06 Mar 2025
The Michael King Writer’s Fellowship is awarded very two years to an established New Zealand writer with a significant publication record, to work on a major project.
The fellowship provides $100,000 over two years and is intended to result in a new work and further skill and practice development. Applications are open until 27 March for the 2025 Fellowship.
Dr Danny Keenan (Ngāti Te Whiti ki Te Ātiawa) received the fellowship in 2023 to support a history of Māori responses to three pandemics: the health and sanitation crisis of the early 1900s, the flu epidemic of 1918 and, more recently, the Covid-19 pandemic. His aim was to legitimise the successful application of mātauranga Māori frameworks and to record that customary knowledge for future generations.
The result is 'In Sickness and In Health' a Cultural History of Three Māori Pandemics 1895-2021.
“The first thing I did, after receiving the fellowship, was to sit down and revisit my proposal, to make sure that my reading, research and writing would be well focused. I wanted to make sure that my historical research and conclusions – based on good empirical sources – did not stray too far away from my proposal,” Dr Keenan says.
The proposal emphasised important Māori perspectives on Māori health and wellbeing; presenting these in an evidence-based historical narrative was a new approach for Dr Keenan.
“I have written before about how complex it is to write Māori history which takes account of – and legitimates – customary perspectives. It was exciting and challenging to focus on customary aspects of Māori health and wellbeing and to once again test – or push – the academic boundaries between Māori and New Zealand history,” he says.
While Dr Keenan knew there was a body of work that had not been analysed from a Māori point of view, he was surprised by the extent of the literature on the topic. Many hours of reading and review have satisfied his commitment to rigorous historical research, without burying the narrative in theoretical approaches.
“Heaps of health-related archival research shows how far Māori valued the wellbeing of their papa kāinga by maintaining creditable health standards, grounded in their culture, community cohesion and the natural environment.”
Māori communities developed a 'public health system' that stood them in great stead, through egregious health crises and resistance from Western medicine and practices.
“The system went back a long way and was still evident during the Covid-19 responses. My project will attempt to show how this 'public health system' operated so effectively across the three major epidemics into the modern arena.”
Dr Keenan says the fellowship has been a wonderful opportunity to research an historical Māori analysis of Māori health at a scale and for a time that he could not have managed without the support.
“The criteria presented searching and alternative perspectives which continue to inform my project. I highly recommend this opportunity to really challenge yourself and your writing mahi.”
Find out more about the Creative New Zealand Michael King Writer’s Fellowship on our website
About Dr Keenan
Dr Keenan has a PhD in history from Massey University, and was a founding member of Te Pouhere Kōrero, Māori Historians Network. He has previously worked in the Department of Māori Affairs and is a former senior lecturer in Māori and New Zealand History at Massey University, Palmerston North.
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