Linda Tuhiwai-Smith

Linda is currently professor of Māori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Waikato. She has held a number of senior positions at both the University of Waikato and the University of Auckland. She is also a member of the Waitangi Tribunal. Linda has been recognised for her work as a leading Māori scholar and educationalist. Linda is a fellow of the American Educational Research Association, a fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and has received the Prime Minister’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Education. She is also a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

Linda is known for her groundbreaking book, Decolonising Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. Linda is the daughter of Tā Hirini Moko and June Mead and is married to Ahorangi Graham Hingangaroa Smith. She has two daughters: Ramari Jackson and Kaapua Smith.

If someone can’t lead their own little whānau, you gotta wonder whether they can lead other people’s whānau. If they can’t organise the basics of their own little apartment or flat, you gotta wonder what right they have to be telling other people how to do economic development. These are credibility things.