PROGRAM

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Program is subject to change, last updated on 19 June 1100 (NZT).

Please find below an outline of the Congress program, a full program can be viewed by clicking above. All days and times are displayed in NZST (New Zealand Standard Time).

Time	Session
10.00am - 5.00pm	Local marae visit (optional)

Time	Session
9.00am - 12.00pm	DHST Council Meeting #1
12.00pm - 3.00pm	Registration open (collect Congress name badge)
3.00pm - 4.00pm	Congress opening ceremony
4.00pm - 5.00pm	Plenary: He wai nō Ruawhetū \| The flow of knowledge from the stars Victoria Campbell Chair: Angela Wanhalla The observation and identification of celestial bodies have been practiced since the establishment of ancient civilizations, shaping cultures, and deepening our understanding of the natural world. The application of astronomical knowledge is evident in timekeeping, seasonal changes, and navigation. Across the Pacific, celestial knowledge is widely celebrated, and in Aotearoa, the recent establishment of the Matariki public holiday highlights the value of indigenous knowledge and practices. In Aotearoa, the corpus of indigenous astronomical knowledge varies among different iwi, reflecting regional variations in its application and interpretation. This session will focus on Southern Māori astronomical knowledge, exploring its uses, significance, and contemporary relevance.
5.00 - 6.30pm	Welcome reception The Link, University of Otago

Time	Session
9.00am - 10.30am	Plenary: Whakatuputupu: Intergenerational Journeys in Science, Sovereignty, and Story Panelists: Justine Camp, Khyla Russell, Takiwai Russell-Camp Chair: Clemency Montelle Whakatuputupu (growing future generations, intergenerational) speaks to intergenerational growth, renewal, and the flourishing of knowledge grounded in whakapapa. In this plenary, three generations of wāhine Māori (Māori women) —Emerita Professor Khyla Russell, Associate Professor Justine Camp, and Takiwai Russell-Camp—come together to reflect on their shared and distinct journeys across science, sovereignty, and storytelling. Drawing from Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe and Waitaha traditions (the tradtions of the south island indigenous peoples), this session explores how Indigenous knowledge is passed down, adapted, and transformed through time. Each speaker brings a unique perspective on navigating institutions such as universities, research collectives, and health systems, while holding fast to tikanga and intergenerational responsibility. We centre the stories that shape us—stories of colonisation, resistance, recovery, and future-making. Our kōrero (talk) examines the tension and synergy between Indigenous and Western knowledge systems, and how mātauraka Māori (Maori knowledge systems) not only endures but leads innovation in education, research, and Hauora (health and well-being). This session asks: How do we honour the knowledge of our tupuna (ancestors) while preparing the ground for mokopuna yet to come? What does tino rangatiratanga (collective self determination) look like across generations? How do our stories act as vessels of science, memory, and possibility? We offer this kōrero as a living example of whakatuputupu in action—an unfolding journey shaped by deep roots and a shared vision of transformation. In doing so, we invite participants to reflect on their own intergenerational relationships with knowledge and the role of story in sustaining sovereignty and shaping futures.
10.30am - 11.00am	Morning tea
11.00am - 12.30pm	Concurrent sessions (stand-alone papers and Symposium)
12.30pm - 1.30pm	Lunch
1.30pm - 3.00pm	Concurrent sessions (stand-alone papers and Symposium)
3.00pm - 3.30pm	Afternoon tea
3.30pm - 5.00pm	Concurrent sessions (stand-alone papers and Symposium)
6.00pm - 7.30pm	Public panel: Historical and contemporary issues in conservation and the environment Panelists: Ruth Morgan, Brendan Flack, Catriona MacLeod, Philip Seddon Chair: Mark Hanger Conservation concerns have been and continue to be at the forefront of environmental research. Come and hear experts in ecotourism, de-extinction, predator-free NZ, fisheries management, sustainability and climate adaptation discuss some hard issues.

