Anne Salmond

Anne Salmond (born November 16, 1945, Wellington, New Zealand) is a New Zealand anthropologist and historian best known for her writings on New Zealand history, her study of Maori culture, and her efforts to improve intercultural understanding between Maori and Pakeha (people of European ancestry) New Zealanders.

Salmond grew up in Gisborne, a small town on the east coast of New Zealand. When she was a teenager, she won a scholarship to study for a year at a high school in the United States (Cleveland Heights, Ohio). She later regarded her study abroad as a formative experience, in which she discovered anthropology, met other scholarship winners from all over the world, and traveled across the United States.When she was invited to the White House as part of a group of scholarship winners, she was inspired by the words of Pres. John F. Kennedy, who convinced the visitors of their ability to change the world. Back in New Zealand, Salmond enrolled at the University of Auckland and began learning the Maori language. She later studied anthropology there (M.A., 1968) and at the University of Pennsylvania (Ph.D., 1972). In 1971 Salmond began teaching full-time at the University of Auckland, and by 2001 she had become Distinguished Professor of Maori Studies and Anthropology there.

Salmond’s award-winning books on the colonial history of New Zealand emphasized the cultural interactions and mutual influences between Europeans and Maori. In Two Worlds: First Meetings Between Maori and Europeans, 1642–1772 (1991), she detailed the first encounters between Polynesians and Europeans. Going against the grain of a common historical narrative, which cast indigenous peoples as the passive subjects of colonialism, Two Worlds depicted the Maori as equally active participants in an event of mutual discovery. She explored these cultural exchanges through the prism of Capt. James Cook’s voyages and the deep influence that Polynesians had on his crew and on Cook himself in Between Worlds: Early Exchanges Between Maori and Europeans, 1773–1815 (1997) and its sequel, The Trial of the Cannibal Dog: The Remarkable Story of Captain Cook’s Encounters in the South Seas (2003). These and other works earned Salmond a level of popularity rarely experienced by nonfiction writers in New Zealand, and she was widely applauded for deepening New Zealanders’ understanding of their own history.

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Salmond also championed social and environmental causes, such as the ecological restoration of the Longbush Ecosanctuary near Gisborne and the Starpath Project, which was dedicated to improving the educational experiences and prospects of underachieving high school students. She advocated a consensus-based approach to public policy debate, arguing, for instance, that common ground could be found between business and industry on the one hand and environmentalists on the other.

In addition to the aforementioned books, Salmond wrote Hui: A Study of Maori Ceremonial Gatherings (1975), Aphrodite’s Island: The European Discovery of Tahiti (2009), Bligh: William Bligh in the South Seas (2011), and numerous articles in scholarly journals. She also hosted the TV series Artefact (2018– ). Salmond’s many honours included election to the British Academy (2008) and to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (2009). In 1995 she was awarded the rank of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in recognition of her contributions to the historiography of New Zealand.