Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies

The Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies (MBC) is a research centre on Pacific Studies within the University of Canterbury. It was founded in 1988 from a bequest of Professor John Macmillan Brown.

Their mission statement is:"To promote and advance scholarship and understanding of the Pacific region, including Aotearoa New Zealand, its people, societies and cultures; histories; arts; politics; environment and resources; developments and future."

Governance and staff
The founding director was Leasiolagi Dr Malama Meleisea.

In 2023 Steven Ratuva is the director of the centre and Christina Laalaai-Tausa is the Research Manager. The University of Canterbury Vice-Chancellor appoints an advisory board. In 2023 people named on the board are Paul Millar, Natalie Baird, Tara Ross, Jane Buckingham, Yvonne Crichton-Hill, Pascale Hatcher and Matthew Scobie.

Publishing
The centre publishes research including the online open access journal Pacific Dynamics. Macmillan Brown Press has published a number of books.

The Macmillan Brown Pacific Artist in Residence Programme
The Macmillan Brown Pacific Artist in Residence Programme is an annual three-month residency that has been going since 1996. It is supported by New Zealand's central arts funding body Creative New Zealand, and 'aims to promote Pacific artistic innovation'.

In 2022 the residency was valued at NZ$18,000 and had a focus on 'environmental protection, climate crisis response and community sustainability'. In 2023 it was valued at NZ$25,000. The 2016 recipient was Christchurch born Ioane Ioane where he created Samoan canoe's. In 2027 the residency went to artist-curator Ema Tavola.