Hinekura Smith receives Fulbright-Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Scholar Award

He whetū whakaihuwaka a Hinekura Smith, kua roa nei e kōkiri ana i te mana o te ao Māori. Ahakoa ngā aupiki, ngā auheke o te wā, kei te kaha pīataata tonu mai tōnā hinengaro kokoi. Ko tōna aumangea he tohu whāinga mo te mātātahi o te ao Māori.

Te Rarawa and Ngāpuhi descendant, Hinekura Smith plans to continue empowering indigenous knowledge after winning the Fulbright-Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Scholar Award.

Joined by her whānau, Hinekura was acknowledged in a ceremony at Parliament recently, hosted by Deputy Speaker, Greg O’Connor, and Deputy Prime Minister and Associate Foreign Affairs Minister, Hon. Carmel Sepuloni.

The award will go towards Hinekura’s research of  ‘whatu kākahu’ women’s traditional clothing-making or creating traditionally woven cloaks. She will travel to the United States to explore the Native American and Native Hawai’ian practice of  ‘whatu kākahu’ and further explore how this knowledge is being used as a decolonising tool and culturally regenerative arts practice at the University of Washington and the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa.

“I want my research-curious teenaged daughters to see that Kaupapa Māori research connects us in different and similar ways with our global Indigenous relations and that what we do here in Aotearoa can have a positive transforming impact, not just for us here in Aotearoa but as part of a broader Indigenous decolonising agenda,” says Hinekura.

Hinekura hails from Te Taitokerau and is a senior lecturer and director of Ngā Wai a Te Tūi Māori and Indigenous Research Centre at Unitec – Te Pūkenga. She has been a teacher and advocate of te reo Māori throughout her career and spent more than a decade at The University of Auckland as a Kaupapa Māori education researcher. Her core focus has been the continued reclamation and revitalisation of Māori language, culture and identity through education – particularly for Māori women and children.

“We have whakapapa, reo, histories and stories that inherently connect us all. However, when we place those ideas in the context of higher education we’re often problematically lumped together and you see it everywhere when we are referred to as ‘Māori and Pasifika students, workers, families, colleagues’, but I believe we as our own people need to decide and confirm our own relationships.”

Hinekura says, “I was inspired to apply for a Fulbright-Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga award for the opportunity to strengthen Indigenous research relationships and networks in a located and authentic way. While travelling to conferences is a great way to connect, collaborate and disseminate, a five-month award enables a deeper connection through place-based research.”

The annual Fulbright-Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Scholar Award is valued at up to US$37,500 for three to five months of teaching and/or research at US institutions.

“We are so pleased that Hinekura is able to extend her ground-breaking research through the collaborative opportunities that Fulbright offers. She embodies mana wāhine and we are really proud to have her as our 2023 scholar,” says Professor Tahu Kukutai, Co-Director of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga and Fulbright alumna.

Fulbright New Zealand Executive Director Penelope Borland says, “We are delighted to partner with Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga in supporting Hinekura’s inspiring Kaupapa Māori research and look forward to hearing more about her experiences and learnings as she starts this exciting journey and when she returns to Aotearoa.”