Member Spotlight - Professor Tracey McIntosh.

Professor Tracey McIntosh, (Ngāi Tūhoe, MNZM) is Professor of Indigenous Studies in Te Wānanga o Waipapa (School of Māori Studies and Pacific Studies) at the University of Auckland.

I believe there’s a real privilege in academic work – to be able to think and reflect deeply, to go out and work with people in the community. Then there’s the wonder and the challenge of teaching – all of these elements make me feel lucky to be in a role that is immensely satisfying.

The environment has changed so much since I started as an academic – students face significant challenges across the socio-economic spectrum in terms of their wellbeing, we’ve got a more difficult funding landscape and a regulatory environment that’s not always conducive to intellectual engagement.

I know the power of the collective. I know how important it is for us to work together collectively so that the benefits accrue across the collective. The union is such an important element for me as a Māori academic and as a union member.

Everyone that I work closely with in the university wants good outcomes – for students, in transformative change through research and they want good outcomes for the organisation. I think that the union is one of the most important levers to ensure that this happens.

The ability to think about the kaupapa, the purpose of a university is so aligned with what we do as union members – constantly thinking around that collective good. I’m a professor of indigenous studies but I’m a sociologist by training and within that training what it tells me is that if our research is to support positive transformative change in our society then it must be done at the collective level and a union can support that.