'New Zealand flavour' to Sir Mason Durie's latest honour
Wednesday, 30 December 2020
He has a knighthood, honorary doctorates and more than 40 years of transforming Māori health, but Mason Durie’s latest accolade resonates with him because of its New Zealand flavour.
Durie, 82, has spent his career advocating for Māori and public health, and he has now been awarded the highest accolade in the New Year Honours, being made a member of the Order of New Zealand, which is limited to 20 living people.
“The thing about it is it’s New Zealand’s own order,” Durie said, sitting in his favourite chair at home in Feilding. “All the others have been inspired by Britain, like the knighthood, the Order of the British Empire, all those things.
“That’s what is distinctive about this one. If there’s a reason I feel honoured to be part of it, it’s because it’s got a New Zealand flavour to it.
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“The people in it are a pretty broad cross-section. You’ve got sportsmen there on one hand and politicians on the other.”
The honour has a broad focus and recognises Durie’s contribution to tertiary education, health and Māori development.
His career has been dedicated to improving Māori health, championing higher education for Māori and the pursuit of innovations in health, and things have changed a lot in his life.
“The biggest change that I can see is that things we take for granted now, we didn’t take them for granted even 20 years ago.
“Even in the 1970s when I came back from overseas things were very different than they are now. It’s reflected in a number of ways, reflected in our workforce, a huge change.
“There used to be two Māori enrolled in medicine a year and that was considered fantastic. Now there’s 40 a year in Otago and there’s Auckland on top of that. That would have been unheard of.
“I’m not taking credit for that, but it reflects a changing society that we live in.”
The work force, life expectancy for Māori, which has increased in the past 60 years, and participation in education were measures of change.
Durie said there were great things happening in Manawatū and one example was Palmerston North school Manukura, which fosters academic, cultural and sporting excellence in Māori students.
“The good thing about [Manukura] is it doesn't focus on what’s wrong… We expect you’re going to excel, not just pass, but excel. You put that expectation out and it becomes the norm.”
Durie was chairman of the trust when the school was formed and it has been operating at the old teachers' college in Hokowhitu since 2005.
But a new school will be built on land at Massey University, which is a way of breaking barriers between tertiary and secondary education.
Through his career Durie, who became New Zealand's second Māori psychiatrist, has served on various boards and groups, and received accolades from multiple health organisations.
He was chairman of the ministerial taskforce on Whānau Ora, has worked in suicide prevention and was on the panel for the Government's inquiry into mental health and addiction, which was released in 2018.
A Massey emeritus professor, he established Massey's school of Māori studies and ran it for 14 years, was Massey's first assistant vice-chancellor Māori, was the instigator of Massey's college of health and was deputy vice-chancellor for three years.
He also played a key role in establishing other health centres and fostered Māori-focused health education, research and training.
He was awarded the Blake Medal, the premium award for leadership in New Zealand in 2017, was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2001 and knighted in 2010.
Other members of the order include former prime ministers Helen Clark and Jim Bolger, Olympic runner Murray Halberg, singer Kiri Te Kanawa, scientist Peter Gluckman and author Joy Cowley.