Judith Binney Trust Fellowship And Writing Awards Announced For 2025

The Judith Binney Trust is proud to announce the recipients of the 2025 Judith Binney Fellowship and Writing Awards. This is the seventh year that the Trust has given awards to support courageous, rigorous and imaginative scholarship of the kind that characterised Judith Binney’s historical writing.

Chair of the Judith Binney Trust, Cristina Billett, says selection panel members and trustees were impressed by the quality, range and diversity of applications received this year.

‘It is essential that innovative research and writing of New Zealand history continues to be appropriately funded in this country and we are proud to support work that explores the past in ways that reflect the kaupapa and objectives of the Judith Binney Trust,’ she said.

The Judith Binney Fellow for 2025 is Dr Rachel Buchanan.

Dr Rachel Buchanan (Taranaki iwi, Te Ātiawa) is a member of Te Aro Pā Poets collective and Te Pouhere Kōrero Māori Historians Network. A long-term resident in Naarm/Melbourne, Rachel has worked as a journalist, an academic and a curator and is an established award winning author.

As the Judith Binney Fellow Dr Buchanan receives an $80,000 grant to support the research, writing and, ultimately, the publication of an innovative body of work linked to the concept of manuhiri in Aotearoa (New Zealand) and Te Ao Moemoea (Australia).

Manuhiri – the many guises of the guest will focus on the shifting roles and guises of visitors and guests in three interconnected places – Wellington, Taranaki and Australia. An intimate and innovative collection of linked historical essays will explore the theme and impact of manuhiri, the fleeting or long-term visitors – welcome or not – that uplift, overturn, challenge and transform the lives of individuals and communities.

“Receiving the Judith Binney Fellowship is an honour and a great vote of confidence in myself and the wider whānau, including the many talented uri of Taranaki who have guided my work. I am thrilled to accept it and I’m looking forward to being able to devote myself fully to research and writing next year.” Rachel said.

Rachel Buchanan’s work on her recent award-winning book, Te Motunui Epa, was supported by a Judith Binney Trust Writing Award in 2020. That publication was a co-winner of both the 2023 Ernest Scott Prize and the W. H. Oliver Prize and a finalist in the Māori Literature Trust’s inaugural Keri Hulme Award and the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.

Three Judith Binney Writing Awards have also been made. Each, recipient will receive $25,000. The recipients are:

Dr Marianne Schultz

Dr. Marianne Schultz is a teacher, dancer, historian, writer, and arts advocate. Her work focuses on dance and performing arts history. When not writing, dancing or teaching Marianne works as an archivist for several performing arts organisations in Aotearoa New Zealand and the USA.

The Judith Binney Writing Award will allow her to complete a biography of Thomas O’Carroll, aka Jan Caryll, New Zealand’s ‘first male ballet student’. Stepping Lightly will explore the life of a relatively unknown New Zealander who established an international career in dance throughout the UK and Europe in the 1920s and 1930s.

Dr Sandra Thomas

Dr. Sandra Thomas is a graduate of Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington. She is an independent researcher with a legal background and experience in Treaty claim settlements. She is keen to cast light on an aspect of New Zealand’s colonisation which remains largely unexplored.

The Judith Binney Writing Award will support preparation of a book manuscript ‘Friends’ on Trial: Ihāka Takānini and Heta Tarawhiti in the Compensation Court 1865-1867 - drawing on her thesis which examined the compensation process established to legitimise the settler government’s actions following the Waikato War of 1863 – 1864.

Will Hansen

Will Hansen is a Wellington based historian. He is proudly transgender and a trustee of Kawe Mahara Queer Archives Aotearoa.

The Judith Binney Writing Award will support the transformation of his PhD thesis -"Queer Activism in Aotearoa New Zealand, 1961-2013" - into a manuscript for publication. His work is based on oral histories. The book will highlight diverse life histories and their interconnections in ways that will appeal to the general reader as well as queer readers.

Note:

The Judith Binney Fellowships and Writing Awards were established by the Judith Binney Trust in 2018 to support researching and writing history in Aotearoa / New Zealand. They honour the contribution made by the late Dame Judith Binney Te Tōmairangi o Te Aroha to our understanding of the rich history of these islands.

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