University of Otago geography department head Michelle Thompson-Fawcett has received the 2018 Distinguished New Zealand Geographer Award and Medal, after working in the field of Maori and indigenous geography for 35 years.
Prof Thompson-Fawcett said her work was about the ''politics of place'', and her main interests were in the cultural and social side of geography.
She became interested in indigenous geography after growing up in Auckland, close to Bastion Pt, the site of protests by Maori against forced land alienation in the late 1970s.
Examples of her work included researching the efficacy of iwi environmental management plans, and looking at different options for managing the cultural landscape.
''It's very good to have this kind of research agenda recognised and celebrated. I work in an area where those kind of Maori, indigenous knowledge or understandings have often not been well recognised.''
Otago University's Etienne Nel and PhD candidate Jerram Bateman also received awards, for service to the geographical society and best doctoral thesis respectively.
Prof Nel's award recognises seven years as managing editor and chairman of the editorial board of New Zealand Geographer, the society's journal.
Dr Bateman's thesis explored continuity and change in rural livelihoods in two small and remote communities in Sierra Leone, over a 40-year period.
