“I am named after my maternal grandmother Crissie Louise Beattie from Ireland. My ancestry is mostly Scots (Highland) with Irish (nothern) and Māori (East Coast). I came out as a lesbian when I was 16 (in 1981). Writing for me is a very rare event, I wrote this piece early 1991. I’m presently in my first year studying for a diploma in computer graphic design at Whanganui Polytechnic.”
Biographical sources
- Spiral 7: A Collection of Lesbian Art and Writing from Aotearoa/New Zealand. Ed. Heather McPherson, Julie King, Marian Evans, Pamela Gerrish Nunn. Wellington, N.Z.: Spiral and Daphne Brasell, 1992. 54.
Poetry
- "Gertrude Believes That A Dyke Must Have Strong Political / Principles..." Spiral 7: A Collection of Lesbian Art and Writing from Aotearoa/New Zealand. Ed. Heather McPherson, Julie King, Marian Evans, and Pamela Gerrish Nunn. Wellington, N.Z.: Spiral; Daphne Brasell, 1992. 54-55.
- A punchy poem highlighting the chasm between the outward political correctness of Gertrude who espouses ‘strong political principles...women loving women/Māori Sovereignty bi-culturalism and the working class’ in her public life but in her private life is racist, capitalistic and totally unaware of the inner wounds she inflicts on her lover.