NorthTec nurse educator Dr Pipi Barton honoured with premier Māori nursing award
NorthTec – Tai Tokerau Wānanga nurse educator Dr Pipi Barton (Waikato) has been presented with Te Akenehi Hei Memorial Award for Māori Nursing Excellence and Service, the premier award for Māori nursing in Aotearoa New Zealand.
NorthTec nurse educator Dr Pipi Barton honoured withpremier Māori nursing award
NorthTec –Tai Tokerau Wānanga nurse educator Dr Pipi Barton (Waikato) has been presentedwith Te Akenehi Hei Memorial Award for Māori Nursing Excellence and Service,the premier award for Māori nursing in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Dr Bartonreceived the award at the Indigenous Nurses Aotearoa Conference 2026 andHui-ā-Tau, held 13–16 Here-turi-kōkā (August) at Te Māhurehure Marae in TāmakiMakaurau (Auckland), where nurses from across the motu gathered under thekaupapa Huraina Te Matarau.
The award ispresented biennially by Te Rūnanga o Aotearoa, the national Māori nurses'organisation of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO), and is consideredits highest honour. It commemorates Akenehi Hei, a pioneering nurse from TeKaha and the first Māori nurse to register under her Māori name, who died in1910 while caring for others during a typhoid outbreak. Recipients arerecognised for rangatiratanga, manaakitanga, whanaungatanga, kaitiakitanga,courage and advocacy in advancing Māori health and wellbeing.
Dr Barton isrecognised for her years of dedication to Māori nursing education at NorthTec,where she led the development of Te Puawānanga Tapuhi Māori (Bachelor ofNursing Māori) — the institute's first dedicated Māori nursing degree — and nowdelivers the programme to students across Te Tai Tokerau. The three-year,Ngāwhā-based programme integrates mātauranga Māori into every stage of nursingeducation, drawing on kanohi ki te kanohi (face-to-face learning), wānanga,noho marae and tuakana-teina (mentoring) approaches, and is grounded in TeTiriti o Waitangi. It aims to grow a nursing workforce equipped to address thehealth inequities facing Māori communities.
DerekSlatter, Operations Lead: “On behalf of NorthTec Tai Tokerau Wananga, I extendmy warmest congratulations to Dr Pipi Barton on receiving the Te Akenehi HeiMemorial Award. This is a prestigious and well-deserved recognition of Pipi'slongstanding commitment to nursing, Māori health, and the success of ākongaacross Te Tai Tokerau. Through her leadership in developing and delivering TePuawānanga Tapuhi Māori, Pipi has helped create pathways that strengthen ourcommunities and the future healthcare workforce in Aotearoa New Zealand. We areincredibly proud of her achievement and the difference she continues to make.”
As part ofthe award, Dr Barton holds a taonga — a pounamu and stone piece created byMāori artists Paora Rangiuaia and James Webster, mounted in pūriri carved byJason Moka — in trust until the next recipient is named, and receives amedallion along with honorary life membership of Te Rūnanga o Aotearoa.
