New Dean for School of Māori and Pacific Development

28 October 2015

UoW announces new Dean for School of Māori and Pacific Development

A leading Māori academic who has spent the past three and a half years in Canada has been appointed Dean of the University of Waikato’s School of Māori and Pacific Development (SMPD).

Professor Brendan Hokowhitu will start his new role at Te Pua Wānanga ki te Ao in early January.

He is currently Dean of the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta, Canada and says he has received a broad education on indigenous issues while there.

“I found the ideas and work coming out of the US and Canada from indigenous scholars as breaking boundaries,” he says.

“Intellectually I wanted to test those new waters, having spent all my time as an academic in Māori Studies prior to Alberta. I learnt that Māori are very well positioned within academia at least to continue to be leaders in Indigenous Studies across the world, but also to realise that we have things we can learn from other indigenous cultures.”

Professor Hokowhitu grew up in Ōpōtiki and spent a year at the University of Waikato before completing a Physical Education degree at Otago. He did a Masters at the University of Victoria (Canada) and then a PhD at Otago, before becoming a Lecturer in Te Tumu, Otago’s School of Māori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies, where he spent 10 years.

He will take over from Professor Linda Tuhiwai Smith as Dean of the School of Māori and Pacific Development at the University of Waikato, allowing Professor Smith to focus on her university-wide role as Pro Vice-Chancellor Māori. Professor Hokowhitu feels “privileged and honoured to become Dean of such a great School, and I want to do it justice through healthy and visionary leadership”.

Professor Hokowhitu plans to strengthen his te reo when he returns to the University of Waikato. “To be a Dean of SMPD with such a proud history of language teaching and revitalisation means I will have to be better. I plan to go into immersion classes as soon as I can. Also, connecting with communities and being present with my own iwi - Ngāti Pukenga - is an exciting opportunity I look forward to.”

He says the exposure he's had to other cultures is part of the reason behind his return to New Zealand. “Being foreign to First Nation, Métis and Inuit cultures has made me very aware that my two youngest, Kaliko (6) and Tai (4), deserve the opportunity to be amidst one of their indigenous cultures. My wife, Nālani, is Hawaiian and we are both wanting our young ones to at least have access to their indigenous cultures, including their Hawaiian culture,” he says.

University of Waikato Vice-Chancellor Professor Neil Quigley says the organisation is looking forward to Professor Hokowhitu’s arrival early next year. “I am keen to work with him to continue the progress that Professor Smith has made the School. Professor Hokowhitu can be sure he is coming into an environment where his leadership and expertise is valued and welcomed and where he can continue to make a difference to the lives of Māori students, their whanau and iwi.”

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