Awards of the Polynesian Society

The Elsdon Best Memorial Medal

The Council of the Polynesian Society considers possible recipients of this award at the end of each year, but does not make an award annually. The Medal is for outstanding scholarly work on the New Zealand Māori and may be in the fields of Māori ethnology, social anthropology, archaeology, prehistory or linguistics. The Medal is normally presented at the Society’s mid-year annual General Meeting and the recipient is asked to present a paper on that occasion.

The Nayacakalou Medal

The Nayacakalou Medal honours the late Dr Rusiate Nayacakalou for his outstanding ethnological writing on Fijian and Polynesian society and culture. The Medal is considered, but not necessarily awarded, annually for recent significant publication on the Pacific island research relevant to the aims and purposes of the Polynesian Society, and the interests and concerns of Dr Nayacakalou (Polynesian Society Council Minutes of November 1991). The recipient may be asked to present a paper on the occasion of receiving the Medal.

Recipients of the Polynesian Society Medals
last updated July 2021

1. 1970 DON STAFFORD received the BEST MEDAL:  Te Arawa
2. 1973 ROGER C. GREEN received the BEST MEDAL: New Perspectives in Polynesian Prehistory
3. 1976 ANNE SALMOND received the BEST MEDAL: Hui: A Study of Maori Ceremonial Gatherings
4. 1977 MERVYN E. MCLEAN received the BEST MEDAL: Oceanic Music
5. 1978 DAVE. R. SIMMONS received the BEST MEDAL: The Great New Zealand Myth
6. 1981 J. M. MCEWEN received the BEST MEDAL
7. 1983 HIRINI MOKO MEAD received the BEST MEDAL:  Te Toi Mātauranga Māori Mo Nga Ra Kei Mua: Maori Studies Tomorrow
8. 1985 BRUCE G. BIGGS received the BEST MEDAL: The Extraordinary Man
9. 1986 JANET M. DAVIDSON received the BEST MEDAL: The Paa Maaori Revisited
10. 1987 JOAN METGE received the BEST MEDAL: Unuhia te rito o te hakakeke: Conceptions of the Whānau
11. 1989 HELEN LEACH received the BEST MEDAL: Archaic Adze Quarries and Working Floors: An Historical Review
12. 1990 DOUGLAS YEN received the BEST MEDAL: Ethnobotany in New Zealand Prehistory
13. 1992 Sir HUGH KAWHARU received the BEST MEDAL: Kotahitanga: Visions of Unity
14. 1992 ASESELA RAVUVU received the NAYACAKALOU MEDAL: Security and Confidence as Basic Factors in Pacific Islanders’ Migration
15. 1994 ATHOLL ANDERSON received the BEST MEDAL: New Beginnings: Issues in East Polynesian Colonisation with Particular Reference to New Zealand
16. 1996 KONAI THAMAN received the NAYACAKALOU: Towards a Pacific Education
17. 1997 RANGINUI WALKER received the BEST MEDAL: Fiscal Envelope Revisited—Whakatōhea Claim
18. 1998 Sir PAUL REEVES received the NAYACAKALOU MEDAL: The Making of the Fiji Constitution
19. 1999 MASON DURIE received the BEST MEDAL: Towards a Māori Psychology
20. 2001 Sir RAYMOND FIRTH received the NAYACAKALOU MEDAL: The Creative Contribution of Indigenous People to their Ethnography
21. 2003 ROGER NEICH received the BEST MEDAL: “The Māori House down in the Garden”: A Benign Colonial Response to Māori Art
22. 2006 ANDREW PAWLEY received the NAYACAKALOU MEDAL: Explaining the Aberrant Austronesian Languages of Southeast Melanesia: 150 Years of Debate
23. 2009 JUDITH BINNEY received the BEST MEDAL: Stories without End
24. 2013 GEOFF IRWIN received the BEST MEDAL: The Lake Village of Kohika and Archaeological Approaches to the Study of Māori Settlement Patterns in the North
25. 2015 M.P.K. [KEITH] SORRENSON received the BEST MEDAL: The Lore of the Judges: Native Land Court Judges’ Interpretations of Māori Customary Law
26. 2017: JUDITH HUNTSMAN received the NAYACAKALOU MEDAL: The Treasured Things of Tokelau
27. 2018 PATRICK VINTON KIRCH received the NAYACAKALOU MEDAL: Voices on the Wind, Traces in the Earth: Integrating Oral Narrative and Archaeology in Polynesian History
28. 2021: NGĀPARE HOPA received the BEST MEDAL
29. 2021: LISA MATISOO-SMITH received the NAYACAKALOU MEDAL: What can DNA tell us about Pacific origins, interactions, and adaptations? - the value of transdisciplinary approaches