Award supports comparative study at Harvard

Dr Pounamu Jade Aikman

How private organisations and the private sector impact on the actions of indigenous peoples will be the focus of Dr Pounamu Jade Aikman's research at Harvard University.

Dr Aikmam, 31, is the recipient of the Fulbright-Nga Pae o te Maramatanga Scholar award which gives him up to US$37,500 for three to five months of teaching and/or research at institutions in the US.

He grew up all over New Zealand, but as a child came from Australia to live in Gisborne with his mother and younger sister.

“I went to kohanga reo in Chalmers Road, and went to primary school at Te Wharau for a few years.”

Dr Aikman is of Ngati Maniapoto, Tainui, Ngai te Rangi and Ngati Awa descent.

He is now based in Wellington.

Dr Aikman will take up his scholarship at Harvard University in Massachusetts where he will be based in the history department.

His project builds on his doctoral research which examined the nexus between indigenous sovereignty and settler-state violence in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

While at Harvard, Dr Aikman will work on a comparative study of indigenous experiences of settler colonialism in Aotearoa and the United States.

Dr Aikman says, “I'm excited to korero and wananga with other indigenous scholars working in their ancestral landscapes, in building whanaungatanga and collaborating with them on similar experiences of settler colonialism and indigenous sovereignty.”

He would like to thank his mother Anah Aikman for teaching him and his sister at a young age the difference between right and wrong, and “if you see something wrong happening, do something about it”.

He also credits his whanau in Ruatoki who he lived with while doing his PhD.

“Without them I wouldn't be able to do what I do.”

Co-director of Nga Pae o te Maramatanga, professor Tahu Kukutai said: “Pounamu is a great Maori scholar. We are incredibly proud to help enable the furtherance of his significant research in this international comparative manner.”

Fulbright New Zealand executive director Penelope Borland said: “We are so pleased to support Pounamu's research and look forward to hearing more about his findings, particularly as it pertains to indigenous experiences of state violence and how this differs between Aotearoa and the US.”

■ Applications for the 2021 Fulbright-Nga Pae o te Maramatanga Scholar award are open now. The closing date is October 1. For more details visit: tinyurl.com/mee8fvj8