New Zealand’s top researchers were honoured at the Royal Society’s 150th gala dinner held in Auckland on the night of Tuesday 10th October, and amongst these awardees were three of NPM’s outstanding Principal Investigators.

Outgoing NPM Co-Director and senior researcher Professor Tracey McIntosh (Tūhoe), was awarded the prestigious Te Rangi Hiroa Medal for significantly advancing our understanding of enduring social injustices to ensure greater Māori wellbeing, social cohesion and meaningful cultural diversity in Aotearoa.  

Tracey’s research focuses on how to correct the intergenerational transmission of social inequalities, how they pertain to Māori, and influence new indigenous knowledge and policies that work for Māori and the nation.

In an interview with Radio New Zealand Tracey commented "Most of my work is with women in prison and our gang whānau - the people who engage in my research, I recognise them as experts of their own condition so it's drawing on their expertise to look for solutions that will work for Māori.

"There are solutions, there are policies that can be put in place, I want to be able to help, to inform policy that can really make a difference in peoples lives - there are so many people that desperately want things to be better”.

At the same event Professor Ngahuia te Awekotuku (Ngāti Whakaue, Tūhoe, Waikato-Tainui) MNZM received the Pou Aronui Award for her outstanding service to humanities-aronui over 40 years, and showing an enduring commitment to Indigenous culture and heritage. She is an acclaimed author of award-winning research and works of fiction and poetry, a recognised arts curator and critic, and a stalwart of Writer’s Festivals locally and overseas.

And to complete this outstanding evening, Dr Aroha Harris (Ngāpuhi, Te Rarawa), from the University of Auckland, was  awarded the inaugural Royal Society Te Apārangi Early Career Researcher Award in Humanities for her substantial contributions to the award winning Māori history bestseller; Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History, which spans the entirety of Māori history. She was lead author of the section on sociocultural history of twentieth-century Māori.