Rebecca Lee Ammunson

Rebecca is a student at the University of Waikato. She has completed a BA in History and English and the intensive te reo Māori course, Te Tohu Paetahi, with plans to start Honours in History next year and continue learning te reo rangatira ake ake ake. Rebecca is invested in doing her part in re-indigenizing Aotearoa, improving the whakawhanaungatanga between ngā iwi Māori and ngā iwi Pākehā, and most importantly, reconnecting to whānau and whenua.

Her summer project focuses on young people growing up in the shadow of war. She will centre the experiences of two families in Aotearoa from the 1930s, through the Second World War, to the 1950s, and into the present. Using oral histories Rebecca will explore how the war shaped childhood and post-war work experiences in Te Whāiti, Kuhawaea (now Galatea) and Rotorua. These accounts will provide insights into the lives of people of Māori and Pākeha whakapapa who lived in rural areas outside their iwi whenua.