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Over a century ago, a Māori woman left behind her profession as a cultural guide and performer in New Zealand and journeyed to England, where she would shortly achieve a milestone by enrolling at Oxford University.

In a tragic turn, Papakura – believed to be the first woman from an native community to pursue studies at the university – passed away just a few weeks before finishing her dissertation, and in the years since, her relatives has advocated to have her academic qualification recognised.

Last week, that acknowledgment was granted. In front of over 100 family and iwi members who journeyed to Oxford to observe the honour, Papakura was after her death granted an MPhil in anthropology for her work recording the life, language and traditions of her Te Arawa people.

Papakura’s relative, Grant, was teary as she received the certificate from the institution's vice-chancellor.

“It was very surreal. I had to collect myself because I became tearful and wished to avoid ugly crying on TV,” she said.

Viewing a livestream from the nearby Natural History Museum, many of her extended family launched into a powerful traditional dance as a mark of honour.

Brought into the world in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty in 1873, Papakura grew up during a time of significant transformation for the Māori people, including the rapid loss of territory, language and traditional wisdom as the grip of colonisation tightened.

She was brought up by her elders from Tūhourangi and Ngāti Wahiao, around the hot springs village of Whakarewarewa. The village is near the town of Rotorua, known for its hot mud pools, warm waterways, and water spouts that gush from the Earth’s crust.

It was while working as a tour leader near Rotorua that she attracted attention during a visit by royalty in 1901, and later became a model, appearing on a range of souvenir cards and in photo sessions.

Ten years after, Papakura ventured to the UK with a cultural performance tour group that went bankrupt, with several of the participants staying to work or marry locals.

She went back to her hometown only briefly before marrying a wealthy British man, Richard Staples-Browne. She relocated to Oxfordshire where she enrolled at the college and befriended the researcher TK Penniman.

In elegant handwriting, she devoted time writing her comprehensive understanding of genealogy, past events, language and practices on thousands of sheets of paper, recalling the ancient customs of the Arawa tribe.

Notably for the time, it was a thorough study about Indigenous people, by an Indigenous woman.

But Papakura passed away in 1930, aged 56, just a few weeks before her thesis was scheduled.

The anthropologist would later release the work as a book, The Old Time Māori, which her descendants say is as relevant today as always. June Grant said it has been used by the Māori attempting to reclaim their tongue and ancestral knowledge, even proving useful in legal land claims.

“We discovered a great deal of information about our lands in the village. All the caverns and the hot springs,” she said. For almost a hundred years, the fact she didn’t have her degree proved rather a sore point.

“Ninety-five years, why did it take so long?” she asked. “We’ve been quietly and steadily telling her narrative.”

At a gathering with the family among the displays at the university's Pitt Rivers museum on the weekend, the vice-chancellor, Prof Irene Tracey, said it was an honour to at last acknowledge Papakura’s influence as a academic.

“I cannot imagine a individual – worldwide, historically – more worthy of that recognition,” she said. “At a time when so few women attended Oxford, very few ladies did degrees.”

The group of Te Arawa devoted nearly a week in the United Kingdom, attending a series of events, performances and other events.

Anthony Wihapi, who was part of the delegation, described a sense of “amazement”. “It’s existed for 900 years and it is said this is one of the first times they’ve granted a degree after death. It’s an incredible thing for our [family] to be proud of.”

Part of the delegation’s visit included presenting a two-metre sculpture, or post, intricately carved into a piece of tōtara wood.

Papakura and her performance group carried the pou to Britain in 1911, during their first visit.

“They employed the carving as a facade behind and they would act in front of it,” noted Rob Schuster Rika, a sculptor who is additionally a relation of Papakura.

It stayed in the UK, changing various owners and purposes – such as as a craft table – before falling into a state of deterioration, he explained. Last week, after meticulous repair by the carver, Te Arawa gave the pou again to the people of Britain at the Stratford office of the British Council, where it will be exhibited.

“This was the reuniting of the pou, or a people, and renewing Papakura's legacy to showcase our culture to the globe,” he said.