2014 Conference

Associate Professor Tracey McIntosh (Tūhoe) is the director of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga and teaches in the sociology and criminology programme at the University of Auckland. She was the Joint Director of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga from 2007-2009 and has recently returned as Director. She brings a wide level of experience to her role at NPM in international work, community development, student equity and in her wider contributions to the academic community. Prior to returning to the University of Auckland in 1999 Tracey lectured at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji and previous to that lived in France, Burundi and Tonga. She was a Fulbright Visiting Lecturer in New Zealand Studies at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. in 2004 and has served on Fulbright selection panels and as a Fulbright student advisor since then. She has wide experience of being on external research assessment panels including the Marsden Fund Social Science Panel, the Rutherford Discovery Humanities and Social Science Panel and on the FoRST Te Tipu o te Wānanga Māori Research Investment Panel. In 2012 she was the co-chair of the Children’s Commissioner’s Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty. She sits on a number of governance boards particularly in the area of social harm reduction including the Robson Hanan Trust: Rethinking Crime and Punishment and Te Waka Moemoea: Being the Change Trust. Tracey is the current joint editor of AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples alongside Professor Michael Walker. Her recent research focuses on incarceration (particularly of indigenous peoples), inequality, poverty and justice.

The Hon Dr Pita R Sharples, JP, CBE is a Māori academic and politician, who was a co-leader of the Māori Party from 2004 to 2013, and a Minister outside Cabinet from 2008 to 2014. He was first elected to the House of Representatives as a Māori Party Member of Parliament on 17 September 2005 for the Electorate of Tāmaki Makaurau and was re-elected in the 2008 and 2011 General Elections.

Until recently, he was the Minister for Māori Affairs, Associate Minister of Education and Associate Minister of Corrections.

Dr Sharples holds a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and Anthropology, Master of Arts (Hons) in Anthropology and a Doctorate in Anthropology and Linguistics from the University of Auckland. He has been awarded a CBE for Services to New Zealand in Education and is a proud Te Aute Old Boy.

Pita is affiliated to Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngai Te Kikiri o te Rangi, Ngāti Pahauwera and lives in Auckland.

Karina L. Walters is a Professor and William P. and Ruth Gerberding Endowed Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Washington. She received her MSW (1990) and PhD (1995) from University of California, Los Angeles. An enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, Dr. Walters founded and directs the University-wide, interdisciplinary Indigenous Wellness Research Institute (IWRI).

The Institute’s many notable contributions include hosting the 2010 International Network of Indigenous Health Knowledge and Development conference, a biennial gathering aimed at improving the health of indigenous peoples in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States through indigenous and community-led research, health services and workforce development.

Dr. Walters is also a recent recipient of the prestigious Fulbright Award where she was an honorary visiting scholar at Ngā Pae o te Maramatanga National Institute for Research Excellence in Maori Development and Advancement at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Her research focuses on historical, social and cultural determinants of physical and mental health among American Indians and Alaska Natives. She has published and presented nationally and internationally on her research and mentors numerous American Indian and Alaska Native junior faculty, researchers, post-doctorate, graduate and undergraduate students.

Dr. Walters serves as principal investigator on several groundbreaking studies associated with health-risk outcomes among American Indian individuals, families and communities funded by the National Institutes of Health. These include the HONOR Project — a nationwide health survey that examines the impact of historical trauma, discrimination and other stressors on the health and wellness of Native American lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and two-spirited men and women; and Healthy Hearts Across Generations — a project in collaboration with the Tulalip Tribes to design and test a culturally appropriate, feasible and generalizable cardiovascular disease prevention program with American Indians living in the Pacific Northwest.

Gerald Taiaiake Alfred is a Full Professor in IGOV and in the Department of Political Science. He specializes in studies of traditional governance, the restoration of land-based cultural practices, and decolonization strategies. He is a prominent Indigenous intellectual and advisor to many First Nation governments and organizations. He has been awarded a Canada Research Chair, a National Aboriginal Achievement Award in the field of education, and the Native American Journalists Association award for best column writing.