Time	Session
9.00am - 10.30am	Plenary: The nuclear legacy: the Pacific region from testing ground to global disarmament advocacy Panelists: Robert Bo Jacobs, Hinamouera Morgant-Cross, David Robie, Karly Burch Chair: Simone Turchetti The Pacific region and New Zealand have played and play a pivotal role in nuclear disarmament campaigns especially by sponsoring the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) at the United Nations. This advocacy is rooted in the region's experience as a testing ground during the Cold War as the US carried out its nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands, the UK in Australia and France in Polynesia. The consequences of these nuclear explosions are still felt today through (at times fatal) health issues for local survivors, environmental damage and a streak to compensation claims now nurturing a new disarmament movement seeking to inform global decision making on nuclear weapons. Above and beyond these issues, the quest for nuclear justice and disarmament runs counter global asymmetries as Pacific (especially indigenous) voices continue to be underrepresented in decision-making on nuclear weapons. This roundtable seeks therefore to explore regional and global connections between nuclear past and present in an open dialogue between scholars and campaigners envisioning a nuclearly disarmed future.
10.30am - 11.00am	Morning tea
11.00am - 12.30pm	Concurrent sessions (stand-alone papers and Symposium)
12.30pm - 1.30pm	Lunch
1.30pm - 3.00pm	Concurrent sessions (stand-alone papers and Symposium)
3.00pm - 3.30pm	Afternoon tea
3.30pm - 5.00pm	Concurrent sessions (stand-alone papers and Symposium)
5.00pm - 6.00pm	IAHS plenary: Has our Present Past a Future? Challenges Abound, Opportunities Remain Roy MacLeod in conversation with Gary Werskey Since its beginnings in 1927, the IAHS has witnessed nearly a century of what we’ve come to call modern science, against a background of war and civil strife, population growth, and profound economic and social change. At the same time, we have seen modernity challenged by the rapid growth of knowledge and by the complex applications of technology it has been asked to celebrate. Over the last century, from a handful of independent, mostly European scholars and thinkers has risen a thriving profession. Yet, wearing the colours of many countries, the field has had a vertiginous journey. Many have asked where we are going, what are we trying to do. How does the profession see itself in the academic calendar? What media and methods of analysis are essential to our task? How may we best serve our students, while engaging with a wider, often critical audience? To these questions, there are no easy answers. Over 50 years ago, Arnold Thackray brought this continuing debate into a contemporary focus by asking, ‘Has Science’s Present Past a Future?’ Since his paper of 1970, Thackray’s question has been answered in many ways. But arguably every generation should ask it of itself. This session will again take the question to heart. We have chosen to frame it in the form of a conversation between us, in which we retrace milestones in our professional histories, and recount the influence of people, places and challenges we’ve met in our travels across the USA, Europe, and Australia.
6.00pm - 8.00pm	Cocktail reception Otago Business School, University of Otago

Time	Session
9.00am - 10.30am	Concurrent sessions (stand-alone papers and Symposium)
10.30am - 11.00am	Morning tea
11.00am - 12.30pm	Concurrent sessions (stand-alone papers and Symposium)
12.30pm - 1.30pm	Lunch
1.30pm - 3.00pm	Concurrent sessions (stand-alone papers and Symposium)
3.00pm - 3.30pm	Afternoon tea
3.00pm - 6.00pm	DHST General Assembly #1 (online)
3.30pm - 5.00pm	Concurrent sessions (stand-alone papers and Symposium)
6.00pm - 7.30pm	Public plenary: History of Medicine in the Pacific Panel Panelists: Kerri Inglis, W. Matt Cavert, Safua Akeli Amaama Chair: Susan Lederer The three members of this panel will draw on their areas of expertise to discuss major issues involving the history of medicine and health in the Pacific region. Kerri Inglis, from the University of Hawaiʻi Hilo, specializes in research in the history of health, disease, and medicine, especially as it pertains to Hawaiʻi and the Pacific, within a global context. She has devoted her career to studying the history of leprosy in Hawaiʻi and has conducted extensive research on patients’ experience at Kalaupapa Peninsula on Molokai prior to 1900. Safua Akeli Amaama, the former Head of History and Pacific Cultures at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa who has recently taken up a new role in Germany at the Üebersee-Museum in Bremen, has a particular interest in Pacific-New Zealand relations and has also studied the development of public health care in Samoa during the twentieth century, including the colonial organization of leprosy care during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. William Cavert, from the University of Hawaiʻi West Oʻahu, is an expert on the French colonial Pacific. He has published scholarly articles on the history of the 1918 influenza pandemic in Tahiti and an outbreak of bubonic plague in New Caledonia around 1900. Cavert has also analyzed different responses to the 1918 influenza pandemic in other Pacific islands, including American Samoa, and has examined lessons learned from the 1918 pandemic for responses in different territories, including Hawaiʻi, to the recent COVID pandemic.

Time	Session
7.30am - 11.00am	DHST General Assembly #2 (online)
9.00am - 10.30am	Concurrent sessions (stand-alone papers and Symposium)
10.30am - 11.15am	Morning tea
11.15am - 12.45pm	DHST Award Ceremony
12.45pm - 1.30pm	Congress closing ceremony
4.00pm - 7.00pm	DHST Council Meeting #2