Nikki Denholm

Nicola Jane Denholm is a New Zealand photographer and sexual safety advocate. She has worked internationally to highlight social issues such as child imprisonment, sexual slavery, maternal health, and the global refugee crisis. She successfully lobbied for legislative change on female genital mutilation in New Zealand. In 2021 Denholm was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to humanitarian advocacy and photography.

Career Denholm originally worked as a sexual health nurse. As a photographer and charity ambassador, she has worked internationally to highlight social issues such as child imprisonment, sexual slavery, maternal health, and the global refugee crisis.

A symposium in India in 2015 alerted Denholm to the issue of sexual slavery, and she subsequently founded the National New Zealand FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) Education programme. The bill was historic as it was the first to pass with multiple sponsors from multiple parties, being supported by Jenny Marcroft (New Zealand First), Priyanca Radhakrishnan (Labour), Golriz Ghahraman (Greens) and Jo Hayes (National). She is an ambassador for the charity TearFund, and has worked with Petra Bagust to highlight trafficking and slavery across Asia. Denholm has worked internationally in prisons, producing a photographic book of inmates in seventeen countries, and raised money for Somali hospitals during the 2010 famine.

Honours and awards In 2005 Denholm was awarded the Zonta Woman of the Biennium Award by Zonta New Zealand. In the 2021 Queen's Birthday Honours Denholm was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to humanitarian advocacy and photography.

Selected publications