JUNE NORTHCROFT GRANT
Tūhourangi, Ngāti Wahiao
June Northcroft Grant has been an artist and a champion for Māori art for several decades but she has also been a business woman and involved with tourism since she was a young girl.
Of Ngāti Tūhourangi, Ngāti Wahiao and Ngāti Tūwharetoa descent, June grew up knowing that hospitality and manaakitanga were important parts of the life of her people. Despite being quite shy, as a fifteen year old girl in the 1960’s, she became a well-known face in Rotorua as a model for photographers and one of the famous ‘Māori Meter Maids’ who were employed to travel around the central business district of Rotorua topping up visitors’ meters and making them feel welcome.
June gained a Diploma of Craft Design in 1989 and has been making art ever since. Her work has been exhibited in Australia and Canada as well as here in New Zealand. She started Pohutu Prints Originals in 1991 and also opened a store selling Māori designed products as well as a gallery.
June is related to a number of fascinating figures from local history; her father was Major Henry William Northcroft, a leader of the 28th Māori Battalion and she was also related to the famous Whakarewarewa guide Makereti Papakura. The connection to these ancestors and others inspired much of her art and she has produced many paintings featuring them.
These relatives inspired her in other ways too. In 1996, she wrote a biographical entry about Makereti for the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, and in the beginning of 2018 she gave a fascinating lecture about Makereti and her sister Bella as part of the annual Waitangi Rua Rautau Lecture Series.
Not only has June produced her own art, she has also advocated for the work of other Māori artists, has been a passionate supporter of Māori art in schools and has been a member of many of committees and advocacy groups such as Kauwae Māori Women Artists Collective, which supports emerging Māori women artists.
June Grant has received many accolades in her career including the MWDI small business award and the Black Pearl Award for Māori women’s leadership. She has been a member of Aroha Mai Cancer Support Network and a trustee of the Rotorua Breast Cancer Trust and in 2010 she received the Insignia of an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori.
Values: Innovation, identity, relationships, wellbeing
More to watch:
June Grant talking about her memories of being a Māori Meter Maid:
http://www.maoritelevision.com/news/regional/native-affairs-maori-meter-maid
More to read:
From Rotorua Library:
Kiwa: Pacific connections: Māori art from Aotearoa (June Grant)
More to listen to:
Hear the full Waitangi Rua Rautau Lecture given by June Northcroft Grant in 2018: https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/waitangiruarautaulectures/audio/2018631216/2018-waitangi-rua-rautau-lecture-by-june-northcroft-grant
This entry is related to:
‘Maggie Papakura of Geyserland’; Adrienne Whitewood and Ahu;
Sources:
https://gg.govt.nz/images/june-grant-rotorua
http://www.spiritwrestler.com/catalog/index.php?artists_id=7