Distinguished professor Dame Anne Salmond has been made a member of the Order of New Zealand - the country's highest honour.
Dame Anne Salmond Photo: Jane Ussher
She is an eminent writer and social scientist who is internationally recognised for her work since the 1970s on cross-cultural exchanges and environmental matters.
She has had a lifelong engagement with te ao Māori, working alongside kuia and kaumātua and presenting evidence in the Muriwhenua Land and Fisheries Treaty claims, the Ngāpuhi claim for Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and the first test case of the Treaty clause of the Resource Management Act.
She said the honour was overwhelming and extraordinary.
"Overwhelming because I just owe so much to so many people and I just thought of all of them when I heard the news and was filled with gratitude."
"It's overwhelming and just extraordinary" - Dame Anne Salmond
Dame Anne has also written about climate change, the restoration of rivers, forests and the ocean, and she said lately many of her projects have focused on the environment.
She said due to the pandemic, a lot of people have had a very tough year.
"But we've turned to comfort so often to the forests and to the beaches, to our beautiful land and I think the promise of this year is that we are going to make a new beginning and really start looking after the landscapes around us."
She said at the moment she was working on a project called 'Let the Rivers Speak', which was about restoring waterways across the country.
"Seeing them as living landscapes of land and water and plants, animals and people and working together with all of those different elements to take waterways into a thriving future with their communities."
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has acknowledged Dame Anne saying she has been "rightly recognised" for her enormous contribution to New Zealand in many fields saying the country is richer for her contributions.
Dame Anne was also the University of Auckland's pro-vice chancellor (equal opportunity) from 1997 to 2006. She has been vice president of the Royal Society of New Zealand (social sciences and humanities) and in 2013 was the first social scientist to be awarded the Rutherford Medal.
She is Chairperson of the Longbush Ecological Trust and the patron of a number of environmental and community organisations
Among her other accolades are:
- Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year, 2013
- Royal Society of New Zealand, Rutherford Medal, 2013
- Foreign Associate, United States National Academy of Sciences, 2008
- Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, New Year 1995
- Commander of the Order of the British Empire, Queen's Birthday 1988