Marjorie Crocombe

Dr. Marjorie Tuainekore Tere Crocombe OBE (born 19 June 1930) is an author and academic from the Cook Islands. She is the Cook Island's "most venerated living author".[1]

Dr

Marjorie Tuainekore Tere Crocombe
Born19 June 1930
Rarotonga, Cook Islands
OccupationAcademic and author
LanguageEnglish, Māori
NationalityNew Zealander (Cook Islands)
Alma materUniversity of the South Pacific, University of Hawaii, University of Papua New Guinea, University of California, Los Angeles
Notable worksIf I Live: the story of Ta'unga
Notable awardsOrder of the British Empire (OBE)
SpouseRon Crocombe

Biography

Crocombe was born in 1930 in Rarotonga, in the Cook Islands. [2] Her early education was at Titikaveka Primary School, Epsom Girls' Grammar School and Whanganui Girls' College in New Zealand.[3][1] She trained as a teacher at Ardmore Teachers Training College[1] and in the 1950s began working for the Cook Islands Education Department, developing primary school readers in the Māori language. She then translated and published writings of early Cook Islands missionaries including those of Pa Maretu Ariki and Ta'unga, as well as editing sections of the stories into simple English readers.[2] In 1955 she began training teachers at Nikao Teachers’ College.[4]

After marrying she moved to Australia, then Papua New Guinea, where she became a radio broadcaster.[4] In 1967 she began studying creative writing at the University of the South Pacific, and in 1971 was one of the first two Cook Islanders to graduate from that institution.[1] She then went on to study Pacific history and sociology at the University of Hawaii, University of Papua New Guinea, and University of California, Los Angeles and work as a lecturer at the University of the South Pacific Cook Islands and senior lecturer at the Centre for Pacific Studies at the University of Auckland.[3]

Crocombe often collaborated with her husband, Ron Crocombe, including co-writing and editing several books and articles.[2] Following his death, she co-wrote (with Rod Dixon and Linda Crowl) a book on his life and work, Ron Crocombe: E Toa : Pacific Writings to Celebrate His Life and Work.[5]

Bibliography

Children's and young adult
  • If I Live: the story of Ta'unga (1980, University of South Pacific Press)
  • Cannibals and Converts: radical change in the Cook Islands (1983, University of South Pacific Press)
  • They Came for Sandalwood (1974, Islands Education Division)
  • Te rau maire: poems and stories of the Pacific (1992, Tauranga Vananga, Ministry of Cultural Development)

Non-fiction
  • Works of Ta'unga: Records of a Polynesian Traveller in the South Seas, 1833-96 (1968, C Hurst & Co Publishers), with Ron Crocombe
  • Post Secondary Education in the South Pacific: Present Patterns and Future Options (1994, Commonwealth Secretariat), with Ron Crocombe
  • Ron Crocombe: E Toa: Pacific Writings to Celebrate His Life and Work (2013, University of South Pacific Press), with Rod Dixon and Linda Crowl
  • Cook Islands Art and Architecture (2016, University of South Pacific Press), with Rod Dixon and Linda Crowl

Crocombe is also the author of numerous academic journal articles, including in The Contemporary Pacific,[6] The Journal of Pacific History,[7] Comparative Education,[8] and The Journal of the Polynesian Society.[9]

Recognition

In the 2009 New Year Honours, Crocombe was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to the Cook Islands, the Pacific, education, literature and the community.[10]

Crocombe was named Pacific Islands Woman of the Year by Island Business in 1990 and the Cook Islands Business & Professional Womens Association's woman of the year in 2000.[3] In 2011, she was the first woman from the Cook Islands to receive a Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) from the University of the South Pacific.[3][11]

References
  1. Katrina Tanirau (14 June 2020). "Pages from the book of Marjorie Crocombe's life". Cook Islands News. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  2. Lal, Brij V.; Fortune, Kate (2000). The Pacific Islands: An Encyclopedia, Volume 1. University of Hawaii Press. p. 530. ISBN 082482265X.
  3. Reeves, Rachel (6 June 2016). "Marjorie Crocombe honoured and described as a beacon of light". Cook Islands News. Archived from the original on 6 June 2016. Retrieved 10 November 2017.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  4. "A conversation with Marjorie Crocombe". Cook Islands News. 16 March 2018. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  5. Crowl, Linda; Crocombe, Marjorie Tuainekore; Dixon, Roderick Alan (2013). Ron Crocombe: E Toa : Pacific Writings to Celebrate His Life and Work. USP Press. ISBN 978-9820109018.
  6. Crocombe, Marjorie; et al. (Spring 1990). "Polynesia in Review: Issues and Events, 1 July 1988 to 30 June 1989". The Contemporary Pacific. 2 (1): 162–181. JSTOR 23701523.
  7. Crocombe, Marjorie Tuainekore; Crocombe, Ron (1990). "The Cook Islands and Niue". The Journal of Pacific History. 25 (3): 35–38. JSTOR 25434250.
  8. Crocombe, Marjorie Tuainekore; Crocombe, Ron (1993). "Scale, Sovereignty, Wealth and Enterprise: Social and Educational Comparisons between the Cook Islands and the Solomon Islands". Comparative Education. 29 (3, Special Number (15): Education in the South Pacific): 307–319. doi:10.1080/0305006930290307. JSTOR 3099331.
  9. Crocombe, Marjorie Tuainekore; Maude, H. E. (March 1962). "Rarotongan sandalwood: The visit of Goodenough to Rarotonga in 1814". The Journal of the Polynesian Society. 71 (1): 32–56. JSTOR 20703963.
  10. Cook Islands "No. 58930". The London Gazette (2nd supplement). 31 December 2008. p. 29.
  11. "Story - The University of the South Pacific News". University of the South Pacific. Archived from the original on 20 March 2014. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.