2012 Symposium Enhancing Māori Distinctiveness
Mātauranga Māori and Science: Dr Ocean Mercer
Dr Ocean Ripeka Mercier (Ngāti Porou) is a Lecturer in Te Kawa a Māui (School of Māori Studies) at Victoria University of Wellington. In 2002 she became the first Māori woman to gain a PhD in Physics. Dr Mercier’s current teaching and research explores the interface between Māori and indigenous knowledge and science in tertiary and secondary educational contexts. She is the presenter of Project Mātauranga, a 13-part science series commissioned for Māori Television. She leads the Te Kawa a Māui Atlas project, which seeks to enhance student engagement through a digital publication of mapbased student research. Due partly to this work she received a Victoria University Teaching Excellence Award in 2011, and in 2012 she won an Ako Aotearoa National Tertiary Teaching Excellence Award for teaching in a Kaupapa Māori context.