33 Facts About Jacquie Sturm

Jacquie Sturm was one of the first Maori women to complete an undergraduate university degree, at Victoria University College, followed by a Masters of Arts degree in philosophy.

Jacquie Sturm was the first Maori writer to have her work published in an English anthology.

Jacquie Sturm continued to write short stories and poetry well into the early 2000s, and is regarded today as a pioneer of New Zealand literature.

Jacquie Sturm's father took her older sister Evadne back to the Bay of Plenty to be raised by his family, but Sturm's maternal grandmother Tautokai insisted on raising her in Taranaki.

Jacquie Sturm grew up with them in a predominantly Pakeha environment, and wrote in later years of her feeling of being out of place or living between worlds.

Jacquie Sturm excelled at school both academically and in sport, becoming school dux and swimming champion of Napier Girls' High School.

In 1946, Jacquie Sturm began studying at the University of Otago; she was the only Maori woman on campus.

Jacquie Sturm therefore started studying towards a Bachelor of Arts, initially with a view to re-trying for admission to the medical school, but decided instead to pursue graduate study in anthropology.

Jacquie Sturm's first impression of Baxter was that he was "a somewhat dopey-looking individual, not my idea of a poet, but he had a marvellous voice and he knew how to use it".

In late 1947 Jacquie Sturm moved to Canterbury University College in Christchurch to study anthropology under the well-known social psychologist Ivan Sutherland.

Jacquie Sturm later recalled feeling disconcerted when he turned up in her lectures.

Jacquie Sturm suffered from alcoholism during this time and his behaviour was often erratic.

In 1949, Jacquie Sturm graduated from Victoria University College with a Bachelor of Arts, becoming one of the first Maori women to complete an undergraduate university degree.

In 1952, Jacquie Sturm graduated from Victoria University College with a Masters of Arts in Philosophy, one of the first masters' degrees awarded to a Maori woman.

Early in the 1950s, Jacquie Sturm began to write short stories, partly to distinguish her own writing from her husband's poetry.

Jacquie Sturm was the first Maori writer whose work was selected for a New Zealand anthology.

Jacquie Sturm was secretary of the Wellington Branch of the League, and acted as the League's representative on the Maori Education Foundation Board for many years.

Jacquie Sturm was the second woman to sit on the board and one of only two Maori appointees.

Jacquie Sturm received a substantial inheritance from a great-aunt in the same year, so he and Sturm were able to purchase a house in Ngaio, Wellington.

In 1957 Jacquie Sturm and Baxter separated briefly after his conversion to Roman Catholicism, in part because she was a committed Anglican.

In 1969, Jacquie Sturm began working at the Wellington Public Library, where she continued working for 27 years.

Jacquie Sturm was the librarian in charge of the New Zealand collection from 1969 to 1982.

Jacquie Sturm set up the James K Baxter Charitable Trust, which supported causes he had supported, for example prison reform and drug addiction rehabilitation programmes, and ensured that all proceeds of his work went to the trust.

Jacquie Sturm had met her and come to know her through her work at the Wellington Public Library.

In 1983, Jacquie Sturm's collected short stories were published as The House of the Talking Cat by the women's publishing collective Spiral.

The publication followed distinguished writer Patricia Grace's suggestion that the Women's Gallery invite Jacquie Sturm to participate in a 1980 public reading, where the Auckland Women's Community Video recorded Jacquie Sturm reading 'A thousand and one nights' and Marian Evans interviewing her.

The stories had been written in the 1960s but Jacquie Sturm had been unable to find a publisher for the collection.

Jacquie Sturm returned to writing poetry, and in 1996 published her first collection, Dedications.

Jacquie Sturm published a further collection Postscripts in 2000, and the same year received the Kapiti Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 1998, Jacquie Sturm married university lecturer, critic and poet Peter Alcock, and they lived next door to each other in Paekakariki.

Jacquie Sturm received an honorary Doctor of Literature degree from Victoria University in May 2003 in recognition of her "contribution to the visibility of Maori women in New Zealand literature" and her "pioneering role".

Jacquie Sturm died in Paekakariki in December 2009, two months after the death of her beloved granddaughter Stephanie.

Jacquie Sturm was a pioneer of New Zealand literature, and paved the way for later female Maori writers like Patricia Grace and Keri Hulme.