Professor Suzanne Pitama receiving her LIME Life award from Dr Shayne Bellingham, Senior Project and Research Manager LIME Network.
University of Otago, Christchurch, Dean and Head of Campus Professor Suzanne Pitama (Ngāti Kahungunu/Ngāti Whare) has been honoured with a prestigious award from an Australasian Indigenous medical education network.
Professor Pitama was one of seven members of the Australasian LIME Network (Leaders in Indigenous Medical Education) presented with an inaugural LIME Life award at the recent 10th biennial LIME Connection meeting in Canberra late last month, celebrating 20 years of LIME.
She was one of three Indigenous medical educators from Aotearoa New Zealand chosen for the award.
News of the LIME Life Awards was kept as a surprise for award recipients, with each given a commemorative glass plaque etched with Indigenous artwork.
Professor Pitama says she was humbled to receive the award alongside Associate Professor Lilon Bandler (University of Melbourne), Associate Professor Elana Curtis (University of Auckland), Professor Shaun Ewan, (Griffith University), Dr Peter O’Mara (University of Newcastle), Professor David Paul (University of Notre Dame, Fremantle) and Professor Papaarangi Reid (University of Auckland).
“To be recognised with this award amongst such esteemed company was a real honour,” Professor Pitama says.
Associate Professor Lilon Bander (who has worked for LIME for 15 years) says the LIME Network will always be grateful for Professor Pitama’s foundational work.
“Professor Pitama possesses pedagogical and andragogical wisdom and understanding alongside her deep cultural knowledge.
“She has shared all this with the LIME Network throughout the years, bringing Indigenous medical education to the forefront of creative and innovative thinking about education, educational theory and teaching practice,” Associate Professor Bander says.
The inaugural LIME Life awards recognise the significant and outstanding work made by LIME Network Reference Group Members over the past 18 years to form an international community of practice between Indigenous medical educators and non-Indigenous medical educators teaching Indigenous content.
The LIME Network – a community of medical educators engaged in the Indigenous health curriculum – is dedicated to ensuring the quality and effectiveness of teaching and learning of Indigenous health in medical education, as well as best practice in the recruitment and retention of Indigenous medical students and trainees.