JUDITH MARY CAROLINE BINNEY
Emeritus Professor Judith Binney has contributed to the humanities-aronui as a teacher, mentor, researcher and writer over a sustained period. She taught in the History Department of the University of Auckland from 1966 until 2004, holding a Personal Chair from 1997. During that time she inspired many students to study and research in the rapidly developing field of race relations and colonialism. Her contributions to the wider scholarly community include roles as a long-term editor and co-editor of the New Zealand Journal of History (1970 - 1995); as founding chair of the Australian Sesquicentennial Trust for Awards in Oral History; as a member of the research advisory committee to the Crown Forestry Rental Trust; as a member of the Board of Te Papa Tongarewa; as a guardian of the Alexander Turnbull Library; and as a member of the Waitangi Tribunal.
At the same time, it is her own research that has brought the public attention she deserves. Professor Binney's approaches to history have been innovative and her use of oral history and visual material inspirational. Her books have always been acknowledged as major contributions to knowledge and three have received prestigious awards: the F.P.Wilson award for The Legacy of Guilt, A Life of Thomas Kendall, the Montana Book of the Year Award for Redemption Songs (a biography of Te Kooti), and third prize in the 1987 Goodman Fielder Wattie Awards for Nga Morehu The Survivors, The Life Stories of Eight Maori Women. Her work contributes significantly to the understanding of Maori-Pakeha relations and of Maori in New Zealand. In 1997 she was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to history, and in 2006 she became a Distinguished Companion of the Order.
Described by her peers as "unfailingly generous and helpful", Professor Binney has been an outstanding scholar and mentor within the field of New Zealand History.