Speakers

The committee are delighted to announce the following speakers:

Professor Alistair Woodward

Alistair Woodward is a public health doctor and epidemiologist, who currently works at the University of Auckland. For more than twenty years he has studied, written on, and agitated for action on climate change to protect human health and well-being. He has been involved with the IPCC since the third assessment in the early 2000s, and was a lead author for the chapter on Australia and New Zealand in AR6.

Dr Anna Rolleston

Dr Anna Rolleston is Managing Director of The Centre for Health. Her vision and lifelong mission is to create a healthcare system that works for you and with you. A system where you are fully informed of your choices and where you get to choose your own pathway to better health and well-being. The philosophy at The Centre for Health is grounded in values that come from a Māori worldview and acknowledges an all-of-person, and culturally appropriate approach to health and well-being regardless of your cultural context.

Anna leads the philosophical direction on behalf of the Centre for Health team. Anna is a leading voice in health. She is a recognised health practitioner and health researcher and holds various governance roles within the health sector. She is currently co-director of the Healthy Hearts for Aotearoa New Zealand, Centre of Research Excellence hosted from the University of Auckland which is a collective of researchers, health professionals and community organisations focussed on improving heart health outcomes for Māori, Pacific People and women.

Dan Hikuroa

Dan Hikuroa (Ngāti Maniapoto, Waikato-Tainui, Ngaati Whanaunga) is a father, surfer, paddle-boarder, gardener and loves the taiao and Associate Professor in Māori Studies, Waipapa Taumata Rau,University of Auckland and an established world expert on weaving indigenous knowledge and science to realise the dreams of the communities he works with. Dan is UNESCO New Zealand Commissioner for Culture, has key roles within New Zealand’s Centres of Research Excellence, National Science Challenges and advises national and regional government, communities and philanthropic trusts. Dan is spearheading alternative ways of assessing sustainability, including weaving indigenous knowledge and epistemologies with science and into legislation, assessment frameworks and decision-support tools.

Dr Ihirangi Heke

Dr Heke is of Waikato Tainui descent but was raised in the South Island mountain environment of Queenstown long before it was a popular area for tourists. Over the past 25 years Dr Heke has been active in helping Māori and other indigenous groups abroad, build their own health and wellness activities based on their traditional environmental knowledge. In this capacity, Dr Heke was awarded a research grant by Johns Hopkins University to compare Systems Science and Māori Environmental Connections. Dr Heke retains an honorary research fellow position to the University of Auckland’s Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and was recently contracted to consult to Google X’s diversity initiative to address unconscious bias.

India Miro Logan-Riley

India Miro Logan-Riley (they/them) was raised in the Heretaunga Plains, a bountiful place circled by mountains and the rising Pacific Ocean. They are a mokopuna of Ngāti Kahungunu, Rongomaiwahine, and Rangitāne.

India is the climate justice organiser at ActionStation, a multi-issue campaigning organisation in Aotearoa (New Zealand). They also work as a community researcher for Generation Kāinga, a project uplifting the aspirations that young Māori have for diverse housing that takes into account culture, resilience and climate change.

They bring a background in heritage spaces and lived experience of climate injustice, drawing on a broad range of experiences from UN climate negotiations to grassoots work on #landback campaigns with young Māori and Pasifika. India dreams of resilient communities where everyone is safe and joyful.

Associate Professor Jemaima Tiatia

Jemaima Tiatia is the Pro Vice-Chancellor Pacific and an Associate Professor in Pacific Studies at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland. She is of Samoan descent and has a community and public health background. She was one of six panellists on the New Zealand Government’s 2018 Mental Health and Addiction Inquiry and is a Board Member for the nation’s inaugural Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission. Her research interests include Pacific Studies, mental health, well-being, Pacific suicide prevention and postvention, youth development, climate change and health inequities.

Johnnie Freeland

Johnnie Freeland (Ngaati Te Ata Waiohua, Ngai Tūhoe) is a wayfinder, systems navigator and whakapapa centred designer. He brings together more than 30 years’ knowledge and lived experience of serving community and in guiding and navigating a range of Iwi, Māori community and public sector organisations in working to achieve better outcomes with Māori.

He utilises mātauranga Māori – Māori knowledge systems thinking, knowledge and practice in navigating systems. He draws on specific knowledge and practice of maramataka – lunar celestial cycles and whakatere waka – waka navigation in designing Oranga Motuhake (well-being pathways), with whānau, hapū, iwi and organisations.

Johnnie has helped navigate a whakapapa centred response to climate change within Tāmaki Makaurau, through the Tāmaki Makaurau Mana Whenua Forum. In partnering with the Auckland Council, together they worked to harness the benefits of drawing on mātauranga Māori knowledge and western science to navigate a way forward for Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland through the co-development of Te Tāruke-a-Tawhiri – Auckland’s Climate Plan.

He is also worked with the Te Waiohua Iwi of Te Ākitai, Ngāti Tāmaoho and Ngāti Te Ata, in leading and underpinning Te Whakaoranga o te Puhinui – Puhinui Regeneration programme alongside Auckland Council, Manurewa and Ōtara Papatoetoe Local Boards, Eke Pānuku and Kainga Ora, focused on regenerating the ecological, social, cultural and economic well-being of the Puhinui stream and its communities.

Dr Karen Lavin

Karen Lavin has more than 15 years’ experience working at the science-policy interface on a range of issues relating to climate change and the environment. She is currently the Adaptation Manager at He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission, and is focused on establishing the Commission’s independent adaptation and monitoring functions. Prior to that, she led work on equitable transitions and emissions budgets analysis at the Commission. In her former role with the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Karen led independent environmental investigations on topics such as sea level rise and a Zero Carbon Act. She holds a PhD in Environmental Chemistry.

Niki Harré

Niki is a professor at the University of Auckland specialising in community psychology and the psychology of sustainability. Her research addresses issues of sustainability, citizenship, values, and political activism. In 2007 she co-edited the book Carbon Neutral by 2020: How New Zealanders Can Tackle Climate Change. Her two most recent books are Psychology for a Better World: Strategies to Inspire Sustainability and The Infinite Game: How to Live Well Together. Niki gives many talks and workshops to community and government organisations about how to inspire action for a more sustainable future. She is coordinator of a three-course module on Sustainability for Arts and Science students and is currently Head of the School of Psychology.

Tiana Jakicevich

Tiana Jakicevich is a descendant of Ngāti Kahungungu ki Te Wairoa, Te Whakatōhea and Croatian heritage. Hailing from the East coast of Aotearoa, Tiana grew up surrounded by the forest and oceans of her ancestors. She holds an intrinsic understanding that the solutions to the climate crisis are tied to the decolonisation and restoration of indigenous knowledge systems and relationships with people and place. She is passionate about the restoration of whakapapa for the regeneration of papatūānuku and is actively involved in various environmental and climate justice kaupapa both locally in Aotearoa and internationally within UN mechanisms and indigenous peoples from around the world.

Vicktoria Blake

Vicktoria Blake is currently acting as the Head of Sustainability for Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand and has been the Project Lead for their Climate Change Working Group since November 2021. Currently taking a national lens to her work, Vicktoria also spends a lot of time engaging locally in environmental spaces including climate risk and adaptation, biodiversity, transport solutions and waste.

With a bachelor’s degree in business management and master’s in environmental management, Vicktoria brings a balanced approach to organisational sustainability, with a strong theme of “environment first”.

Vicktoria is very focused on what the future will look like for her son and his children and does her best to take a hopeful solutions-focused approach to resilience, sustainability, and emissions reduction.