Evelyn Patuawa-Nathan

Evelyn Patuawa-Nathan (14 April 1933 – 28 August 2019) was a New Zealand poet. Her only published poetry collection, Opening Doors, made her the third Māori woman writer to publish a book.

Life and career Patuawa-Nathan was born in Northland, New Zealand, on 14 April 1933. She lived in Europe and Asia before permanently settling in Sydney, Australia, where she worked as a teacher and as a tutor in a number of women's prisons.

Her first and only published work Opening Doors, a collection of poetry, was published in 1979 by Mana Publications (Suva, Fiji). Many of the poems in the collection are set in Australia or New Zealand and dealt with themes of colonisation and homecoming. During the same period she unsuccessfully attempted to establish a Māori Writers Society with other prominent Māori writers Hone Tuwhare and Harry Dansey. and Countless Signs: The New Zealand Landscape in Literature (1986, edited by Trudie McNaughton).

Death and legacy Patuawa-Nathan died on 28 August 2019. Te Punga Somerville also notes that Patuawa-Nathan's work places her "in the rather small group of nonwhite women poets anywhere who enjoyed single-author publication before the 1980s". Peters was able to find 23 unpublished poems by Patuawa-Nathan, which are included in the appendix to her thesis.

Published works Opening Doors (Mana Publications, Fiji, 1979)