Danny Keenan

Danny Keenan is a New Zealand historian and author who writes from a whakapapa Māori perspective on the history of New Zealand. He affiliates to the Māori nation of Ngāti Te Whiti ki Te Atiawa.

Biography Keenan was born in New Plymouth, a city in Taranaki in the North Island of New Zealand. He is Māori of Ngāti Te Whiti ki Te Atiawa descent. When he was a child his father was active at the marae in Parihaka, and one of his ancestors is Meretatana Te Keha.

Kennan as a child went to Pungarehu Primary School and then on to New Plymouth Boys’ High School. His doctorate was titled Haere whakamua, hoki whakamuri, going forward, thinking back : tribal and hapū perspectives of the past in 19th century Taranaki.

Keenan is a founding member of Te Pouhere Kōrero a society focusing on Māori history that started in 1992. Others who were involved included Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal, Aroha Harris, Buddy Mikaere and Dr Miria Simpson.

He got a job at Massey University in 2004 as a senior lecturer, he is currently no longer teaching but writing full-time.

In 2023 Keenan received the Creative New Zealand Michael King Writer's Fellowship to write a book currently called, In Sickness and In Health a Cultural History of Three Māori Pandemics 1895-2021.

In 2023 Keenan's next writing project is an historical analysis of three pandemics that have egregiously affected Māori. The study will illuminate Māori response to these events, including how they mobilised communities, grounded by mātauranga Māori frameworks. (Arihia McClutchie, Creative New Zealand 31 Mar 2023) - revised edition - Fate of the Land Ko Ngā Ākinga a ngā Rangatira (Massey Press) A History of the Māori Trust Boards 1922-2022 (Huia) Ahuwhenua. Celebrating 90 Years of Māori Farming (Huia)

Book editor

Huia histories of Māori : ngā tāhuhu kōrero (2012)

Awards

Fulbright Postdoctoral Award (1995) to study in the Centre for the History of the American Indian at the Newberry Library, Chicago. Michael King Writer's Fellowship (2023)