Two wāhine Māori scholars will get the chance to pursue their studies overseas after winning the Fulbright Graduate and Scholar Awards.
Hinekura Smith (Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi) from Northland has won the Fulbright-Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Scholar Award.
She was feeling very humble and privileged by the honour, but said it only hit her at the awards presentation with her family beside her.
Smith’s studies are focused on whatu kākahu or creating traditionally woven cloaks and she will research Native American and Native Hawai’ian women’s traditional clothing-making as a decolonising and culturally regenerative arts practice at the University of Washington and the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa.
The scholarship would give her the chance to sit and learn with indigenous women and to build relationships with other indigenous cultures, she said.
The annual Fulbright-Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Scholar Award is valued at up to US$37,500 for three to five months of teaching and/or research at US institutions.
Olsen said the award was a huge honour for her and her whānau and she was feeling over the moon.
Her studies were focused on strengthening the role Māori whānau and communities played in repairing the harm caused by criminal offending.
Olsen will complete a Master of Laws at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The Fulbright scholarship would give her the chance to be involved in the criminal justice reform work happening in the United States, she said.
