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Broken Journey - The Life and Art of JC Sturm

2007 Television
  • Documentary
  • Arts/Culture

JC Sturm (also known as Jacquie Baxter) was an author and poet whose career was overshadowed by her famous spouse, and societal forces that sidelined women writers — especially Māori writers. Mixing English and te reo, this documentary follows Sturm from her 1927 birth in Ōpunake to her renaissance as a writer, which marked the 'missing link' between an old New Zealand literary tradition and a new Māori voice. Sturm talks about struggling to break through as a Māori woman fostered by Pākehā and living in that system. Witi Ihimaera calls her late acclaim an "accident of timing", as she was an early pioneer.