BA, GradDipTchg (Secondary), MEd, PhD (Education) (Victoria, Wellington)
Chair in Māori, Moriori and Indigenous Peace Studies
Co-Director of Te Ao o Rongomaraeroa | The National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies
Contact
Office 4S12 Richardson Building, South Tower
Email liana.macdonald@otago.ac.nz
Background
Liana (Ngāti Kuia, Rangitāne o Wairau, Ngāti Koata, Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō, Ngāti Tama, Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga) completed a doctorate at Te Herenga Waka (Victoria University of Wellington). Prior to joining Te Ao o Rongomaraeroa, Liana taught in Te Herenga Waka in the Faculty of Education (2021 – 2022) and the Sociology programme (2023 – 2024).
Since 2025, Te Ao o Rongomaraeroa has implemented a Tiriti-based, relational and bicultural kaupapa across teaching, research, community engagement and cultural work. This foundation guides our commitment to addressing and reducing racial, structural, and cultural violence against Indigenous peoples.
Liana prioritises scholarship that advances the mana motuhake and rangatiratanga of Indigenous peoples of Oceania, including Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, and Waitaha; Te Rūnanga o Moeraki, Kāti Huirapa Rūnaka ki Puketeraki, and Te Rūnaka o Ōtākou; iwi and hapū Māori; imi Moriori; and Pasifika communities.
Research projects and supervision
Liana has contributed to successful local and national research projects examining settler and Māori memory of historical colonial violence in Aotearoa. These investigations have generated critical insights into Indigenous sovereignty and governance, frameworks of authority and belonging and conditions for Indigenous resurgence.
Between 2022 and 2025, she served as Lead Researcher for the Boulcott Memorial Redevelopment Project, commissioned by the Hutt City Council. The project investigates Māori and Pākehā narratives of the 1846 Battle of Boulcott’s Farm and explores how histories of the New Zealand Wars are remembered in public space.
Read more about phase one of the Boulcott Memorial Project Report
She was also a project lead for a regional study on the teaching and learning of Māori history in the Wairau/Marlborough (2021-2022), and previously served as a postdoctoral research fellow for He Taonga te Wareware: Remembering and Forgetting the New Zealand Wars (2019-2020).
Liana welcomes supervision enquiries from students from Aotearoa, Rēkohu and across the Pacific who wish to explore historical and contemporary interpretations of ‘peace’ from te ao Māori, Moriori and wider Indigenous perspectives. Her supervisory interests include Māori-centred research, decolonial and Tiriti-based approaches to peace and conflict, justice-building, Indigenous peace traditions, and Māori and Moriori historical narratives of peace and conflict in Aotearoa.
Teaching
- PEAC 509 Introduction to Peace and Justice in Aotearoa New Zealand
- PEAC 510 Indigenous Approaches to Peacemaking and Reconciliation
- PEAC 595 Practicum Project and Research Report
- CRIM/INDS 203/303 Decolonising Criminology
Selected talks and media
Liana has delivered keynote and plenary presentations across Aotearoa and internationally, including the SAANZ Conference (2025), the Wiremu Maihi Te Rangikāheke Memorial Lecture for the NZ Historical Association (2023), and the Cultural Studies Association of Australasia Conference (Sydney, 2024). She has contributed to the National Library of New Zealand’s E oho! Waitangi Series (2024) and her research has been featured in RNZ, Te Ao Māori News, Stuff, and the New Books Network.
Publications
Funaki-Cole, H., MacDonald, L., Knox, J., & McKinnon, D. (2024). Living in the telling: Indigenous storytelling of post-COVID desires for academia. Art/Research International, 8(2), 499-518. doi: 10.18432/ari29739 Journal - Research Article
MacDonald, L. (2024). Building counter-colonial commemorative landscapes through indigenous collective remembering in Wānanga. Genealogy, 8, 88. doi: 10.3390/genealogy8030088 Journal - Research Article
Stewart, G. T., MacDonald, L., Matapo, J., Fa'avae, D. T. M., Watson, B. K., Akiu, R. K., … Sturm, S. (2023). Surviving academic whiteness: Perspectives from the Pacific. Educational Philosophy & Theory, 55(2), 141-152. doi: 10.1080/00131857.2021.2010542 Journal - Research Article
Wallis, K., & MacDonald, L. (2022). Remembering the past on the road to war: Journeying down the Great South Road. In J. Kidman, V. O'Malley, L. MacDonald, T. Roa & K. Wallis (Eds.), Fragments from a contested past: Remembrance, denial and New Zealand history. (pp. 91-107). Wellington, New Zealand: Bridget Williams Books. doi: 10.7810/9781990046483 Chapter in Book - Research
MacDonald, L. (2022). Notes from the field: Visiting Boulcott's Farm and Battle Hill. In J. Kidman, V. O'Malley, L. MacDonald, T. Roa & K. Wallis (Eds.), Fragments from a contested past: Remembrance, denial and New Zealand history. (pp. 46-65). Wellington, New Zealand: Bridget Williams Books. doi: 10.7810/9781990046483 Chapter in Book - Research