M膩ori among P膩keh膩 through the first decades of her life, as always 鈥榖eing out of step, place, tune, joint鈥 (鈥業n Loco Parentis鈥).
鈥溾楤rown Optimism鈥檚 anger, overt politics, and prescription for better relations between M膩ori and P膩keh膩, shows that, even back then, Jacquie understood how and why colonisation hadn鈥檛 been good for M膩ori, and what was required to begin repairing the damage.鈥
- Professor Paul Millar鈥檚 edition of the Collected Works of J.C. Sturm will be published by Steele Roberts Aotearoa. You can read Millar鈥檚 entry on J.C. Sturm for the听Dictionary of New Zealand Biography听, and听听te reo M膩ori translation of the J.C. Sturm entry听.
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