# Miriam Saphira

Miriam Edna Saphira née Gibson CNZM is a New Zealand lesbian activist, poet, artist and psychologist. Saphira founded New Zealand's only museum of lesbian culture, the Charlotte Museum. Saphira was awarded a New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal, a New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal, and in 2022 was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the LGBTQIA+ community.

## Career

Saphira trained as a psychologist and researched and wrote about topics including incest, the sexual abuse of children, prostitution, rape, lesbian and gay rights, and violence against women. She worked with sex offenders, and supported incarcerated women. In the 1970s Saphira became a member of the Broadsheet feminist magazine. Her 1981 book The Sexual abuse of children became an important work for people working with either children and offenders. Saphira completed a PhD titled Children's understanding of sexual orientation at the University of Auckland in 1990.
Saphira founded the Charlotte Museum in 2007, New Zealand's only museum on lesbian culture. The need for the museum became apparent to Saphira when she tried to donate objects to the Lesbian and Gay Archives of New Zealand which they could not accept. The museum is named for two members of the KG Club Committee who died around the time of the museum's founding, Charlotte Prime and Charlotte Smith. The museum held a pop-up exhibition dedicated to Saphira in April 2024 when she retired for health reasons from her positions as Secretary of the Board and Trustee. Saphira was a founding trustee of the New Zealand Aids Foundation (now the Burnett Foundation Aotearoa) and Joint Secretary General of the International Lesbian and Gay Association.

## Honours and awards

Saphira was awarded a New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal in 1990 and a New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal in 1993.
In the 2022 Queen's Birthday and Platinum Jubilee Honours, Saphira was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the LGBTQIA+ community.

## Selected works

* Saphira, Miriam (1978). I ask of you. M. Jackson. OCLC 153846438.
* Saphira, Miriam (1992). Stopping child abuse: how do we bring up New Zealand children to be non-offenders?. Auckland N. Z.: Penguin. ISBN 0140166971.
* Marno, Fran; Saphira, Miriam (1996). Beyond the straight and narrow: prints and paintings by Miriam Saphira. Auckland, N.Z.: Papers Inc.
* Saphira, Miriam (1997). A man's man: a daughter's story (1st ed.). Auckland, N.Z.: Papers Inc.
* Saphira, Miriam (1981). The sexual abuse of children. Auckland, N.Z.: Mental Health Foundation.
* Miriam Saphira; Marewa Glover (2000). "New Zealand National Lesbian Health Survey". Journal of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association. 4 (2): 49–56. doi:10.1023/A:1009565607435. ISSN 1090-7173. Wikidata Q57830805.
* Miriam Saphira; Marewa Glover (January 2001). "The Effects of Coming Out on Relationships and Health". Journal of Lesbian Studies. 5 (1–2): 183–194. doi:10.1300/J155V05N01_12. ISSN 1089-4160. PMID 24807574. Wikidata Q57830801.
* Miriam Saphira (August 2001). "No Funds for Dirty Washing". Feminism & Psychology. 11 (3): 429–432. doi:10.1177/0959353501011003015. ISSN 0959-3535. Wikidata Q130370351.