[ad_1]
How is a distinguished career summed up by receiving New Zealand’s highest royal honor?
“It’s always been a great adventure,” says Dame Anne Salmond of her career as an anthropologist, environmentalist and multi-award-winning author, unable to settle on a particular highlight.
Salmond’s work has been recognized with a multitude of awards and distinctions. In 1988, she was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her services to literature and the Maori, and in 1995 she was promoted to a lady for her services to historical research.
Lawrence Smith / Stuff
Dame Anne Salmond has been named a member of the Order of New Zealand for her services to the country on the New Years Honor Roll.
Despite this, Salmond, a resident of Stanley Point on Auckland’s North Shore, said she was stunned and overwhelmed to receive a letter telling her that she had been named a Member of the Order of New Zealand for services to New Zealand in honors. New Year’s Eve 2021.
READ MORE:
* National portrait: Dame Anne Salmond – walking between two worlds
* Dame Anne Salmond heads Artefact, a historical series on Maori television.
* The author of ‘time travel’ and the geopolitics of 1770 Aotearoa
It is the highest honor that can be received in the New Zealand Royal Honors system and is limited to 20 living people.
David James / Stuff
Salmond said he feels a “deep sense of gratitude” for having received New Zealand’s highest royal honor.
Salmond was the first social scientist to receive the Rutherford Medal in 2013, when she was also named New Zealander Kiwibank of the Year.
In 2008, she was elected a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy and the following year she was named a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences.
However, Salmond insists that “it’s never about recognition.” In fact, he said he hates being in the spotlight and is quick to redirect the accolades to those he has worked with and those he has learned from.
John Selkirk / Things
Dame Anne Salmond was named New Zealander of the Year in 2013.
“I have an incredible time doing the things that I have been privileged to do. I have worked with many extraordinary people. It is a joy.
“I have a list of people to thank for moments like this.”
Salmond, a Pākehā, first immersed himself in the world of Māoridom after a scholarship trip to the United States when he was 17 years old.
Tessa Chrisp / Stuff
Salmond and her husband Jeremy will silently celebrate their latest achievement in Gisborne together.
The trip made her realize how little she knew about the indigenous peoples of her own country and prompted her to study anthropology at the University of Auckland, where she is now a Distinguished Professor of Maori Studies and Anthropology.
“When I was young I came across people who started to teach me, guide me and show me a dimension of New Zealand that I had never experienced before.”
She credits Te Whānau-ā Apanui and Ngāti Porou kaumātua Eruera and Amiria Stirling for introducing her to te reo Māori. Later he would write books about their lives. Amiria: the life story of a Maori woman and Eruera: The Teachings of a Maori Elder – both won the Watties Book of the Year award.
“My life would have been very different without them. I was so lucky. “
Salmond, now 70, “still loves” his job and is currently focusing on environmental projects, including the “Let The River Speak” river restoration project along with his colleague Dr. Dan Hikuroa and iwi, which discusses how the people, water, land and animals can work and prosper together.
“It’s taking that idea of the river as a living community and trying to learn about every aspect of its life from the beginning to now and into the future.”
Regarding the celebration of her new honor, Salmond said that she and her husband Jeremy would celebrate the occasion in silence while working their land in Gisborne.
