Job title: Senior Tutor
Phone: 64 9 373 7599 ext 88443
Office: Rm 732, Human Sciences Building,10 Symonds Street, Auckland
Postal: School of Environment, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland
Email: l.blue@auckland.ac.nz

BSc (Cant.), Dip. Tch.(Chch), MSc (Lond.), MPhil (Planning) (Hons) (Auck.)

Lyndsay Blue (Senior Tutor) completed a BSc in Geography and Geology at the University of Canterbury, and a Diploma in Teaching at Christchurch Teachers College, then left New Zealand for Papua New Guinea. She worked initially as a research assistant, and then as tutor, in the Department of Geography at the University of Papua New Guinea. The experience of living in Papua New Guinea for five years stimulated an interest in indigenous environmental knowledge, traditional agriculture and environment and development issues.

After completing a MSc in Geography at the London School of Economics, Lyndsay was employed as tutor in Geography at James Cook University of North Queensland, Australia, then moved to Canberra to take up a Geography tutorship at the Australian National University. During this period she undertook research on patterns and implications of 'traditional' trade between people on the northwestern islands of the Torres Strait and villagers along the southwestern coast of Papua New Guinea.

Lyndsay later transferred across the ANU campus to take up a position as senior tutor, and subsequently Programme Coordinator, for the Special Courses Programme in the National Centre for Development Studies. Funded primarily through Australian development assistance grants, the Programme offered post-graduate courses, in rural development planning and forestry planning and management, for government personnel from Asia and the South Pacific.

After some years of working in the Australian capital Lyndsay yearned for some 'time out' in the South Pacific again. She discovered that Vaipouli College, a rural secondary school on Savaii, Samoa, needed a Geography teacher so she went there as a volunteer. A year later, driven out prematurely by Cyclone Ofa and a bout of dengue fever, she returned home to New Zealand to recuperate and decided to stay.

In 1991 the Department of Geography, University of Auckland, employed Lyndsay to teach a Geography course in the Wellesley Programme, a pre-degree programme for people who want to attend University but lack the necessary educational qualifications. Her role has since expanded to include coordinating second year courses in environmental management.

From 1993 to 1995 Lyndsay undertook part time study towards a MPhil (Planning) Hons, in which she explored an interest in participation by indigenous peoples in environmental management. Since 1998 she has been working on a comparative study of participation by indigenous peoples in national park planning and management in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA.