Judith Binney

Dame Judith Mary Caroline Binney DNZM FRSNZ (née Musgrove; 1 July 1940 – 15 February 2011) was a New Zealand historian, writer and emerita professor of history at the University of Auckland. Her work focused on religion in New Zealand, especially the Māori Ringatū religion founded by Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki and continued by Rua Kenana. She also wrote extensively on the history of Ngāi Tūhoe. Quotes Storytelling is an art deep within human nature. Good narratives not only tell us about ourselves; they tell us about the beliefs of others. Stories are the essential way by which we expand our empathy and our imaginations; stories are the means by which we communicate across time and across cultures. The historians’ craft is to tease out the larger narratives from … competing versions, missing parts, and conflicting ‘truths’. Biographies are essentially personal histories… [yet] they may tell us more than the story of one life: they may reveal the struggle for the survival of an entire community. Oral history is transmitted by narrative, by song, by proverb and by genealogy. We who write down our histories in books transmit our chosen perceptions to readers rather than to listeners, but both forms are structured,interpretative and combative. Judith Binney Trust External links Category:Women authors from New Zealand Category:Historians from New Zealand Category:Non-fiction authors from New Zealand Category:Women academics from New Zealand Category:1940 births Category:2011 deaths Category:Women born in the 1940s