We are delighted to have confirmed the following three keynote speakers for the conference: Rob Small (Ngāpuhi), Professor Tania Li from the National University of Singapore; and Professor Miranda Mirosa, of the University of Otago.
ROB SMALL (Ngāpuhi)
Rob Small has had a distinguished career in Parks and the Environment. He is a former President of the International Federation of Parks, Chair of Livcom (the World’s Most Liveable Communities organisation), and the former Director of Auckland’s Regional Parks and Botanic Gardens. He is a Fellow of the International Federation of Parks and holds that organisation’s highest award, the Ian Galloway Award for Distinguished Contribution to Parks Management.
He has his roots in the northern Māori Iwi, Ngāpuhi. He holds degrees in horticulture, landscape architecture, business management and te reo and tikanga.
In his later years he has been working with the central Auckland Iwi, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, in constructing an Indigenous garden that embodies Māori science and tikanga: in his terms, the first ethnobotanic garden in Aotearoa New Zealand. You can read about his work on this 33-hectare organic Māori rongoā garden, food garden, nursery and proposed weavers’ and carving garden, here.
PROFESSOR TANIA LI
Yusof Ishak Professor in Social Sciences in the Department of Malay Studies, National University of Singapore
Her publications include Plantation Life: Corporate Occupation of Indonesia’s Oil Palm Zone (Duke University Press, 2021) co-authored with Pujo Semedi (Universitas Gadjah Mada), Land’s End: Capitalist Relations on an Indigenous Frontier (Duke University Press, 2014), Powers of Exclusion: Land Dilemmas in Southeast Asia (with Derek Hall and Philip Hirsch, NUS Press, 2011), The Will to Improve: Governmentality, Development, and the Practice of Politics (Duke University Press, 2007) and Malays in Singapore: Culture, Economy and Ideology (Oxford University Press, 1989).
Website: https://www.taniali.org/
DR GEORGE SLIM
George is a consultant with Rhadegund Life Sciences Ltd, working with organisations to provide policy advice, access to science knowledge, assist with funding sources, and consulting on strategy in the management of research and intellectual property.
George graduated from Otago University in 1986 with a PhD in Chemistry. He worked in Cambridge UK, at the University and the MRC’s Laboratory for Molecular Biology, for his OE before returning to New Zealand to work at the CRI Industrial Research Ltd. on bioactive natural products, particularly carbohydrates. Drawn to the Grey Side, he spent time with New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and the Ministry of Research Science and Technology, where he was Director Emerging Technologies, which, for reasons, included Food.
On receiving his redundancy from MoRST in 2011 he started Rhadegund and has worked for a variety of organisations across the science and innovation landscape, run an industry association and been a surrogate entrepreneur. For six years he was Senior Policy Advisor to Professor Dame Juliet Gerrard, the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor, maintaining a presence in Wellington for her office.
KEYNOTE ABSTRACTS
Rob’s keynote: An Ethnobotanic Garden in Aotearoa/New Zealand.
In this talk, Rob will give his account of his work alongside central Auckland Iwi, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, to construct an Indigenous garden that embodies Māori science and tikanga: in his terms, the first ethnobotanic garden in Aotearoa New Zealand. This provides insights into rongoā (healing), that relates the plants, to spirituality of the hinengaro (mind), the brain and mental wellness, and physical wellness, in a holistic understanding of hauora (health).
Tania’s keynote: Autonomy versus Occupation: Contrasting political-economic formations on Indonesia’s agrarian frontiers
Agricultural export production is expanding in Indonesia’s frontier regions, in two different forms: smallholder based, and corporate/ plantation based. Neither form is food-first, yet they are far from equivalent. They position farmers in quite different sets of economic, political and social relations with long term, probably irreversible implications for futures on the land. Scholars and activists need to attend not only to the crops that are grown but also- and I will argue more urgently – to the relations of production, and the forms of life they enable or disallow.
George’s keynote: Navigating Complexity in Research Advice to Government — Lessons from the Office of the PMCSA’s Food Loss and Waste Project
Food loss and waste are a challenge, with 40% of food produced globally wasted each year, generating profound environmental, social, and economic costs. When food goes to waste, the resources used throughout the food supply chain are also wasted, including the labour, energy, productive land, and water needed to produce, process, distribute, market, and prepare it, while simultaneously representing a missed opportunity to feed people.
While reducing food loss and waste appears to enjoy broad societal agreement, preparing our series of reports on the situation in New Zealand revealed the complexities of trying to develop actionable science advice for government. I will look at managing tensions between short-term value capture and long-term prevention strategies, limitations in baseline data for evidence-based policymaking, and the need to balance rescue and redistribution efforts against structural interventions that address root causes. From this report and other projects from our Office I will try to draw some lessons for researchers navigating the often contested space between evidence and policy.