Draft:Hilary Stace

Hilary Janet Serena Stace (19 February 1954 – 3 July 2025) was a disability and autism advocate and eugenics researcher.

• Neurodiverse and disability community advocate.^[1]
• Hilary was committed to social justice from a very young age and brought her lived experience as a strong and committed feminist to an understanding of disability. ^[2]

Professional life

Her 2011 Ph.D thesis, at Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand, "Loving Beyond Love and Luck: Building Right Relationships and Respecting Lived Experience in New Zealand Autism Policy”, examined autism policy in New Zealand using a transformative framing which sought to use policy and scholarship as a vehicle to practically improve the lives of people being researched.^[3]

One of many who advocated for the current Royal Commission on Abuse in Care, she lobbied for a disability archive to gather stories of abuse, disability activism and rights victories. In 2023 Hilary was awarded the Friends of the Turnbull Library research grant for her project 'Janet Fraser: Political Partnerships' giving her the opportunity to return to a subject she first researched 30 years ago. In 2023, she was awarded a Friends of the Turnbull Library grant for research on Janet Fraser.

Research approach: prefer participatory approaches underpinned by social justice (ensuring that the voices of participants were central to research and gains from it).

Research interests: disability, particularly autism and intellectual impairment, ethics (history, policy etc), New Zealand history, particularly disability, education, women, activism, politics etc.

STATEMENT OF HILARY STACE TO THE ROYAL COMMISSION OF INQUIRY INTO HISTORICAL ABUSE IN STATE CARE AND IN THE CARE OF FAITH-BASED INSTITUTIONS

Author of many articles and reviews, Hilary’s biography JB Munro: community citizen was published in 2019. In 2023 Hilary was awarded the Friends of the Turnbull Library research grant for her project 'Janet Fraser: Political Partnerships'

Hil is writing about her mother and haiku. A copy of Jeanette Stace?s book *Green tea : haiku & other poetry* (2007) is in the Turnbull collections.

My mother and her 100 year old tree . ^[4]

• Its just a bout of borrowed sorrow

Stace had been awarded a Friends of the Turnbull Library research grant in 2023 for this project, and she gave a public presentation at the National Library on Janet Fraser that year.

Stace wrote and delivered many papers on disability issues (with a particular focus on autism, ethics and eugenics), contributed articles, chapters and book reviews to many publications online and in print.

1 November 2019, Stace testified before the Royal Commission investigating abuse in care. As an historian, disability rights activist and mother of an adult disabled son, Stace told the Commission that nothing about disability support now or in the past, shocked her. Stace said an official apology to survivors was needed.^[5]

In 2011 she completed her PhD,^[6] on Autism and Public Policy, at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington.  She wrote and delivered many papers on disability issues (with a particular focus on autism, ethics, and eugenics), contributed articles, chapters, and book reviews to many publications online and in print. Stace was also a supervisor for Masters and PhD candidates who were studying in the area of disability

In collaboration with former Labour party MP for Invercargill and disability advocate for the IHC, JB Munro, Stace wrote and published a biography titled JB Munro : Community Citizen (2019). At the time of her death, Stace was working on a biography of Janet Fraser (1883–1945) the wife and the strength behind the second Labour Prime Minister Peter Fraser (New Zealand Prime Minister 1940 -1949).

In collaboration with the Donald Beasley Institute, Stace also conducted research in the area of disability and abuse in state care as part of the Inquiry.

Stace acted as an advocate in many other forums. She regularly wrote letters to the editor about the many issues she believed needed to be raised. Her last letter to The Post was published on 27 June 2025, the week before she died, and is typical, terse and to the point,

• delivered many papers on disability issues (with a particular focus on autism),
• contributed articles, chapters and book reviews to many publications online and in print,
• regularly wrote letters to the editor

“Why is the Government making historians redundant and closing the library at Manatū Taonga Ministry of Culture and Heritage? In The Post (June 19) the Minister Paul Goldsmith, said the cuts had to happen, but gave no reason why. Is it because the Government does not want students and the public learning our Aotearoa NZ history? Is it to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy or the tobacco lobby? These valuable public servants have an influence far beyond the ministry providing resources and vibrant databases about our often unknown and neglected history, and such work has been funded by governments for decades. These job losses are very distressing on top of the recent redundancies and funding cuts at Archives NZ and the Turnbull Library. As a trained historian the minister should champion the profession, not decimate it. H STACE, Wadestown”.

