Heather Came

(she/her)

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Dr Heather Came is a seventh generation Pākehā New Zealander (Tangata Tiriti) who grew up on Ngātiwai land. She has worked for 30 years in health promotion and/or public health and has a long involvement in social justice activism. In 2022 she was made a Member of the Order of New Zealand for her lifetime contribution to Māori, education and health. In 2021 she was joint winner of Kāhui Hauora Tūmatanui Public Health Champion Award for her lifetime contribution to public health.

Heather is an experienced Te Tiriti and antiracism trainer and award-winning teacher. As a scholar she has published 60 peer reviewed journal articles and has an H-index of 26 with over 2265 citations of her work. She is currently a co-Principal Investigator on Royal Society Te Apārangi Marsden grant focussed on Honourable Kāwanatanga. Her research focuses on critical policy analysis, Te Tiriti o Waitangi application, antiracism and institutional racism. In 2023 she was appointed an Adjunct Professor at Victoria University of Wellington where she continues to supervise research students.

Heather is a founding member and co-chair of STIR: Stop Institutional Racism. She has prepared expert evidence for the WAI 2575 health kaupapa Waitangi Tribunal claims and has led shadow reports to United Nations human rights committees around institutional racism. She is co-convenor of Te Tiriti based futures + Antiracism a series of open-access virtual conference doing public education on racial justice and decolonisation.

Experience

  • 2023–present
    Adjunct professor, Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington

Education

  • 2012 
    Waikato University, PhD

Publications

  • 2025
    Linguistic enablers of Pākehā racism: Excuses from the health sector in Aotearoa New Zealand, Journal of Critical Public Health
  • 2024
    Unravelling colonial education: from Dazzling White to Deliberately Decolonised and supporting the case for Indigenous universities, Whiteness and Education
  • 2023
    Critical Tiriti Analysis: A prospective policy making tool from Aotearoa New Zealand, Ethnicities
  • 2022
    Exploring anti-racism within the context of human resource management in the health sector in Aotearoa, International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies
  • 2021
    Structural racism, constitutional transformation and the New Zealand health sector: Learnings from the Matike Mai Aotearoa report, Journal of Bioethical Inquiry
  • 2020
    From gorse to ngahere: An emerging allegory for decolonising the New Zealand health system, New Zealand Medical Journal
  • 2020
    Introducing critical Tiriti policy analysis through a retrospective review of the New Zealand Primary Health Care Strategy, Ethnicities
  • 2019
    Māori and Pasifika leaders’ experiences of government health advisory groups in New Zealand, Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Science
  • 2018
    Tackling racism as a wicked public health problem: Enabling allies in anti-racism praxis, Social Science and Medicine
  • 2017
    Institutional racism in public health contracting processes in New Zealand: Findings of a nationwide survey, Social Science and Medicine
  • 2016
    Health activism against barriers to indigenous health in Aotearoa New Zealand, Critical Public Health
  • 2015
    Pathways to transform institutional (and everyday) racism in New Zealand, Sites: Journal of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies
  • 2014
    Sites of institutional racism in public health policymaking in New Zealand, Social Science and Medicine
  • 2013
    Doing research in Aotearoa: A Pākehā exemplar of the application of the Te Ara Tika ethical framework, Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Science
  • 2011
    Building political competencies for the transformation of racism in Aotearoa, Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Science

Grants and Contracts

  • 2025
    Imagining Honourable Kāwanatanga: Preparing for a Tiriti-based future
    Role:
    Co-Principal Investigator
    Funding Source:
    Royal Society Te Apārangi Marsden Grant
  • 2021
    Re-imagining anti-racism theory in the health sector
    Role:
    Co-Principal Investigator
    Funding Source:
    Royal Society Te Apārangi Marsden Grant

Professional Memberships

  • New Zealand Public Health Association

Honours

Member of the Order of New Zealand

Contact Heather for

  • General
  • Media request
  • Speaking request
  • Consulting / Advising
  • Research collaboration
  • Research supervision