November 22, 2012
Royal Society honours Māori academics
Two prominent Māori academics have been honoured in the Royal Society of New Zealand’s annual awards.
Waikato University Professor Linda Tuhiwai Smith of the Dame Joan Metge Medal for Social Science Research, and Professor Jonathan Mane-Wheoki the head of Auckland University’s Elam school of fine arts, received the Pou Aronui Award.
Māori Party co-leader Pita Sharples says Professor Smith has led kaupapa Māori education research for nearly a generation, establishing a philosophical and theoretical basis for evaluating education from a Māori cultural perspective that takes into account not only a student’s personal success but the way it contributes to Māori social and cultural development.
She also helped set up the Indigenous Research Institute for Māori and Indigenous Education, Ngā Pae ō te Maramatanga Centre for Research Excellence, and most recently Waikato University’s Te Kotahi Research Institute.
Professor Mane-Wheoki’s award for outstanding contribution to the Humanities acknowledges his career promoting transmission of cultural heritage.
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