Zealand, said her work "played a key role in the emergence of Maori fiction in English". Grace was appointed a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (DCNZM), for services to literature, in the 2007 Queen's Birthday Honours. In 2009, she declined redesignation as a Dame Companion following the restoration of titular honours by the New Zealand government. At the time, she expressed the opinion that the restoration of titles was a retrograde step and that she "thought that we were getting away from the colonial past". In 2008, Grace was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature. Joy Harjo, who nominated Grace for the Neustadt Prize, has said of her writing: Grace received an honorary Doctorate of Letters (DLit) from the World Indigenous Nations University in 2016, conferred at Te Wānanga o Raukawa, Ōtaki, for her literary accomplishments and her writing around Māori themes. In the same year, she was awarded the Te Tohu Aroha mō Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu (Exemplary/Supreme Award) at the Te Waka Toi Awards, which she described as a "great honour". Personal life Grace was married to children's author Kerehi Waiariki Grace, having met him at teachers' college. They had seven children together, and he died in 2013. Grace has described their marriage as one of shared contributions: "My husband and I worked together on everything that needed to be done. It wasn't as though I had to do the housework and look after the children, because we shared all this." Her novel Chappy (2015) was dedicated to him. Their daughter Kohai is an acclaimed weaver, and their sons Wiremu and Himonia are filmmakers. Grace does voluntary work, such as managing iwi work schemes for unemployed people. In 2014, she won a legal battle against the New Zealand government, which had tried to compulsorily acquire land at Hongoeka Bay under the Public Works Act in order to build an expressway. The court decided that the land, which was the last remaining part of Wi Parata's landholdings held by his descendants, should be protected as a Māori reservation. Grace still lives in Hongoeka on her ancestral land and close to her home marae (meeting place). Selected works Novels and non-fiction Mutuwhenua: The Moon Sleeps (Longman Paul, 1978) Potiki (1986) Cousins (Penguin Books NZ, 1992) Baby No-eyes (Penguin Books NZ, 1998) Dogside Story (Penguin Books NZ, 2001) Tu (Penguin Books NZ, 2004) Ned and