Ironically, Stace gave her last lecture posthumously, in a pre-recorded video on the topic of ‘Eugenics and History’ to the International Congress of History of Science and Technology (ICHST) at Otago University, Dunedin on 4 July 2025, the day after she died.^[3]

Publications

Education

• Diploma New Zealand Library School (1975)
• BA (History and Asian Studies)
• BA Hons (Women’s Studies)
• PhD public policy, Victoria University of Wellington (2011)^[2]

Positions

• Stace worked at the Alexander Turnbull Library in 1970s
• Reference librarian at Turnbull
• worked at Assembly Library (as it was then known, now the Parliamentary Library).
• Former board member of Autism NZ
• tutor at Victoria University,

Honorary Research Associate, Victoria University of Wellington^[7]

• a researcher for the Dictionary of NZ Biography
• Former board member of Autism NZ

• presented to the Royal Commission on Abuse in Care (and acted as an advocate in many other forums),
• published a biography *JB Munro :community citizen* in 2019,
• TGNZ??
• Stace was also a supervisor for Masters and PhD candidates who were studying in the area of disability^[3]
• Hilary was awarded a Friends of the Turnbull Library research grant in 2023 for her project ?Janet Fraser:

Advocacy and Awards

Legacy

obituary ^[2]

Many in the disability community experienced a sense of loss of unexpected death from a fall. Her lived experience, respect, advocacy, and knowledge was a loss to the neurodiverse community and the disability community. Hearing of her death the words “family, champion, community, mentor, knowledge, commitment, social justice, academic, researcher, disability rights, human rights, loss” frequented the conversations about Stace. One of those conversations included the following…“We considered her one of the “Godmothers of the Ministry”. She advocated for its formation using both her experience as a whānau member and a respected scholar in public policy.”

She made disability related links to wider social policy – such as the recent Royal Commission on Abuse in Care. She was strongly committed to the growth and development of disabled people as leaders.

Dr Hilary Janet Stace

Personal life (DONE)

Stace was born in 1954, to Nigel (Francis Nigel) Stace and Jeanette (Margaret Jean) Stace. She had early memories of a happy childhood, despite having a difficult time at night with eczema and asthma.

A change in communication with her mother occured during secondary school years when the Secondary School Students Association was starting up and politics were really important. She took part in the Vietnam War student protests and anti-tour marches. She owned a Honda 90 scooter for travelling to school aged 16 and recalled major battle with her parents.

Stace was committed to social justice from a very young age and brought her lived experience as a strong and committed feminist to an understanding of disability.

Stace used her mother as a role model and Stace was included and supported publication the 1993 out of print book "Mothers and Daughters" by Alison Gray."^[8]

Stace lived in Wadestown almost all her life and is was well known in that community. ^[3]

Stace with partner Martin Sullivan together had 2 children, Serena and Oscar^[2].

Stace's parents provided continued support through the years of her partner's and daughter's illnesses. She used her own mother as a role model

In 1980 she donated a 1953 painting of Edmund Hillary by John C Hill to the Turnbull Library collections. She loved that she shared his name (albeit differently spelt)^[9]

NEEDS transcript of https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/summer-days/audio/2018678687/families-on-the-spectrum-hilary-stace

NEEDS material from the Mothers and Daughters books but I have been unable to access it.

Links

https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/news/victorious/2012/autumn/victorious-autumn-2012.pdf

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7542998/

Selected Publications, Published Letters, Talks and Interviews

1. A brief history of disability in Aotearoa New Zealand^[10]
2. ^[11]. ^[6]
3. “Contracting between government and the voluntary sector: where to from here?” by Hilary Stace & Jacqueline Cumming. Published in Policy Quarterly, Vol. 2 No. 4 (2006).^[12]
4. “The long unfinished journey towards human rights for disabled persons in New Zealand” by Hilary Stace. Published in Human Rights Research (Online), Vol. 5 No. 1 (2007). National Library of New Zealand^[13]
5. Autism spectrum disorder/Takiwātanga: An Integrated Data Infrastructure-based approach to autism spectrum disorder research in New Zealand^[14]
6. JB Munro :Community Citizen 2019^[15]
7. 2019 interview on RNZ
8. Her 2011 Ph.D thesis “Moving Beyond Love and Luck: Building Right Relationships and Respecting Lived Experience in New Zealand Autism Policy”,
9. 'Janet Fraser: Political Partnerships'
10. STATEMENT OF HILARY STACE TO THE ROYAL COMMISSION OF INQUIRY INTO HISTORICAL ABUSE IN STATE CARE AND IN THE CARE OF FAITH-BASED INSTITUTIONS

References

External links

• Published works at the Turnbull Library