Heather McPherson

Heather Avis McPherson (28 May 1942 – 10 January 2017) was a feminist poet, publisher and editor who played a key role in supporting women artists and writers in New Zealand. In 1976, she founded the Spiral Collective group and Spiral, a women's arts and literary journal that later published monographs. Her poetry book A Figurehead: A Face was the first book of poetry published in New Zealand by an openly lesbian woman. She published three further collections during her lifetime, and an additional two collections were published posthumously by fellow Spiral members.

Life and career Early life and career Born in Tauranga, McPherson initially trained as a primary school teacher in the early 1960s. She subsequently studied at the University of Canterbury, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1971, Her poetry first appeared in print in 1963,

Women's artist collectives

In 1974, McPherson founded one of New Zealand's first women's artist collectives, the Women Artists Group in Christchurch, with other members including Paulette Barr, Allie Eagle (also known as Alison Mitchell) and Kathryn Algie. This group co-founded the first New Zealand women's art journal, Spiral and the women artist's collective Spiral.

Spiral provided a forum for female artists and writers to publish their work, during a time in which female artists struggled to be recognised in New Zealand. McPherson herself said, "I worked with the material we received–that it didn't reflect our own reality didn't bother me too much, it was the idea of women working together positively, that was the aim, and the amalgam of arts – photographers as well as poets, writers, painters etc." A letter published in an early issue suggested that work should be accepted on merit rather than limited to work by women only; in response, McPherson said she supported positive discrimination for women and noted the barriers faced by women to publication in most magazines.

Spiral also became an imprint used by different feminist groups to publish other books by New Zealand women, including McPherson's debut poetry collection, A Figurehead: A Face (Spiral, 1982), which was the first New Zealand poetry collection by an out lesbian. In her introduction to the collection McPherson noted that since the 1970s she had sought "to make a new start, to clear out the 'patriarchy in the head'", and on other hand to "redefine such emotionally charged concepts as 'woman' and 'lesbian' with their pejorative accretions". was painted on the 1981 Matariki Mural on the outside wall of the gallery on Harris Street. After her death, in early 2018, a collective of Spiral members Janet Charman, Lynne Ciochetto and Marian Evans published a collection of poetry by McPherson, called This Joyous, Chaotic Place: Garden Poems, as part of an exhibition called "This Joyous, Chaotic Place: He Waiata Tangi-ā-Tahu" at Mokopōpaki, an Auckland dealer gallery with Māori values at its centre. The event included the screening of an interview of McPherson in 1980, and was a project that formed part of the celebrations in New Zealand marking 125 years since women's suffrage. i do not cede, edited and with an introduction by Emer Lyons (eBook), Spiral, Wellington, 2022 This Joyous Chaotic Place: Garden Poems, Spiral, Wellington, 2018 Travel and Other Compulsions, Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop, Paekakariki, 2004 Other World Relations, Old Bags, Wellington, 1991 The Third Myth, Tauranga Moana Press, Tauranga, 1986 A Figurehead: a Face, Spiral, Wellington, 1982

Exhibition This Joyous, Chaotic Place: He Waiata Tangi-ā-Tahu Mokopōpaki, 2018 This Joyous, Chaotic Place: He Waiata Tangi-āTahu (with texts from Allie Eagle, Dr P (Cushla Parekowhai), Heather McPherson, Margery Blackman, M (Marian Evans), Tiffany Thornley), Mokopōpaki & Spiral, 2019 Manifesto Aotearoa ed. Philip Temple & Emma Neale, Otago University Press, Dunedin, 2017 Live Lines IV ed. Miriam Barr, Rachael Naomi Heimann, Penny Sommervaile, Jeremy Roberts, Poetry Live, Auckland, 2011 Remember us: women who love women, from Sappho to liberation ed. Miriam Saphira, Heather McPherson & Fran Marno, Charlotte Museum Trust, New Zealand, 2008 Big Smoke: New Zealand Poems 1960–75 ed. Michele Leggott Murray Edmond, Alan Brunton, Auckland University Press, Auckland 2000 Eat These Sweet Words, ed. Sue Fitchett, Marewa Glover, Cary McDermott & Rhona Vickoce, Giant Publishing Press, Christchurch 1999 Car Maintenance, Explosives and Love, ed. Susan Hawthorne, Cathy Dunsford & Susan Sayer, Spinifex, Nth. Melb, 1997 Spiral 7: a collection of lesbian art and writing from Aotearoa/New Zealand, ed. Heather McPherson, Julie King, Marian Evans, Pam Gerrish Nunn, Daphne Brasell Associates Press, Wellington, 1992 Lavender Annual, ed. Miriam Saphira, Papers Inc., 1989 Kiwi and Emu: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry by Australian and New Zealand Women, ed. Barbara Petrie, Butterfly, 1989 The Penguin Book of Contemporary New Zealand Poetry, ed. Miriama Evans, Harvey McQueen and Ian Wedde, 1989 A Women's Picture Book: 25 Women Artists of Aotearoa New Zealand ed. Marian Evans, Bridie Lonie, Tilly Lloyd, Government Print, Wellington, 1988 Yellow Pencils: Contemporary Poetry by New Zealand Women, chosen by Lydia Wevers, OUP, 1988 The New Poets of the ‘80s, ed. Murray Edmond & Mary Paul, Allen & Unwin, 1987 The Penguin Book of New Zealand Verse, ed. Ian Wedde and Harvey McQueen, 1985. The Turning Face, Twelve Writers from Tauranga Moana ed. Robert de Roo, Tauranga Moana Press, 1984 Spiral 4 ed. Spiral Collective: Ruth Lawley, Heather McPherson, Wendy Prestney, Tiffany Thornily, Chris Smith, Gladys Gurney, Spiral, Christchurch, 1979 Spiral 3 ed. Spiral Collective: Patsy Keene, Anna Keir, Ruth Lawley, Heather McPherson, Wendy Prestney, Tiffany Thornley, Spiral, Christchurch, 1978 Spiral 2 ed. Spiral Collective: Kath Algie, Paulette Barr, Heather McPherson, Alison Mitchell, Spiral, Christchurch, 1977 Private Gardens: An Anthology of New Zealand Women Poets, ed. Riemke Ensing, Caveman, 1977 Spiral 1 ed. Heather McPherson, Spiral, Christchurch, 1976 Arts Festival Year Book 1969, New Zealand Universities, ed. Bill Manhire & John Dickson, Dunedin Kiwi 1963, ed. Tyme Curnow & Terry Snow, Auckland University Press