Margaret Orbell (1934–2006)

Margaret Orbell was the author of several books on Maori literature, tradition and belief, an editor of collections of songs, poetry and stories, and a leading interpreter of Maori texts. She was editor of Te Ao Hou, the Maori Affairs Department magazine, and studied Maori in Wellington with Wiremu Parker before taking her PhD at Auckland with a thesis on waiata aroha (love songs). She became a distinguished companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2002.