June Northcroft Grant: Champion of Māori Arts

Tūhourangi, Ngāti Wāhiao, Ngāti Tūwharetoa

June Northcroft Grant has been an artist and a champion for Māori art for several decades. She is also a businesswoman and has been involved with Māori tourism since she was a young girl.

June is of Ngāti Tūhourangi, Ngāti Wāhiao and Ngāti Tūwharetoa descent. She grew up knowing how important hospitality and manaakitanga are to her people. Although a shy fifteen-year-old girl in the 1960s, June’s face became well known in Rotorua as she was a popular model for photographers. She was also one of the famous “Māori Meter Maids” who roved the Rotorua central business district topping up visitors’ parking meters to make them feel welcome.

June gained a Diploma of Craft Design from the Waiariki Polytechnic in 1989. She has been producing fine artwork ever since. Her work has been exhibited in Australia, Canada and New Zealand. In 1991, June opened ‘Pohutu Prints Originals’, specialising in Māori design-based screen prints. She also opened a store called ‘Best of Māori Tourism Limited’, which sold Māori-made and designed products. ‘Te Raukura – The Red Feather Gallery’ was also part of her legacy.

June is related to some fascinating local figures. Her father was Major Henry William Northcroft of the 28th Māori Battalion. She is also related to Mākereti Papakura, the famous Whakarewarewa guide. June’s connection to these, and other ancestors, has inspired much of her art. She has produced many paintings featuring interwoven tribal histories and powerful ancestral figures.

In 1996, June wrote a biographical entry about Mākereti Papakura for the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. In February 2018, she gave a fascinating lecture about Mākereti and her sister Bella, who was the first guide to be licensed, at the Waitangi Rua Rautau Lecture Series.

June has been a strong advocate for the work of Māori artists and a passionate supporter of the development of Māori art in schools. To this end, she has been a member of many committees and advocacy groups, one being the Kauwae Māori Artists Collective, which supports emerging Māori women artists.

June Grant has received many accolades in her career, including the MWDI Small Business Award and the Black Pearl Award for Māori women’s leadership. She has been a member of Aroha Mai Cancer Support Network and a trustee of the Rotorua Breast Cancer Trust. In 2010, she received the Insignia of an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori.

This story comes from the original Great Te Arawa Stories website created by Ngā Pūmanawa e Waru (NPeW) Education Trust in 2018. To ensure consistency, minimal updates were made to the text before it was transferred to this new site.