AFS brings together young people from more than 50 countries — so they get to know each other, and their cultures, and never want to fight each other again.
“It made a huge impression. It tells you how an inspiring leader can change a lot of lives.
“It was one of the finest speeches I have ever heard.”
Anne said she had a brilliant time on the AFS exchange. She lived with a family in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, then spent a month in California on a bus trip with other students she had met before coming home.
Before leaving for the exchange, Anne wanted to learn te reo, and some action songs (kapa haka).
“Te reo is a beautiful language. Field Scholars have to talk about their country and I knew so little te reo, or about te ao Māori, and I felt embarrassed about that.”
Despite it not being “the done thing” back in 1962, Anne began her te reo journey with friends of her mother — Peggy Kaua and Lady Lorna Ngata.
“I was very fond of them. They were both amazing women, a lot of fun to be around, they made learning enjoyable and I realised there was a whole wealth of knowledge behind them.
“George Marsden also gave me te reo lessons back then. From my first year at university, Eruera and Amiria Stirling became very close. I had these marvellous lecturers, too — Patu Hohepa, Merimeri Penfold (who became my best friend) and Hirini Mead, among others. My fellow students also taught me a lot.
“People have been so generous to me, shaping my whole future.
“Generosity of others is a fine thing.”
She credits other people for where she is today.
Dame Anne Salmond — ONZ, DBE, CBE, FNAS, FBA, FRSNZ, FAHNZ — has more letters after her name than in her name.
She is a Distinguished Professor at the Auckland University in the Department of Maori Studies.
In 1995, Anne became a Dame. In 2013 she was named New Zealander of the Year, and in 2020 was the Sir Peter Blake Medallist.
In the 2021 New Year Honours, Anne was appointed to the Order of New Zealand — the country's highest honour.
She has written more than 10 books and collaborated on many more.
She is working on one now, due out soon, about the Dominion Museum expeditions in the 1920s — including two to Tairāwhiti.
Anne is passionate about the environment, and its future care. She co-leads Let the River Speak, a research project on the Waimatā River, and helped inspire Wildlab /Tiaki Taiao, a wilderness education programme for local children funded by the Air NZ Environment Trust.
In 2018 Anne hosted the television series Artefact, which she loved because she got to explore all the nooks and crannies in places around New Zealand that most people never get to see.
Today, she and her husband Jeremy Salmond have actively restructured their working lives so they can split their time between their home in Auckland and Gisborne, where they live at the end of Riverside Road at their property Longbush.
“It's great. We love the mix of a rural and urban life.”
Auckland brings a more formal life at the university, and Anne attends meetings as a patron of a number of organisations. She speaks and writes widely about environmental challenges.
She is the patron of Te Awaroa: 1000 Rivers, a project that aims to restore waterways across New Zealand
“I'm a social scientist and I work in my own country — its good to know and work with the people outside of the city.
“And in a place like Gisborne you get to know the people. That's very different from Wellington and Auckland, but I love the whole country.”
Anne also loves gardening and has plenty to do, Their Longbush property is 120 hectares.
It even has a 1769 garden full of rare plants.
“Longbush is kept up by a whole team of creative people,”
They bought the land on impulse 20 years ago.
She and Jeremy celebrated 50 years of marriage on Waitangi Day.
The couple have three children and much of the ‘70s and ‘80s was spent raising them in Auckland. Anne taught at Auckland University from 1971. Back then she was one of the few women academics with children.
“Jeremy and I worked it out together. We also had Mrs Tatt, who was like a granny, and the children were very fond of her.”
Anne would do her writing from the kitchen table, where she learned to concentrate and multi-task but liked it because it was in the centre of the home if anyone needed her.
She comes from a long line of bards in the Western Isles in Scotland, specialists in oral histories and ancestral customs.
But her work has always been a “team effort”.
“I haven't done anything on my own, really.
“All this stuff is fun. It's hard work but its great.
“There are a lot of people who have made things possible.
“Its not about me, but the team.”
Anne has found herself, a Pākeha, in the middle space between Maori and the rest of New Zealand.
“It can sometimes be a fiery space. I don't enjoy batting heads with people but I do enjoy a good discussion.”
For example, in Gisborne over Tuia 250, the city's people were able to engage and have those “awkward” conversations.
“Gisborne gave New Zealand the lead and I was very proud of that.”
Her whole life has been Anne “getting cracking” on projects.
She grew up as one of eight siblings in the Thorpe family.
“We just get on with it, try not to make a big fuss and like to see practical results.”
Growing up in a big gang of brothers and sisters, they would go to Pouawa in the weekends, have picnics, play tennis — it was a good Kiwi upbringing.
“It was very much about doing stuff, building huts, how to use a hammer. Dad was good like that, he was very hands-on and taught us how to get things done.
“You learn a lot around the dinner table in a family like that. When I started getting involved with the business community they felt like family.
“I grew up in a smart family who got on and did interesting things. I'm very proud of them all.”
After her interview with the Herald, Anne had an afternoon Zoom call with the Climate Change Commission.
She was going to speak about a native-based forestry approach to land which she believes is perfect for Tairawhiti.
“It's time for Government to think more and more about nature-based forestry.”
It's a commercial approach that involves indigenous forests that are sustainably managed and selectively logged at different times.
As a result the canopy of the forest is kept, harvesting is staggered, and the logs are high value.
“Twenty years ago Europe was doing industrial monoculture forestry with conifers and clear-felling, like us, but they realised this is too risky, especially with climate change, fires and pests. So they changed.
“We've seen what's happened in Tolaga Bay, the Waimata River has toxic mud with mud levels rising and making the river shallower — right by Anzac Park is one example.”
Anne is very happy that the Gisborne District Council will start work on an Integrated Catchment Management plan for the Waimatā River this year.
Then, it was back to Auckland for Anne, with more meetings planned before being able to return to Longbush again.
