In her own words... Dame Anne Salmond

Anthropologist Dame Anne Salmond is a distinguished professor at the University of Auckland.

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Made a Dame in 1995, Anne was New Zealander of the Year in 2013 and awarded the Order of New Zealand in 2020. She has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences in the US, the British Academy in the UK and the American Philosophical Society, which was founded by Benjamin Franklin. I was the second eldest in a family of eight and mum relied on us older children to help look after the younger ones, including a pair of twins. Mum had a system where my two younger sisters and I each had a boy. Mum, who loved kids, would say, 'Girls, get your boy and do his teeth' or whatever, which worked very well.

Our parents went through the Depression and the war, and during World War II, Dad got TB. When he was sent to the sanatorium in Christchurch, Mum wasn't supposed to go as she had my older brother, but she went anyway and dad said that saved his life.

I was 13 when I went to board at Solway College in Masterton. We'd go there by train and Dad would take us to the station as Mum couldn't bear saying goodbye. Going away was tough, but it was a good school with some excellent teachers.

I was selected for an American Field Scholarship when I was 16, partly because I was good at public speaking. We flew over on an old Pan Am Clipper that broke down in Hawai'i. While we stopped for repairs, they put us up in the Hilton, and I remember sitting on Waikiki Beach and thinking my life had begun.

I went to a huge coed high school in Cleveland Heights in Ohio. I was in the Glee Club and the volleyball team. I got my letter sweater and I went to the prom. It was everything I imagined America would be. At the end of the year, we toured different States by bus. In Washington, we went to the White House and John F. Kennedy gave a speech on the lawn. He was very charismatic and knew exactly how to talk with a crowd of 2000 kids from all over the world. He told us we could change the world.