Marjorie Crocombe


Dr. Marjorie Tuainekore Tere Crocombe is an author and academic from the Cook Islands.

Background

Crocombe was born in 1930 in Rarotonga, in the Cook Islands. Her early education was at Titikaveka Primary School and Epsom Girls' Grammar School.
In 1971, she was one of the first Cook Islanders to graduate from the University of the South Pacific and then went on to study Pacific history and sociology at the University of Hawaii, University of Papua New Guinea, and University of California, Los Angeles.
In 2011, Crocombe was the first woman from the Cook Islands to receive a Doctor of Letters from the University of the South Pacific.

Career

Crocombe trained as a teacher and in the 1950s began working for the Cook Islands Education Department, developing primary school readers in the Māori language. She then translated and published writings of early Cook Islands missionaries including those of Pa Maretu Ariki and Ta'unga, as well as editing sections of the stories into simple English readers.
Crocombe often collaborated with her husband, Ron Crocombe, including co-writing and editing several books and articles. Following his death, she co-wrote a book of list life and work, Ron Crocombe: E Toa : Pacific Writings to Celebrate His Life and Work.
Crocombe has worked as a lecturer at the University of the South Pacific Cook Islands and senior lecturer at the Centre for Pacific Studies at the University of Auckland.

Works

Children's and young adult

Crocombe is also the author of numerous academic journal articles, including in The Contemporary Pacific, The Journal of Pacific History, Comparative Education, and The Journal of the Polynesian Society.

Awards

In the 2009 New Year Honours, Crocombe was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to the Cook Islands, the Pacific, education, literature and the community.
Crocombe was named Pacific Islands Woman of the Year by Island Business in 1990 and the Cook Islands Business & Professional Womens Association's woman of the year in 2000.