Dame Mary Anne Salmond, DBE, FRSNZ, FBA (born 1945) is a New Zealand historian, anthropologist and writer.
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Salmond was born in Wellington in 1945 and grew up in Gisborne, before being sent to board at Solway College in Masterton. She was educated at the University of Auckland and the University of Pennsylvania.
She and her husband Jeremy live in Auckland and have three children. In 2000, she and her husband initiated the ecological restoration of Longbush Reserve in Gisborne.
Salmond is a Distinguished Professor of Maori Studies and Anthropology at the University of Auckland. For many years she worked closely with Eruera Stirling and Amiria Stirling, noted elders of Te Whānau-ā-Apanui and Ngati Porou. Their collaboration led to three books about Maori life:
Salmond's work then turned to cross-cultural encounters in the Pacific, resulting in a series of works:
In 2004, Salmond received the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement for non-fiction. She is currently writing a book about William Bligh in Tahiti.
Salmond has served on the boards of the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, the Museum of New Zealand, and she was chair of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust from 2001 to 2007. She was Pro-Vice Chancellor (Equal Opportunity) at the University of Auckland from 1997 to 2006.
In 1988 she was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to literature and the Maori people and in 1990 she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. In 1995 she became a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to New Zealand history.
In November 2007, she was elected as an inaugural Fellow of the New Zealand Academy for the Humanities, Te Mātanga o Te Whāinga Aronui. In 2008, she was elected a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, and in 2009, she was elected a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences – the first New Zealander known to have achieved this double distinction.