2016 Conference

Joe Williams is a High Court Judge and former Chairperson of the Waitangi Tribunal. He is an internationally recognised expert in indigenous rights law and one of New Zealand’s leading specialists on Māori land and legal issues.

Justice Williams graduated from Victoria University with an LLB in 1986 and from the University of British Columbia, Canada, with an LLM (Hons) in 1988. He was the first Māori lecturer in law at Victoria University in Wellington, he established the first unit specialising in Māori issues at a major law firm (Kensington Swan) and was the youngest person to be appointed to the position of Chief Judge (December 1999).

Joe is a former vice-president of the Maori Law Society, a former president of Te Runanga Roia o Tamamaki Makaurau, the Auckland Maori Lawyers Association, a fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, a fellow of the Law Faculty of Victoria University of Wellington and was appointed as the Chairperson of the Waitangi Tribunal in 2004.

Justice Williams ongoing work and interests are focused on Māori land rights law, language, resource management, environmental law and Treaty of Waitangi issues and he remains determined in ensuring that Māori value systems are recognised within the judicial system.

Linda Tuhiwai Smith is Professor of Education and Māori Development, Pro-Vice Chancellor Māori, Dean of the School of Māori and Pacific Development and Director of Te Kotahi Research Institute at the University of Waikato in New Zealand and is Chairperson of NPM's International Research Advisory Board.

She is a member of New Zealand’s Health Research Council, Chair of the Māori Health Research Committee, is President of the New Zealand Association for Research in Education and is a member of the Marsden Fund Council and Convener of the Social Sciences Assessment Panel. She has also most recently been appointed to the Constitutional Advisory Panel Committee in New Zealand and the High Panel - Science, Technology and Innovation for Development in Paris.

She has worked in the field of Māori education and health for many years as an educator and researcher and is well known for her work in Kaupapa Māori research. Professor Smith has published widely in journals and books. Her book Decolonising Methodologies Research and Indigenous Peoples has been an international best seller in the indigenous world since its publication in 1998.

Professor Smith was a founding Joint Director of New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence from 2002-2007 and a Professor of Education at the University of Auckland. She is well known internationally as a public speaker. She is Principal Investigator on the NPM Project - In pursuit of the possible: Indigenous Wellbeing

PROFESSOR SIR MASON DURIE (Rangitāne, Ngāti Kauwhata, Ngāti Raukawa)

Sir Mason Durie KNZM FRSNZ FRANZCP is one of New Zealand’s most respected academics, and was knighted in 2010 for services to public and Māori health.

He has a Bachelor of Medicine and a Bachelor of Surgery from the University of Otago, and has focused on improving Māori health outcomes for much of his career. In 1988 he was appointed Professor and Head of Te Pūtahi-ā-Toi, School of Māori Studies at Massey University and subsequent to that was appointed Chair of Māori Research and Development in 2002.

Mason earned his DLit in literature from Massey University in 2003, and in 2009 Otago University awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Laws. He was also awarded an honorary doctorate in health sciences from Simon Fraser University for his contributions to Indigenous health. He has been a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand since 1995 and a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit since 2001. He chaired the Taskforce on Whānau-Centred Initiatives that produce the Whānau Ora report for the Government in 2010 and remains involved in a wide range of tertiary, educational, health and social service boards through to the present day.

For over 40 years, Mason has been at the forefront of a transformational approach to Māori health and has played major roles in building the Māori health workforce. His efforts have been recognised by the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, the Public Health Association of New Zealand, the Māori Medical Practitioners Association, the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand, and the Polynesian Society.

In addition to his lifelong commitment to Māori health, Professor Durie has also championed higher education for Māori. As Deputy Chair of Te Wānanga o Raukawa, Professor of Māori Research and Development, and more recently Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Massey University, he has continued to provide national academic leadership for Māori and indigenous development and regularly assists Iwi and Māori communities to realise their own aspirations for socio-economic advancement.

Patrick is a member of the Leq:amel First Nation (Sto:lo Nation.)  He operates a consulting business and was Advisor and Director of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry. He has previously been an Advisor to the Lieutenant Governor of BC, and in December 2010, Patrick was appointed as Governor of the Law Foundation of BC. Patrick is co-chair of the Banff Centre Indigenous Program Council, is a member of the UVic Gustavson School of Business International Advisory Board and the UBC Sauder School of Business Ch’nook Indigenous Business Advisory Board. 

The Leq'á:mel First Nation elected Patrick Treaty Representative for treaty negotiations, a role he held from 1998 to 2001. He has also previously been Vice President, National Services, CESO, BC Director, Strategic Planning and Communications, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Manager, Cultural Relations and Corporate Training in BC Hydro’s Aboriginal Relations Department and Executive Director of the BC Chapter of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business.

From July 2002 to June 2010, the Attorney General for British Columbia appointed Patrick as a Bencher for the Law Society of BC, to represent the public interest in the administration of justice.  He is now a Life Bencher. 

Patrick has been an active community volunteer holding executive positions with the Mission Chamber of Commerce, the Mission Heritage Association, the Mission Indian Friendship Centre, and the Coqualeetza Cultural Centre and in March 2009, received a BC Community Achievement Award.  Patrick is founding President of the BC Aboriginal Golf Association established in April 2009.

Dr Donna DeGennaro teaches at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. Her passion for creating socially focused just learning designs that are technology-mediated and youth-driven, has fueled her work with youth in informal learning environments in the US and abroad for the past 10 years.

Over this period Donna has developed an innovative pedagogical model that simultaneously addresses the digital divide, culturally responsive learning, and social justice education. She has also recently founded Unlocking Silent Histories (USH), a non-profit organization that aims to amplify the voices and identities of indigenous youth.

USH utilized this pedagogy model that emerges from the local context. She was motivated to start USH after being perpetually inspired by the ways that the pedagogical model not only unleashes youth voice & agency, but also opens spaces for young people to envision and create their own futures. Her commitment to indigenous populations began in Guatemala, where she witnessed USH participants capturing their languages and cultures. 

Dr. Whyte holds the Timnick Chair in the Humanities at Michigan State University. He is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Community Sustainability, a faculty member of the Environmental Philosophy & Ethics graduate concentration, and a faculty affiliate of the American Indian Studies and Environmental Science & Policy programs. His primary research addresses moral and political issues concerning climate policy and Indigenous peoples and the ethics of cooperative relationships between Indigenous peoples and climate science organizations. He is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. 

His articles have appeared in journals such as Climatic Change, Sustainability Science, Environmental Justice, Hypatia, Ecological Processes, Synthese, Human Ecology, Journal of Global Ethics, American Journal of Bioethics, Journal of Agricultural & Environmental Ethics, Ethics, Policy & Environment, and Ethics & the Environment. Kyle's work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Northeast Climate Science Center, Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessments Center, Mellon Foundation, Sustainable Michigan Endowed Program and Spencer Foundation. 

Dr. Whyte serves on the U.S. Department of Interior’s Advisory Committee on Climate Change and Natural Resource Science and is involved in the Climate and Traditional Knowledges Workgroup, Sustainable Development Institute of the College of Menominee Nation, Tribal Climate Camp, Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition, Everybody Eats: Cultivating Food Democracy, Humanities for the Environment, and the Consortium for Socially Relevant Philosophy of/in Science. He is a recipient of the 2015 Bunyan Bryan Award for Academic Excellence given by Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice.