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The Ngāi Tahu Research Centre has appointed its first Professor, Dr Shaun Ogilvie, a co-appointment with the School of Biological Sciences, at the ������Ƶapp����.

“Professor Ogilvie has a solid academic background and a well-established publication record. He understands mātauranga Māori and where the needs of the Māori community can be met through the sciences and research,”��says the Director of the��Ngāi Tahu Research Centre��and Ūpoko of Ngāi Tūāhuriri,��Associate Professor Te Maire Tau.

“Our students and iwi need scientists who understand what mahinga kai means and that the knowledge we have built up throughout our generations is equally understood and scrutinised within the sciences. We need to keep building new knowledge and ways of engaging with the natural world for the benefit of Ngāi Tahu and the South Island.

“Shaun has spent considerable time with my father and elders within the tribe as well as the wider community of iwi leaders such as Sir Mason Durie and Dr Rose Pere. It’s a good appointment and we look forward to producing more Māori students within the sciences.”

This is a joint appointment between the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre and the School of Biological Sciences in the College of Science.

“We look forward to Professor Ogilvie making a significant contribution to research and capacity building in mātauranga Māori at the ������Ƶapp����, the College of Science and the School of Biological Sciences,” says the Head of the��School of Biological Sciences,��Professor Matthew Turnbull.

Professor Ogilvie graduated with a PhD in Ecology from the ������Ƶapp���� in 2000, and since then has held numerous academic and research roles. He is the Director of Eco Research Associates Ltd, an environmental research company, and sits on numerous committees and boards. Professor Ogilvie featured in a recent book profiling 24 Māori academics,��Ngā Kete Mātauranga. The ������Ƶapp����’s Head of Aotahi School of Māori and Indigenous Studies,��Sacha McMeeking��(Ngāi Tahu)��also featured in the book.

Professor Ogilvie��–��formerly an Adjunct Associate Professor of the University��–��has recently been appointed as the Kaihautū Ngātahi | Co-Director Māori of the��, a role he will bring to the ������Ƶapp����.

The appointment of Professor Ogilvie is part of a commitment to grow and attract senior Māori academics to the ������Ƶapp����, which Ngāi Tūāhuriri have supported through the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre.��In 2019, Ngāi Tūāhuriri and the ������Ƶapp���� reconfirmed their Treaty relationship��originally signed off by the previous Ūpoko, H.R. Tau, in 2001.

Ūpoko��Associate Professor Tau��says this, the first of five professorial positions, is a commitment towards what a Treaty relationship is meant to be.

“The purpose of a university is to produce new knowledge through research and to then ensure that knowledge is distributed to students and eventually the community to engage with and to hopefully implement. Ngāi Tahu are of the view that research should be focused on the environmental and health sciences, institutional economics, law and history,”��Associate Professor Tau says.

“Equity within the University is quite simple. Knowledge needs to be seen as a capital asset to which our people have equal access and academic leadership provides a route for our students to gain access to new knowledge and to contribute to new knowledge”.