Girl of New Zealand presents a nuanced insight into the ways in which violence and colonial looking shaped the representation of Maori women and girls. Erai focuses on eight different depictions to think through the effects that colonial violence had on their construction and reception. In this way the author resurrects these women from objectification to being firmly located within Maori whanau and communities." - Ngarino Ellis, author of A Whakapapa of Tradition: A Century of Ngati Porou Carving, 1830-1930"Catching the tide of a resurgence of women's issues in the wake of #MeToo and other feminist projects, Michelle Erai's Girl of New Zealand is timely. Erai's analysis speaks to the historical foundations of negative attitudes toward Indigenous Maori women in the eyes of colonial 'others,' outsiders from elsewhere who reflected their own desires and fears in their representations of the Indigenous inhabitants of Aotearoa." - Arini Loader, Victoria University of Wellington
