Fellowship honour for academics
A poet and a Ma¯ ori scholar who both hail from New Plymouth Girls’ High School have been recognised for their research and scholarship within their fields.
Professor Michele Leggott and Professor Margaret Mutu, both from the University of Auckland Faculty of Arts, were named as Fellows of the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apa¯ rangi on November 16.
Leggott, who attended
New Plymouth Girls’ High School from 1970 1974, is only the second poet, and the first female poet, to get the honour.
‘‘Poetry is everything for me...You can take that all the way back to New Ply- mouth Girls’ High School,’’ she said.
‘‘I had really amazing teachers and Margaret, she had some of the same teachers.
‘‘I didn’t really know what poetry was and they just put my feet on a path way back then.
‘‘It was something about language and being able to handle language and make this amazing stuff that really appealed to me.’’
Her eighth poetry collection, Vanishing Points, the third in a series, was published in October.
‘‘There’s a lot of Taranaki material in it.’’
The pair had only connected in the past few months, but spoke highly of the teachers they had in the late sixties and early seventies.
Margaret Mutu’s pioneering research covers Ma¯ ori language, tikanga (law), history and traditions, rights and sovereignty, Te Tiriti o Waitangi and treaty claims against the English Crown, constitutional transformation and Ma¯ ori-Chinese encounters.
She said she was ‘‘very surprised and humbled’’ to receive the honour.
‘‘The work that I do comes out of instructions I was given by my elders to try and set things right.’’
Her latest book Nga¯ ti Kahu: Portrait of a Sovereign Nation, will be released next month. ‘‘It has been a huge privilege to carry out the wishes of my Nga¯ ti Kahu, Te Rarawa and Nga¯ti Wha¯ tua elders,’’ she said. ‘‘They wanted the extensive knowledge and wisdom they had passed on to the following generations to be made available and understood not only locally, but also nationally and internationally.’’
She said Ma¯ ori have a large reservoir of knowledge and experience that the rest of the country could benefit from if they knew it was there.
‘‘Letting people know this knowledge does exist; it relates to this country and every single nook and cranny of this country, and it’s incredibly valuable to everybody.’’