Maarire GoodallAward
Te ORA’s most prestigious annual award, recognising and celebrating the contributions of Māori health professionals.
Proudly sponsored by the Maarire Goodall Charitable Trust
- Recognises
- Excellence in leadership and long service commitment in advancing Māori health
- Presented
- Annually at Te ORA’s Hui-ā-Tau
- Sponsor
- Maarire Goodall Charitable Trust
- 2026 recipient
- Dr Elana Curtis
About Maarire
Maarire Goodall, raised in Murihiku, was a doctor-scientist, a writer, a musician and composer, a philanthropist, and a social justice champion. In the words of his son, Anake, he was an “example of the potential we all have to turn up and make statements that matter and, through selfless action, improve the wellbeing and opportunities of those around us”.
He became an internationally feted Professor of cancer research specialising in genetics, carcinogenesis, radioactive tracers, the effects of inheritance and immunologic defects, dietary metals and organic toxins, the epidemiology and pathology of cancer, and theoretical studies using computer science, mathematics, virology and immunology.
He retired from cancer research in 1986 after a stint as the longest serving member of the WHO Expert Advisory Panel on Cancer.
Retirement meant immediately taking up a position as the first permanent judicial officer of the Waitangi Tribunal and helping to establish and direct tribunal procedures under their new legislation. He oversaw the hearing of claims including Bastion Point, Mangonui, Waiheke, Muriwhenua Fisheries, and the start of the Ngāi Tahu Fisheries, bringing his administrative and intellectual skills to bear on the issues in front of the tribunal, laying the foundation for the next 20 years of historical claim inquiries.
From 1990 he was Director and Editor of Aoraki Press Ltd, publishing Māori and English literature, music, history, and material of relevance to Ngāi Tahu and to New Zealand Māori interests. He worked with the Ngāi Tahu Māori Trust Board on major tribal projects and was a huge force in Ngāi Tahu development.
Anake said “he was perpetually curious and always – but always – interested in people and their journeys. Supporting emerging talent, in any field, to find its groove and flourish was a particular passion”. It is with these thoughts that Te ORA is proud to have the Maarire Goodall as its prestigious annual award supporting and celebrating one of our members contributions to the advancement of Māori health.
Dr Elana Curtis (Ngāti Rongomai, Ngāti Pikiao, Te Arawa) is a Public Health Medicine specialist and Chief Medical Officer (Maiaka Āpiha Hauora), Hauora Māori Services, Te Whatu Ora. Her career has been dedicated to advancing Māori health, supporting the development of the Māori health workforce, and addressing inequities within health and tertiary education.
Elana has been part of Te ORA since its earliest days. In 1996, she helped organise the first Māori Medical Practitioners’ conference at Waipapa Marae, which brought together around 30 Māori doctors, and became Te ORA’s first secretary. Thirty years later, Te ORA’s Hui-ā-Tau brings together hundreds of Māori doctors, medical students and whānau from across Aotearoa.
Before moving into her current role, Elana spent 16 years as an Associate Professor with Te Kupenga Hauora Māori at the University of Auckland. During this time she taught, supervised and mentored generations of Māori medical students and doctors, becoming an important role model and advocate for Māori success within medicine and the wider health workforce.
Her research has made a significant contribution to understanding Māori health inequities and Indigenous health workforce development. This includes research into Māori and Pacific student success and the Māori and Pacific Admission Scheme (MAPAS), and her Medical Doctorate examining Indigenous and ethnic minority health workforce development through the University of Auckland’s Vision 20:20 initiative. Her wider research has addressed inequities in emergency department care, breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, health service utilisation, racism and cultural safety.
Across her clinical, academic and leadership roles, Elana has remained a strong advocate for Māori health and for the generations of Māori health professionals coming through behind her. The Maarire Goodall Award recognises both that sustained contribution and the leadership, mentorship and service she has given to Te ORA and Māori health over the past three decades.
Associate Professor Bridget Robson (Ngāti Raukawa) is the Director of Te Rōpū Rangahau Hauora a Eru Pomare, and Associate Dean Māori at the University of Otago, Wellington. Bridget has a long-standing committment to measuring, monitoring and intervening in the social and economic determinants of health, and has spent many years researching Māori health and inequities in health care access and outcomes. She was involved in the foundational Hauora books on Māori health, contributing as an author to Hauora: Standards of Health III, and as a co-editor of Hauora: Māori Standards of Health IV and has been centrally involved in many other chartbooks and reports on Māori health.
Bridget has been a staunch advocate for ethnicity data and its central role in understanding Indigenous health. This has included important work to improve the quality of ethnicity data in vital statistics (birth and death registrations), in population census data, and in the health system. She has also contributed to the field internationally, for example, as one of the co-leads of the 2016 Lancet paper on “Indigenous and tribal peoples’ health”, that reported on health and wellbeing of Indigenous peoples globally.
Te ORA also acknowledges the years of mentorship and manaakitanga that Bridget has provided Maori medical students during their training. She inspires these next generations of Maori medical practitioners to stand proud in their identity as Maori while they become the next champions for Hauora Maori.
