Kaupapa Māori scholar Dr Pounamu Jade Aikman (Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Wairere, Ngāti Apakura, Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Tarāwhai, Te Arawa, Ngāti Uenukukōpako) has been appointed as Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML) and Creative New Zealand Emerging Māori Writer in Residence for 2025.
With a PhD exploring Ngāi Tūhoe policing experiences, Pounamu now works across the education, justice, and health sectors, with a focus on Māori and Pasifika communities. He grew up in Gisborne, Auckland, Christchurch, and Timaru. He has contributed essays to several books including The Palgrave Handbook on Rethinking Colonial Commemorations and Towards a Grammar of Race, and his writing has also appeared in a variety of journals and magazines.
During his three-month residency at the IIML, Pounamu will work on a book of essays titled Whose Knowledge Counts? From Warp Drive to Waka Huia. The book will be published by Bridget Williams Books, and will critically and creatively explore the tension between Indigenous and settler knowledge systems, focusing on the fundamental question of whose knowledge is prioritised in Aotearoa today.
Pounamu completed his PhD at Australian National University in 2020, following a Master of Arts in Anthropology with Distinction at the University of Otago where he also completed a Bachelor of Arts with Honours First Class in Māori Studies. In 2021, he receivedaFulbright-Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Scholar Award to study at Harvard University and the University of Hawai’i.
Director of the International Institute of Modern Letters, Damien Wilkins, says, “Pounamu is part of the new wave of Māori writers and thinkers re-drawing the cultural map of Aotearoa. His writing is witty, sophisticated, penetrating and highly accessible. We’re delighted to support him.”
Commenting on the appointment, Pounamu says, “Nōku te tino hōnore kia tū ki tēnei tūranga, kia mahi tahi ai kai te taha o ngā tuākana o te ao tuhi auaha, i ahau e tuhi ana i Whose Knowledge Counts? Kua pokea ngā whare wānanga o konei, o te ao whānui ki ngā ua taumahamaha, ana, he hōnore anō mōku te hoki hapori mai ki Te Herenga Waka, ki tēnei wāhi kua manaaki mai i ahau, kia manaakitia anō ai. Kia mahi tonu a Ngākau ki te whāngai i te mauri o te whare wānanga nei.”
“It is an honour to be appointed, and I am excited to work alongside tuākana in creative writing as I develop Whose Knowledge Counts? With universities subjected to increasing pressure throughout Aotearoa and the world, I am privileged to return to a community that has nourished me in the past, and does so once more, so I may contribute to the mauri of Te Herenga Waka.”
Pounamu takes up the residency at the IIML in February 2025.
