Wonderful to see this book I worked on throughout last year, ‘Ngā Kete Mātauranga’ launched this week and in bookstores now.

From Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland to Waihōpai/ Invercargill I travelled around Aotearoa and photographed twenty four Māori academics in locations that had a personal connection for each of them. It was a highly enjoyable project to work on and great to meet and photograph so many people with considerable mana and knowledge.

Professor Juliet A. Gerrard, the Prime Ministers Chief Science Advisor describes the book thus: ‘These deeply personal stories provide a portal into the te ao Māori world, which many outside it seek to understand, but struggle to find a frame in which to do so. The abstract concept of decolonising the tertiary workforce is brought to life and given meaning by these kōrero of strength, where the authors display courage and vision from within an environment so often hostile to Indigenous ways of knowing’.

The book is edited by Jacinta Ruru and Linda Waimare Nikora and published by Otago University Press with the assistance of the Royal Society Te Apārangi and Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence.