Prof Linda Tuhiwai Smith
Professor Linda Tuhiwai Smith is one of the most influential and internationally recognised Māori scholars and researchers of the 21st Century. Her book “Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples” has been translated into five languages (Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, Italian, and Bhasa Indonesian). She has written numerous books, articles, lectures, and research which are cited by academics worldwide, and is one of the most renowned indigenous thinkers of our time.
In the 1970’s, Professor Smith was a founding member of Ngā Tamatoa which opposed racial discrimination and Treaty of Waitangi breaches that led to the implementation of transformational Māori educational interventions such as Te Kohanga Reo, Kura Kaupapa Māori, Whare Kura and Whare Wānanga in Aotearoa. As a Professor of Education and Māori Development, she has held notable roles that continue to advance Māori and Indigenous Development as a Waitangi Tribunal Committee member; Chair of the International Research Advisory Board (IRAB) for Ngā Pae o Te Māramatanga (NPM) and one of the founding Joint Directors of New Zealand’s first Māori Centre of Research Excellence; Chair of Te Arataki Wānanga, Ministry of Culture and Heritage; an Independent Science Panel - Deep South National Science Challenge and Sustainable Seas National Science Challenge; member of the Māori Economic Development Advisory Committee; Chair of the Norwegian Centre of Excellence Assessment Panel, Research Council of Norway; a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, the first Māori women to become a Fellow; Marsden Fund Council and Chair of the Social Sciences Panel; Pro-Vice Chancellor Māori, Dean of the School of Māori and Pacific Development and Director of Te Kotahi Research Institute at the University of Waikato. The first undergraduate and graduate courses on Māori education and Indigenous education at the University of Auckland were co-developed by Professor Smith in her jointly held role as Pro Vice-Chancellor (Māori), the first role of its kind in a mainstream University in Aotearoa.
Professor Smith was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws in 2018 from the University of Winnipeg for championing Indigenous research and scholarship. In that same year she received the inaugural Te Puāwaitanga Award, the highest award from the Royal Society Te Apārangi in recognition of her eminent and distinctive contribution to Te Ao Māori, and to Māori and Indigenous knowledge. In 2017, she received the Prime Minister's Lifetime Achievement Award for Education and the McKenzie Award for Education in 2015 from the New Zealand Association for Research. In 2013, she was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori and education.
Professor Smith was a member of Te Mana Whakahaere o Awanuiārangi from 1998 to 2007, having been the Deputy Chairperson from 2005 to 2007. On 25 June 2020 she was re-appointed to Te Mana Whakahaere o Awanuiārangi and became co-Deputy Chairperson in that same year.
