The Maarire Goodall Award recognises excellence in leadership and long service commitment in advancing Māori health. The award was presented at the Te Ora Hui ā-Tau and Scientific Conference in Rotorua on 28 September. This conference is the annual meeting of Te Ohu Rata o Aotearoa—The Māori Medical Practitioners Association.
“I’m really privileged to do the work I’m doing, so I’m even more delighted that me and my team have been recognised by our peers for it,” says Professor Lawton. “It’s a difficult time now for Māori health, a lot of things have been rolled back on us. I had the chance to do a presentation, and it was good to be able to talk about the work we are doing at the centre that is impacting people’s lives positively.”
Professor Lawton is the founder and director of Te Tātai Hauora o Hine—National Centre of Women’s Health Research Aotearoa. Known for her lobbying to see HPV testing for cervical cancer—which replaced smear tests from mid-September last year—used as a primary screening method, her research on women’s and children’s health has led to changes in policy and practice in Aotearoa and internationally.
Professor Rawinia Higgins, Deputy Vice-Chancellor—Māori and Engagement says Professor Lawton is a remarkable advocate of health care for wāhine Māori.
“Her successful campaign for HPV self-testing to be used as a simple way of screening for cervical cancer will have a life-extending effect on all women, but particularly wāhine Māori, who are more than twice as likely as non-Māori women to be diagnosed with cervical cancer.”
Professor Lawton is an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, and a Distinguished Fellow of the Royal College of General Practice. She also received the 2021 Women of Influence Award in the Innovation, Science and Health category, the Royal Australia and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Māori Women’s Health Award in 2020, and the Health Research Council’s Beaven Medal for excellence in translational health research in 2023.
“For me it was quite an important award to receive," says Professor Lawton. "It’s the recognition of the science, and then it’s the advocacy to get the programmes going, and that feeds into activism. It was so great within the HPV project to be able to use the science to translate into usual care, working with the Ministry of Health in real time."
Professor Lawton and her Te Tātai Hauora o Hine colleagues recently received funding from HRC to trial advanced point-of-care testing for Strep A, Flu, and COVID-19 in rural healthcare centres.