Rate My Professor Helen Leach

Emeritus Professor Helen Leach was a pioneering anthropologist and archaeologist at the University of Otago, commencing her studies there as an undergraduate in Anthropology in 1963. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1966 and completed the department's inaugural Master of Arts with First Class Honours in 1969. In 1976, she became the first woman in New Zealand to receive a PhD in archaeology, with her thesis titled 'Horticulture in Prehistoric New Zealand: An Investigation of the Function of the Stone Walls of Palliser Bay,' supervised by Charles Higham. Appointed as the first woman to a lecturing position in archaeology in New Zealand in the early 1970s, she lectured in the Department of Anthropology from 1969. She served as Head of Department from 1983 to 1987 and acting Head in 2003, was elevated to Professor and Chair of Anthropology in 2002, and retired in 2008, thereafter holding the title of Emeritus Professor in the Archaeology programme.

Leach's research interests encompassed Polynesian prehistory, stone technology, the evolution of the human diet, prehistoric horticulture, garden history, domestication processes, and the material culture and history of recipes and cooking. Renowned for her work in culinary anthropology, she authored 22 books and contributed over 40 chapters to other publications. Key works include 'Subsistence Patterns in Prehistoric New Zealand' (1969), 'Prehistoric Men in Palliser Bay' (1979), 'The Cook's Garden – for Cooks Who Garden and Gardeners Who Cook' (1980), '1000 Years of Gardening in New Zealand' (1984), 'Cultivating Myths' (2000), 'The Pavlova Story: A Slice of New Zealand's Culinary History' (2008), 'From Kai to Kiwi Kitchen' (2011), and 'Kitchens: The New Zealand Kitchen in the 20th Century' (2014). She amassed a collection of over 2,000 New Zealand cookbooks, which formed the basis of a three-year Marsden grant-funded project in 2005. Her influence extended through public engagement on food history and archaeology. Leach received the Rhodes Visiting Fellowship at St Hilda's College in 1980–1981, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2004, awarded the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture Medal for contributions to garden history, and appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) in the 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours for services to culinary anthropology. She passed away on 23 January 2026.