Recipients
| 2026 | Dr Elana Curtis | Waipapa Marae / University of Auckland |
| 2025 | Associate Professor Bridget Robson | Te Wānanga o Raukawa, Ōtaki |
| 2024 | Professor Bev Lawton | Rydges Hotel, Rotorua |
| 2023 | Dr Curtis Walker | The Pā, University of Waikato |
| 2022 | Professor Sue Crengle | Online Hui a-Tau – Aotearoa |
| 2020 | Dr Diana Kopua | Online Hui a-Tau – Aotearoa |
| 2019 | Dr Rawiri Jansen | Te Wananga o Aotearoa Ki Porirua |
| 2017 | Dr Matire Harwood | Te Wananga o Aotearoa Ki Porirua |
| 2016 | Professor John Broughton | Papakura Marae |
| 2015 | Dr Len Cook | Tu Toa, Tai Wananga, Palmerston North |
| 2014 | Hon. Tariana Turia | Whangaehu Marae, Whangarei |
| 2013 | Dr Joanne Baxter | Kuratini Marae, Massey University |
| 2012 | Dr Madeleine Wall | Korou Kore Marae, Ahipara |
| 2011 | Taima Campbell | Makaurau Marae, Mangere |
| 2010 | Mr Hayden Wano | Parihaka |
| 2009 | Dr Peter Jansen | Whanganui-ā-Tara |
| 2008 | Mata Forbes | Porangahau |
| 2007 | Dr Errol Raumati | Tangata Marae, Matamata |
| 2006 | Dr David Tipene-Leach | Jet Inn, Manukau |
| 2005 | Dr Tom Ellison | Waahi Pa, Huntly |
| 2004 | Dr Erihana Ryan | Otakou |
| 2003 | Prof Mason Durie | Maunga Tapu, Tauranga |
| 2002 | Dr Colin Mantell | Owae, Waitara |
| 2001 | Dr Tony Ruakere | Rotoiti |
| 2000 | Dr Papaarangi Reid | Tolaga Bay |
| 1999 | Dr Henry Rongomau Bennett | Hongoeka |
| 1998 | Dr Paratene Ngata | Waipapa, Tamaki |
| 1997 | – | Waipapa, Tamaki |
Dr Maarire Goodall (1935 – 2015)
Dr. Maarire Goodall (1935 – 2015) Founding Member of Te ORA, Civil Rights Activist, Philanthropist.
Dr Maarire Goodall (Ngāi Tahu) graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and a Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) from the then University of New Zealand in 1959. Maarire served in Wakaari & Dunedin Hospitals, then studied carcinogenesis and endocrinology, graduating with an M.D. research degree in 1963 from the University of Otago – becoming ‘Dr Doctor’ to some (but Moeraki elders always called him Dr Spock).
He moved to the United States on a postdoc fellowship, and went on to work for nearly four years in the Chicago Medical School’s Institute for Medical Research where he became a Professor of Oncology. During his time in Chicago he was part of the “Freedom Riders” – groups of mainly young idealists from the north who rode buses into the heart of the southern states in support of the African American struggle for the right to vote in the South, and equality everywhere. They often got beaten up for their trouble. Several died.
In 1966 Maarire was called home to take up the opportunity of Head of the Department of Cancer Research at the University of Otago (1966-1985). After serving nearly twenty years with the Department he was about to take up a tenured professorship in the National Cancer Institute (and University of Maryland, USA), but at the last minute was asked instead to assist with research and procedure for the new Waitangi Tribunal. Maarire worked on establishing the Waitangi Tribunal for the next five years until cardiovascular ill health supervened.
During his career Maarire founded two charitable cancer research trusts: the Cancer Research Trust, and the Institute for Cancer Research Trust. Together these provide a large capital endowment that supports a full time research professor and several other cancer researchers at the University of Otago.
Amongst his other interests and achievements Maarire worked and studied Buddhism in Thailand early in his career; founded the Manawapopore Trust, focussed especially on Ngāi Tahu studies and Māori culture; then once ‘retired’ in late 1989 he became a gentleman publisher (his own description) founding the Aoraki Press which published Harry Evison’s history of the southern Māori, “Te Waipounamu”. The book won both the 1993 NZ Author’s Award and Montana non-fiction Book of the Year.
Maarire is well remembered by many Māori graduates of Otago Medical School.
“He called us together on a regular basis to feed us, support us and encourage us. It should be noted that to my knowledge he never cooked (unless it was a Māori Club hāngi) – he was well known to many Chinese restaurants and would cater for the gatherings of medical students by collecting chow mein or KFC party packs!” – recollection provided by Dr Rawiri Jansen.
Dr Tipene-Leach asked Maarire to join moves to establish Te ORA. Before the first AGM, when he was in Wellington Hospital having cardiac surgery and acutely aware of his own mortality, he established the Maarire Goodall Award for excellence in serving Māori and Pasifika health.
Maarire’s estate includes an endowment that supports the Award. The Maarire Goodall Award acknowledges and honours mid-career medical professionals who exemplify manaaki and are positive role models for younger generations. It is awarded annually with the recipients selected by members of the Te ORA executive. The Award is associated with the Maarire Goodall Oration which gives the recipient the opportunity to address the Te ORA membership.
Many of Dr Goodall’s original scientific papers, some tribal essays, and other information is available at www.academia.edu (search: Maarire Goodall), or in a few academic theses. Another recent account is in the Otago Medical School 50th year Graduation Reunion book “Leaders of the Future” (pp. 70-72) compiled by Dr H. Bramwell Cook, to whom thanks are due for the photograph.
Maarire was a lifelong student of the Māori language and its use in all of the traditional forms, and composed a number of waiata. One of his favourite whakatauākī is also one of the shortest:
“Kia ita!” – “Stay tight, Remain close together!”
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