Educated at Concordia and Cornell, Taiaiake has lectured at universities and colleges in Canada, the United States, England, and Australia. His writing includes numerous scholarly articles, essays in newspapers, magazines and journals, stories, book-length research reports for First Nations and government clients, as well as three published scholarly books, Wasáse (Broadview, 2005), a runner-up for the McNally Robinson Aboriginal Book of the Year in 2005; Peace, Power, Righteousness (Oxford University Press, 1999/2009); and Heeding the Voices of Our Ancestors (Oxford University Press, 1995).

Taiaiake's current research involves studying the effects of environmental contamination on Indigenous cultural practices, with a special focus on the Mohawk community of Akwesasne. In the context of the United States' Natural Resources Damages Assessment process, he works as a consultant with a number of Indigenous communities to assess cultural injury due to industrial and nuclear contamination of the natural environment, and to design land-based cultural restoration plans. His previous research and consulting work centered on retraditionalization, structural reform, and leadership training for First Nations governments and organizations. He also spent many a number of years as a researcher, writer, negotiator and advisor for First Nations governments in land claims and self-government processes.

Taiaiake is a Bear Clan Mohawk . He was born in Montréal in 1964 and was raised in the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory. Aside from his service in the US Marine Corps as an infantryman during the 1980s, he lived in Kahnawake until 1996. He now lives on Snaka Mountain in Wsanec Nation Territory on the Saanich peninsula with his wife and three sons, who are all Laksilyu Clan of the Wet'suwet'en Nation.

Marie Battiste is Mi'kmaq, from the Potlo'tek First Nation in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. She is professor in Research and Leadership in Aboriginal Education, formerly Indian and Northern Education Program, in the Dept. of Educational Foundations at University of Saskatchewan, since 1993.

A mother of three, she and her husband J. Youngblood Henderson have made Saskatoon their home after many years living in Eskasoni Reserve and working among First Nations schools and community organizations. She has several earned degrees: Ed. D. (1984) Stanford University; Ed. M. (1974); Harvard University; B.S. (1971) University of Maine, Farmington and two honorary degrees: D.H.L. 1997 University of Maine, Farmington; LL.D. 1987 St. Mary's University.

She has published many articles and scholarly papers in books, journals and documents and remains involved in research on Aboriginal education, languages and teachers and teacher education. She is co-author of (2000) Protecting Indigenous Knowledge: A Gobal Challenge, Saskatoon, SK: Purich Press; and editor of (2000) Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision, Vancouver: UBC Press; and senior editor of (1995) First Nations Education in Canada: The Circle Unfolds. Vancouver: UBC Press. She recently received the 2000 First Peoples Publishing Award for Protecting Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage: A Global Challenge from Saskatchewan Book Awards.

A quest for social justice and decolonization of education have framed her writings, her speaking, and her daily life in complex and integrated ways.

Adjunct Professor Alan Parker, a Citizen of the Chippewa Cree Tribal Nation, serves as Adjunct Faculty for Tribal Students enrolled in the Indigenous Development and Advancement PhD program at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi.

Alan Parker served as Staff Director, Committee on Indian Affairs, United States Senate, Washington, DC, where was appointed by Senator Daniel K Inouye, Chairman of the Committee. His responsibilities as Staff Director included the development of a comprehensive legislative program for the Committee. Major legislative initiatives of the Committee during this time included the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, the National Museum of American Indian Act, the Indian Self-Governance Act, the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act and the Indian Housing Act. In the 1980’s, Alan served as President, The American Indian National Bank, Washington, DC. The AINB was the only National Bank in the US owned and operated by Indian Tribes. Established in 1974, the Tribal Shareholders engaged in commercial banking serving a market of Tribal Business enterprises. Prior to this, he was appointed by Sen. James Abourezk and served as Chief Counsel, Select Committee on Indian Affairs, United States Senate, Washington, DC, from April 1977 until July 1980. The Select Committee was created to serve as the first independent legislative Committee within the US Congress with responsibility for all legislative proposals dealing with Native American issues and concerns. They also exercised congressional oversight authority over federal agencies and offices charged with US Trust Responsibilities and public services for the 350 Indian Tribal and Alaska Native communities located in the US. Major legislative activities conducted under Parker’s term in this office included The Indian Child Welfare Act, The American Indian Religious Freedom Act, and Tribal Colleges authorizing Authority as well as historical Indian Land and Water Rights Legislative Settlements.

