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Associate Professorship to EIT

January 23, 2012

Derek Lardelli

Steve Gibbs

Associate Professorship to EIT Tairawhiti stalwarts Derek Lardelli and Steve Gibbs have been awarded new academic positions in a significant new step that recognises EIT’s growing academic strength as a tertiary educator. The founding tutors of EIT Tairawhiti’s Toihoukura School of Maori Visual Arts are two of six associate professors appointed following a recommendation from an independent review to create the  positions.

It is the first time international appointments of this nature have been made by EIT.

Lardelli and Gibbs are the only two from Gisborne’s Tairawhiti campus, and are joined by the Hawkes Bay based Peter Bray, Rachel Forrest, Carl Paton and Michael Verhaart, in receiving the accolade.

Gibbs is internationally recognised as a painter and educationalist. In 2011, he was invited to facilitate a series of painting workshops in Leiden, Netherlands focusing on Maori indigenous art forms, and his relationship with the Museum Volken Kunde has been ongoing for the past two years.

His work has been exhibited the world over, and he is currently working towards the completion of a PhD in the Maori Visual Arts field, while also leading a project around painted waka hoe collected by Captain James Cook, for a major exhibition in 2013. Derek Lardelli is considered New Zealand’s leading Ta Moko expert, and is highly regarded for work across a variety of art media and his cultural consultancy roles. A significant local figure for many years, he is most recognised as one of the key figures in the revival of Ta Moko. However, he is also a key figure in the field of kapa haka locally, nationally and internationally.

He has been the cultural advisor to the All Blacks since 2005, and responsible for the branding of the Athens and Kuala Lumpur New Zealand Olympic teams, among many other projects.

The recommendation to create the associate professor positions came out of an independent review commissioned last year of EIT-wide research, and one that EIT chief executive Chris Collins says he was very pleased to act on.