Curator will focus on photographers of colonial times

HAMILTON - The work of the first Maori woman photographer, done more than a century ago, is proving elusive to track down.

Tracy Sibson, curator of art collections at the Waikato Museum of Art and History in Hamilton, is desperate to locate any photographs taken by Katarina Hansard.

Ms Sibson has won an award to complete a research project on New Zealand women photographers between 1860 and 1960.

The results of her investigations will be shown in a nationwide touring exhibition in 2001.

Ms Sibson said Katarina Hansard was possibly the first professional Maori photographer.

She was the daughter of a Rotorua minister, the Rev Ihaia Te Ahu, and Katarina Hapimana (also known as Rangirauaka).

Katarina later married George Hansard. She opened a photography studio in the Northland town of Kaikohe in 1893.

"I can't find out anything else about her and I can't find her photos," said Ms Sibson. "It's just making me crazy because I know they're out there and someone's got to know."

Ms Sibson is one of two award winners chosen from 17 applications received this year by the New Horizons for Women Trust.

Her research will detail the lives of about 150 women photographers, many of whom are little known.

Ms Sibson said pioneer photographers such as Elizabeth Pulman, Margaret Matilda White, Thelma Kent and Amy Harper would feature in the exhibition.

"One of the nicer stories that emerged recently was of a woman called Bobbie Barwell who was based in Ashburton. "In the 1930s, she took a photograph of Lake Pukaki that was used as the basis for the image that appeared on the sterling 5 note in New Zealand for well over 20 years."

The second award winner, Barbara Collins, from Wellington, will investigate the social policy implications of adolescent pregnancy.