Jane McRae was a lecturer in Maori language and literature at the Maori Studies Department of the University of Auckland from 1993 to 2003; since then she has been a freelance translator and researcher of nineteenth-century Maori literature. Among her publications are, as author, 'Maori Literature: A Survey', in Terry Sturm (ed.), The Oxford History of New Zealand Literature (1998) and Nga Mateatea: An Introduction / He Kupu Arataki, translated by Heni Jacob (Auckland University Press, 2011), and, as editor with Jenifer Curnow and Ngapare Hopa, Rere atu, taku manu! Discovering History, Language and Politics in the Maori-language Newspapers and He Pitopito Karero na te Perehi Maori: Readings from the Maori-language Press (Auckland University Press, 2002, 2006).