Jacquie Sturm

Sturm was born on 17 May 1927 in Ōpunake, Taranaki, New Zealand. Her birth name was Te Kare Papuni. Her father, John Raymond Papuni, was part of the Whakatōhea iwi from Ōpōtiki in the Bay of Plenty region, and her mother, Mary Kingsley Harrison, was the daughter of Moewaka Tautokai, an adopted daughter of Taranaki chief Wiremu Kingi Moki Te Matakatea, and Te Whare Matangi Harrison, a nephew of the English novelist Charles Kingsley. Sturm's mother died of septicaemia shortly after her birth. Her father took her older sister Evadne back to the Bay of Plenty to be raised by his family, but Sturm's maternal grandmother Tautokai insisted on raising her in Taranaki. Both were in their late 50s/early 60s at the time of the adoption and had two elder daughters. Sturm grew up with them in a predominantly Pākehā environment, and wrote in later years of her feeling of being out of place or living between worlds. Sturm began writing poetry at age 11, while recovering from what may have been rheumatic fever and living in Pukerua Bay. ==University and marriage==

In 1946, Sturm began studying at the University of Otago; she was the only Māori woman on campus. Her first impression of Baxter was that he was "a somewhat dopey-looking individual, not my idea of a poet, but he had a marvellous voice and he knew how to use it". In late 1947 Sturm moved to Canterbury University College in Christchurch to study anthropology under the well-known social psychologist Ivan Sutherland. Baxter became the literary editor of the student magazine Canta, but did not publish any poems written by Sturm, and her first poems in the magazine were published by Bill Pearson when he took over the role from Baxter in 1948. That same year she gave birth to her and Baxter's daughter, Hilary. was commended as being of exceptional merit, and she was awarded first class honours. In that same year, Sturm and Baxter had a son, John. ==1950s to 1970s==

Early in the 1950s, Sturm began to write short stories, partly to distinguish her own writing from her husband's poetry. She was the first Māori writer whose work was selected for a New Zealand anthology. She was the second woman to sit on the board and one of only two Māori appointees. In late 1954, Baxter joined Alcoholics Anonymous, successfully achieving sobriety, and in 1955, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Victoria University College. Baxter admitted in a letter to a friend that his conversion was "just one more event in a series of injuries, alcoholism, and gross mistakes". In 1969, Sturm began working at the Wellington Public Library, where she continued working for 27 years. She was the librarian in charge of the New Zealand collection from 1969 to 1982. As one of the first Māori librarians, she was an advocate for other Māori librarians and spoke out against the (then) common practice of requiring Māori staff to be unofficial cultural advisers to their employers. After Baxter died in 1972, Sturm acted as his literary executor: collecting and cataloguing his prolific writing, arranging new and revised publications of his work, and negotiating the use and adaptation of his works. She set up the James K. Baxter Charitable Trust, which supported causes he had supported, for example prison reform and drug addiction rehabilitation programmes, and ensured that all proceeds of his work went to the trust. ==Return to the literary world==

In 1982, well-known New Zealand author Witi Ihimaera selected two of Sturm's stories for inclusion in his anthology of Māori writing, Into the World of Light (1982). The publication followed a suggestion by fellow writer Patricia Grace that the Women's Gallery invite Sturm to participate in a 1980 public reading; at that event, Auckland Women's Community Video recorded Sturm reading her short story "A Thousand and One Nights" and Marian Evans interviewing her. The House of the Talking Cat was shortlisted in the New Zealand Book Awards and the stories were translated into German and Japanese. New Zealand author Janet Frame described the publication as "an event too long awaited and it's marvellous that it's happening at last". Witi Ihimaera, in a review for the New Zealand Listener, called her "a pivotal presence in the Māori literary tradition", and speculated on the course Māori literature might have taken had Sturm and the book "achieved success and publication in their time, rather than twenty years later". A review in The Press noted that although written and set in the 1960s, "the stories retain an appeal partly because of the author's descriptive talent [and] because of her insight into people". The book was re-printed in 1986 and again in 2003. A review of the 1986 edition observed that the stories "are tautly crafted, detailed, and perceptive", and that New Zealand literature was poorer for Sturm's absence in the intervening years. It was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, The same year, twelve of Sturm's poems were included in the collection How Things Are. She published a further collection Postscripts in 2000, and the same year received the Kāpiti Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1998, Sturm married university lecturer, critic and poet Peter Alcock, Baxter's friend John Weir said Sturm and Alcock "were good companions and had a mutually enriching relationship". "The Glass House" was a short story Sturm had written in the early 1960s, but had not included in The House of the Talking Cat because it did not fit. Her poems in her later years were dedicated to family and friends, including Janet Frame, Jean Watson, and both her husbands. Rose's family had lived next door to the Baxter family in Wellington and he described the documentary as "an intimate story of a long, well-lived life". ==Death and legacy==

Sturm died in Paekākāriki in December 2009, two months after the death of her beloved granddaughter Stephanie. A tangi was held at Orimupiko marae and she is buried at Ōpunake alongside her mother and great-grandmother. Sturm was a pioneer of New Zealand literature, and paved the way for later female Māori writers like Patricia Grace and Keri Hulme. Her entry in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography notes that, despite being overshadowed for much of her life by her first husband, she "emerged in later life as a unique and important voice in New Zealand literature in her own right". A 2022 survey of librarians in Wellington identified this poem as their second favourite New Zealand poem. In February 2021, the website Poetry Shelf published an audio recording of New Zealand poet Karlo Mila reading her poem "Letter to J.C. Sturm" from her collection Goddess Muscle (2020). In May 2021, Paul Millar, together with Sturm's son John Baxter and publisher Roger Steele, found some of Sturm's early work from the 1940s, including unpublished poems. The poem "Brown Optimism", which may have been published in a student newspaper, was subsequently published on the website The Spinoff. Millar noted that the poem "rejects the status quo and demands equality for Māori". In 2025, the poem was selected by Rangi Kipa to be installed on the outside wall of the redesigned Wellington Central Library. ==Selected works==

Short stories • "The Old Coat" (1954) • "For All the Saints" (1955) • The House of the Talking Cat (1983) (collection) Poetry • Dedications (1996) • How Things Are (1996, with Adrienne Jansen, Harry Ricketts and Meg Campbell) • Postscripts (2000) • The Glass House (2006) == References ==