That same year, Marjorie accompanied Ron to Canberra where he had been offered a PhD scholarship in Pacific History at the Australian National University (ANU).
This work, (co-edited with Ron) “combined the two strands of ethnohistory and an Islands-focused historiography” to become one of the foundational texts of Pacific History (Lal and Munro 2006).
Many of the early writers published in Mana, including Albert Wendt, Konai Thaman, the late Alistair Te Ariki Campbell and the late Grace Molisa, were or became internationally famous writers and scholars, leading the Cook Islands academic Emma Powell to wonder, would there have been a Pacific Literature at all if Marjorie and her colleagues had not established SPACS and sustained Mana with their own tireless work?
“Writers and publishers from the wider region,” writes Dr Linda Crowl “owe a deep debt to Marjorie’s foresight and generosity.” In 1974 Marjorie completed her Master of Arts degree at University of Papua New Guinea with a dissertation entitled - Maretu’s Narrative of Cook Islands History - later published as Cannibals and Converts Radical Change in the Cook Islands (USP Press, 1983).
In the 2009 New Year Honours List, Marjorie was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to the Cook Islands, the Pacific, education, literature and the community In 2011, her alma mater [University of the South Pacific] honoured her with the award of a Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) in recognition of “her exceptional academic, literary and community achievements”.
In the same year, Marjorie fulfilled another goal by successfully lobbying the university to develop a full degree programme in the Cook Islands Māori language.
[10] In the 2009 New Year Honours, Crocombe was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to the Cook Islands, the Pacific, education, literature and the community.
[11] In 2011, the University of the South Pacific honoured her with the award of a Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) in recognition of “her exceptional academic, literary and community achievements”.