Anne Salmond

Biosketch

Anne Salmond is a Distinguished Professor in M?ori Studies and Anthropology at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Dame Anne is recognised for her work on cross-cultural exchanges in New Zealand and the Pacific, and for research drawing on M?ori philosophies and cutting edge science to tackle environmental challenges. Dame Anne is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, an International member of the American Philosophical Society and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. In 2018 she was awarded a Carl Frederich von Siemens Research prize for lifetime achievements in research. She has written many prize-winning books, and served on many scientific, cultural and environmental governance bodies in New Zealand. She was chosen as the 2013 New Zealander of the Year, and in 2021 was awarded the country’s top honour, the Order of New Zealand.

Research Interests

Anne Salmond, who trained as a linguist and anthropologist, has studied the Maori language and Maori society for more than fifty years. She has written a series of prize-winning books about Maori life, including an account of Maori ceremonial gatherings; and biographies of her teachers and 'grandparents,' Eruera and Amiria Stirling. Anne Salmond has a strong interest in philosophy and semantics, and her investigations into Polynesian ideas and ways of life have led to works about the early contact period in New Zealand and Tahiti, including the Pacific voyages of Captain Cook and William Bligh. In these cross-cultural accounts, Europeans and islanders alike are located within their own 'worlds,' and European as well as Polynesian ontologies, social conventions and systems of knowledge are illuminated.