Maori health champion's double celebration

With his 45th wedding anniversary to wife Arohia today, Mason Durie was always going to be celebrating – even before he received a knighthood.

The Massey University professor has been awarded the honour for services to Maori health, and public health services in particular.

The knighthood is not only recognition for his work, but also for the support he has had from his wife, and for the progress made in Maori health by others, he says.

"There has been a transformation in the last 25 years. Before then, there was no real recognition that culture might make a difference to health."

He has accepted the knighthood as it is recognition of all those people who have helped make a difference, he says.

Within the past 25 years, the number of Maori health providers has gone from none to 270, and there have been significant improvements in Maori health, including life expectancy and immunisation rates.

He began his career as a psychiatrist, but felt himself shifting focus, partly due to a feeling among Maori that there was other work he could be doing. "There was no direct pressure, but expectations were high."

He moved from clinical practice to Massey University in 1988, where he set up the Maori Health Research Unit and later became deputy vice-chancellor.

During a career of providing national academic leadership in Maori health, he has been driven by wanting people to "take charge" of their own health.

- © Fairfax NZ News