First Māori member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences elected

Professor Linda Tuhiwai Te Rina Smith from the University of Waikato is believed to be the Māori academic to be elected to join the academy. Photo / Supplied

Indigenous studies Māori researcher and academic Professor Linda Tuhiwai Te Rina Smith (Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Porou, Tuhourangi) has been elected as an international honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Smith from the University of Waikato is believed to be the first Māori academic elected to the academy.

"There are quite a few of my heroines on the list, including (Hawaiian human rights advocate and political scientist) Haunani-Kay Trask and (Indian scholar and literary critic) Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak.

"I feel very honoured and humbled as a Māori woman to be elected," she says.

Also on the 2021 list of 252 new global members is media entrepreneur and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey. Other previously elected members include Benjamin Franklin, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King, Jr, Georgia O'Keeffe, Toni Morrison and Nelson Mandela.

Smith has written the seminal indigenous studies text Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous People and her books, articles and YouTube lectures are prescribed texts in universities around the globe.

"I never started my work because I thought organisations such as this would be interested in anything I do, but it demonstrates some of the changes occurring in the knowledge world in terms of increased diversity, the inclusion of women and people of colour and indigenous cultures. It's a sign that things are changing and I feel good about that."

Smith has strong relationships with indigenous researchers and communities around the world, including North America and Australia. Having lived in Carbondale, Southern Illinois, as a teenager when her father was doing his PhD there, Smith also has a strong connection to the US.

"It was the 1960s, and the civil rights movement was gaining strength. Living in the US at that time helped give me perspective to the issues faced by Māori in New Zealand at that time," she says.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences was established in 1780 and celebrates "extraordinary people who help solve the world's most urgent challenges, create meaning through art and contribute to the common good from every field, discipline and profession".

David Oxtoby, president of the American Academy, says: "We are honouring the excellence of these individuals, celebrating what they have achieved so far, and imagining what they will continue to accomplish."

The academy is planning to hold its annual induction weekend for new members in April 2022 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Professor Smith hopes to attend if Covid-19 travel restrictions allow.

Smith also is one of the first Māori women to become a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2016 and a member of the Waitangi Tribunal. She contributes to both research and Māori communities in a number of other roles and projects, and is currently doing research in the areas of health and family violence.