Education Achievements: Parker attended UCLA School of Law, Los Angeles, California, where he received a Juris Doctor degree in June 1972. Parker’s work researching Tribal and State Court Relationships led to publication of his work in the University of Montana Law Review

Military Service: In June 1965 Parker was drafted into the US Army and was sent to Officer Candidate School where he received a commission as a Lieutenant in the Signal Corps and served until August 1968 when he was honorably discharged. Prior to being discharged he was awarded a Bronze Star medal for meritorious service under combat conditions in the Republic of South Vietnam.

Associate Professor Harald Gaski is an associate Professor in Sami literature at the world’s northernmost university, the University of Tromsø, Norway, situated on the 70th latitude. Gaski is the author and editor of several books, journals and articles on Sami literature and culture. The Sami are the indigenous people of the northernmost regions of Fenno-Scandia and the Kola peninsula of Russia. Gaski has been visiting scholar at several universities in the US, Australia, and in Greenland, and is very much used as speaker internationally on Sami issues. Gaski has been instrumental in establishing Sami literature as an academic field. He is a member of the joint coordinating committee of the Norwegian Program for Development, Research and Education (NUFU)-funded research program in Nicaragua conducted as a collaborative project between the University of Tromsø and URACCAN university in Nicaragua. Currently he is also a board member in the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States, and the chair of the Sami Non-fiction writers association in Norway.

Gaski's research topics include indigenous peoples’ literatures with a specific emphasis on Sami literature. He has also specialized on oral tradition – especially the transition of the traditional Sami singing, the yoik poetry, into contemporary lyrics. Gaski has participated in translating Sami prose and poetry into English, which can be found in his anthology In the Shadow of the Midnight Sun. Contemporary Sami Prose and Poetry, 1997. He has also translated the award-winning Sami poet Nils-Aslak Valkeapää into Norwegian and English. He has edited Sami Culture in a New Era. The Norwegian Sami Experience, 1997, and published a trilingual book on a Sami myth Biejjien baernie – Sami son of the Sun, 2003. His most recent publication is an annotated collection of Sami proverbs, entitled Time is a Ship that Never Casts Anchor, 2006. He debuted as a writer of fiction books for young adult readers in 2002 (in collaboration with Lars Nordström) with the award-winning book Ciezain cáziin in Sami, published in English in 2004, Seven kinds of water.

In 2006 Gaski was awarded the The Nordic Sami Language Prize, Gollegiella, established by the Nordic Sami Ministers and the Presidents of the Sami Parliaments in Norway, Sweden and Finland. The same year he also received the Award for Outstanding Dissemination of Research at University of Tromsø. In 2005-2006 Gaski served as a member of a Nordic assessment committee to evaluate the quality of the Finno-Ugric education at Swedish universities. The committee was appointed by the National Agency for Higher Education in Sweden. He has recently been appointed to the International Research Advisory Panel for Nga Pae o te Maramatanga the National Institute for Research Excellence in Maori Development and Advancement.

Professor
Pro-Vice Chancellor Māori, The University of Waikato

Professor Linda Smith is a leading international authority on indigenous education and health, and is particularly well-known for her book “Decolonising Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples”. She is a member of the Marsden Fund, serves on New Zealand’s Health Research Council, chairing the Māori Health Research Committee, and is past president of the New Zealand Association for Research in Education. She has extensive experience in building Māori and indigenous research capacity, and has helped establish three research institutes - including Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence.

Chief Executive Officer
Office of Hawaiian Affairs
Dr Kamana'opono M. Crabbe was named Chief Executive Officer at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs on Jan. 19, 2012. His appointment took effect March 16, 2012. As CEO, his priorities include restoring OHA’s integrity in the Native Hawaiian community. He is also focused on nurturing a sense of commitment to empowering Hawaiians and strengthening Hawaii. Dr Crabbe was selected from OHA's executive team, where he had been Research Director since November 2009, gathering evidence needed to make sound decisions that allowed the organization to engage policymakers in its work, create public awareness and build community support. Before Joining OHA, he was Director of Psychology Training at the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Center. Prior to that, he was the Program Administrator for the Institute for Family Enrichment. Dr Crabbe has a doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He was also a psychology major at the University of Hawaii. He is a Moanalua Valley resident whose hobbies include surfing, canoeing and voyaging.