Living in Two Worlds
16 July 2025 | Events
Join us for a compelling session hosted by LU's Centre of Excellence in Transformative Agribusiness, where two thought-provoking speakers will explore what it means to live and lead in "two worlds".
About
Join us for a compelling session hosted by Lincoln University's Centre of Excellence in Transformative Agribusiness, where two thought-provoking speakers will explore what it means to live and lead in “two worlds.” Dr Mohini Vidwans will share her work on Sir Hēnare Ngata, Aotearoa New Zealand’s first Māori Public Accountant, who pioneered a bicultural approach by blending Māori values with Anglocentric accounting to support Māori aspirations in land development and business. Dr Ellie Norris will delve into recent research on intergenerational responsibility in Māori communities and its relevance to climate change, revealing the tensions and possibilities that arise when Indigenous worldviews intersect with Western corporate norms. Together, these presentations will challenge conventional thinking around governance, accountability and the future of agribusiness in Aotearoa.
Dr Mohini Vidwans
Dr Mohini Vidwans is the Associate Dean-Academic in the Faculty of Agribusiness and Commerce at Lincoln university. She is a Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management. The underlying theme of Mohini’s research is challenging discrimination based on gender and race. Her work helps identify the crafting strategies used by minoritised trailblazers in the accounting profession.
Mohini will present her recently published paper with Ros Whiting and Carolyn Fowler on Sir Hēnare Ngata, the first Māori Public Accountant in Aotearoa New Zealand. Sir Hēnare Ngata combined Māori culture, Māori practices and beliefs with the tools of Anglocentric accounting to support Māori in navigating land development, business financial requirements and policies and programmes. His bicultural approach combining the holistic Māori worldview and Anglocentric accounting provides rich insights for those involved in social and environmental accounting and governance reporting.
Dr Ellie Norris
Dr Ellie Norris is a Lecturer in Accounting at the UC Business School, with more than 13 years' professional experience in finance roles in the corporate and not-for-profit sectors. Ellie's research publications highlight the unique governance and accountability contexts of these Indigenous organisations, their experiences of accounting and corporate reporting, and how they are finding novel ways to tell their stories.
Dr Ellie Norris will share insights from recent research with Dr Matt Scobie (Ngāi Tahu) and Holly Wilson, exploring how Māori understandings of intergenerational responsibility can inform responses to the climate crisis. Their work highlights the tensions between Indigenous concepts of ancestral accountability and commercial 'best practice', revealing how these 'two worlds' can both clash and coexist in practice.
Timings
1.00pm: Guests arrive
1.05pm: CoE Introduction
1.10pm: Keynote Speaker 1 - Mohini Vidwans
1.30pm: Keynote Speaker 2 - Ellie Norris
1.50pm: Q&A Session
2.00pm: Speaking finishes, guests network
2.30pm: Event finishes
About Our Speakers
Dr. Mohini Vidwans
The underlying theme of my research is careers and discrimination (gender and race) and my work helps identify the crafting strategies used by trailblazers to achieve success in challenging circumstances, which could be useful for the present and future generations. I use life stories to explore career journeys. I use qualitative approaches and Nvivo software for the thematic analysis.
I developed a career crafting matrix in my doctoral research to examine how accounting professionals in Aotearoa New Zealand make career decisions in the context of organisational and gendered constraints. Keen to test the matrix in the historical context, I co-authored a paper exploring the struggle for entry and career success of the early pioneer women accountants over a century ago in Great Britain and its former colonies USA, Canada, Australia and Aotearoa NZ.
I am also interested in investigating indigenous peoples and career progression and have examined the experience of the first Black woman accountant in South Africa and the first Māori accountant, Sir HK Ngata in Aotearoa NZ. Current projects include an investigation of the causes and remedies for the underrepresentation of Māori accountants in Aotearoa NZ. Recently, I have developed a strong interest in global mobility, gender, and the intersections between work, family, migration, and possible selves.
Dr. Ellie Norris
I am a passionate accounting educator and researcher, with more than 13 years' professional experience in finance roles in the corporate and not-for-profit sectors. My PhD thesis was awarded the 'Best PhD Award' by the Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand. I also hold degrees in Economics and International Relations from Stanford University and the University of Oxford.
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