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Two leading Maori academics have become full professors in the latest round of promotions at Otago University.
Poia Rewi teaches at Te Tumu: School of Maori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies specialising in language revitalisation, Maori culture, and Maori performing arts.
He has developed research programmes that provide ample opportunities for students to do summer scholarships and postgraduate scholarships at master’s and doctoral level, as well as benefiting local communities keen on retaining the language.
Jacinta Ruru at the law faculty has more than 90 publications on indigenous peoples’ legal rights to own, manage and govern land, water, national parks and coastlines.
She is also about to become co-director of Nga Pae o te Maramatanga, New Zealand’s Maori Centre of Research Excellence.
Another of the 17 new professors is biochemist Tony Merriman, whose studies of the genetics of gout and other related conditions including diabetes, kidney disease and obesity is particularly relevant to Maori and Pacific Island populations.
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