Focus on political economy & Te Ao Māori a winning combination

Maria Bargh's work on political economies and the environment is focused on Māori communities and has won her the 2020 Te Puāwaitanga Award.

Interweaving her knowledge of political economy and environmental issues with local Government and Maori communities has won Associate Professor Maria Bargh this year's Te Puāwaitanga Award from the Royal Society Te Apārangi.

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The biannual Te Puāwaitanga Award is made in recognition of research that has made an eminent and distinctive contribution to Te Ao Māori and indigenous knowledge.

The 2020 award has gone to Maria, who is in the Māori Studies Department at Victoria University of Wellington.

The Royal Society Te Apārangi says that Associate Professor Bargh has two interweaving strands of work-political economy and environment-that contribute to self-determination for Māori, build Māori and Indigenous knowledges and practices, and are radically reshaping how Aotearoa New Zealand responds to environmental issues.

She is interested in climate change, biodiversity and renewable energy, both as it affects her own hapu as well as its wider impact on Māori communities.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details