ABOUT Spiral Collectives

Poet and activist Heather McPherson founded Spiral in Ōtautahi Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand in 1975. This ongoing publication includes highlights from Heather McPherson’s and Spiral’s herstory and some images and writing that we cherish, from other sources; and occasionally news about current projects.

Key Spiral information is available, alongside details of its associated organisations, Women’s Gallery and Kidsarus 2, at Anne Else’s Women Together project for Manatū Taonga, the Ministry of Culture & Heritage; and in Wikipedia, thanks to @chocmilk.

Extensive Spiral, Women’s Gallery and Kidsarus 2 archives are held at the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Wellington Te Whanganui-a-Tara.

If you consider the history of New Zealand writing, it is both frightening and inspiring how influential the Spiral collective has been. — Emma Espiner in her review of Patricia Grace’s From the Centre: A Writer’s Life (2021)