Emeritus Professor Ngahuia te Awekotuku continues to contribute in the arts and creative sector. With degrees in Art History and English, her PhD (1981) was in cultural psychology. She wrote an early (1991) monograph on Maori research ethics. For decades she served in the heritage environment as a governor, curator and activist/advocate. Her scholarly works on culture, gender, heritage and sexuality, and her fiction and poetry, have been published and acclaimed locally and internationally.
Emeritus Professor Sir Mason Durie KNZM, FNZAH, FRSNZ is one of New Zealand’s most respected academics, and was knighted in 2010 for services to public and Māori health.
For over 40 years, Sir Mason has been at the forefront of a transformational approach to Māori health, including chairing the Taskforce on Whānau-Centred Initiatives that produced the Whānau Ora report for the Government in 2010. He is a past Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Massey University.
Tā Pita Sharples, of Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngai Te Kikiri o te Rangi and Ngāti Pahauwera, was born in Waipawa in 1941 and grew up in the small country town of Takapau in Hawkes Bay.
Tā Tīpene O’Regan was NPM's longest serving Board Chair before his retirement at the end of 2018, guiding the centre through 12 years of its operations. He is best known more widely for his role as Chairman of the Ngaitahu Maori Trust Board leading the Ngāi Tahu Claim process before the Waitangi Tribunal culminating in the Ngāi Tahu Settlement. He served on the board for 22 years, and was chair for thirteen of those years. As the chief negotiator, Te Kerēme (the Ngāi Tahu Claim) was his main kaupapa.
Dr Megan Davis is a Professor of Law and an Acting Commissioner of the NSW Land and Environment Court. Professor Davis is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law and a member of the NSW Sentencing Council.
Megan is the Chair and UN expert member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples and holds portfolios including Administration of Justice and Gender and Women and is the focal point for UN Women and UN AIDS.
Linda Tuhiwai Smith is Professor of Education and Māori Development, Pro-Vice Chancellor Māori, Dean of the School of Māori and Pacific Development and Director of Te Kotahi Research Institute at the University of Waikato in New Zealand and is Chairperson of NPM's International Research Advisory Board.
Professor hagwil hayetsk (Charles Menzies) is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC.
Professor Menzies' primary research interests are the production of anthropological films, natural resource management (primarily fisheries related), political economy, contemporary First Nations' issues, maritime anthropology and the archaeology of north coast BC. He has conducted field research in, and has produced films concerning, north coastal BC, Canada (including archaeological research); Brittany, France; and Donegal, Ireland.
Kyle Whyte is George Willis Pack Professor at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, teaching in the school's environmental justice graduate specialization. He is Affiliate Professor of Native American Studies and Philosophy. In the U.S., Kyle currently serves on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, the Resilient America Roundtable of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and the 5th National Climate Assessment.
Kerensa is the Chief Executive of Wakatū Incorporation, a hapū-owned organisation based in Whakatū (Nelson), which owns Kono NZ LP, an export food and beverage business; AuOra, focused on science and nutrition and Whenua, its land and property business. Committed to its 500 year intergenerational plan, Te Pae Tawhiti, Wakatū has an active social and cultural development arm which is committed to building whānau capability and innovation as well as achieving the Te Tau Ihu intergenerational strategy for the region, which includes constitutional reform.
Professor Pare Keiha (QSO, MSc, PhD, MBA, MComLaw, FRSA, MInstD, MRSNZ) Te Whānau-a-Taupara o T’Aitanga-a-Māhaki, and Rongowhakaata. is the Pro Vice Chancellor for Māori Advancement, Dean of the Faculty of Culture and Society and Tumuaki of Te Ara Poutama, the Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Development, at the Auckland University of Technology.
Associate Professor Amokura Kawharu holds a BA/LLB (Hons) degree from the University of Auckland and an LLM with a major in international law from the University of Cambridge. She has worked as a practising lawyer and as an academic and is currently President of the New Zealand Law Commission.
Te Kawehau Hoskins affiliates to the people of Ngāti Hau in Whakapara, a community located north of the Whangārei district. She is the former HOS of Te Puna Wānanga, the school of Māori and Indigenous Education and Te Tumu-Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Education and Social Work. Te Kawehau has pursued an academic career in Māori education. She has further developed expertise in qualitative social and educational research, politics, ethics of Indigene, settler relations, and multicultural and bicultural education.
Scotty is well-known presenter of Māori current affairs programmes Te Karere and Marae Investigates. He holds a Diploma of Teaching, Bachelor of Education and Masters degree (Education) from the University of Waikato, is currently working towards his PhD at Massey University and was recently appointed as Associate Professor Massey University.
Che was raised in a large whānau in Ohakune at the foot of Koro Ruapehu. Che has had a varied career and had the rare experience of being Chair, CE and chief negotiator of his iwi, a Deputy Secretary for the Ministry for the Environment, was president of Te Pāti Māori and was initiated into his iwi whare wānanga prior to entering secondary school.
Erina Watene-Rawiri is an experienced governor and director having also served on Te Wai Maaori Trust, NZ Biological Heritage Science Challenge, Iwi, and not-for-profit boards; as well as many advisory groups (such as the New Zealand Fish Passage Advisory Group). Professionally, Erina is a freshwater scientist with a background in river and lake restoration, tāonga species research, resource management and environmental planning. She is experienced working at the interface between policy, mātauranga Māori, and science.
Professor Jim Metson graduated with PhD in Chemistry from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand in 1980, before taking up a position at Surface Science Western, University of Western Ontario, Canada.
He then moved to the University of Auckland, New Zealand, where he has held several positions including a term as Associate Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research).
Linda Waimarie Nikora is co-director of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga and a Professor of Indigenous Studies at Te Wānanga o Waipapa, the University of Auckland. She was previously Professor of Psychology and Director of the Maori & Psychology Research Unit at the University of Waikato. Her specialities are in in community psychology, applied social psychology, ethnopsychology and Maori development.
Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Co-Director Tahu Kukutai is Professor of Demography at Te Ngira: Institute for Population Research, The University of Waikato where she specialises in Māori and Indigenous demography and data sovereignty. Tahu is a founding member of the Māori Data Sovereignty Network Te Mana Raraunga and the Global Indigenous Data Alliance.
Marie-Chanel Berghan looks after the financial, contract and operations (physical resources and infrastructure) management of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga. As well as managing the publications, specifically the two NPM Journals; AlterNative and MAI Journal.
Dr Lee-Morgan is Professor of Māori Research and was a founding Director of Ngā Wai a te Tui Māori Research Centre, Te Whare Wananga o Wairaka Unitec. Initially a secondary school teacher, she became a teacher educator and kaupapa Māori researcher in education with a focus on Maori pedagogy and methodology.
Papaarangi is Tumuaki and Head of Department of Maori Health at the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, New Zealand. She holds science and medical degrees from the University of Auckland and is a specialist in public health medicine. She has tribal affiliations to Te Rarawa in the Far North of Aotearoa and her research interests include analysing disparities between indigenous and non-indigenous citizens as a means of monitoring government commitment to indigenous rights.
Ocean’s teaching and research interests are varied, but her key focus is how mātauranga Māori and science connect and relate, particularly in educational contexts and using novel digital technologies. She co-leads a National Science Challenge project investigating the perceptions of novel biotechnological controls of pest wasps in Aotearoa. Her research also involves kaupapa Māori reading of films. She is the presenter of Māori Television's Project Mātauranga and presents for TVNZ’s Coast.
Division of Health, Engineering, Computing and Sciences
Associate Professor Keegan is a trailblazing academic based in the Computer Science Department, University of Waikato and is the Associate Dean Māori for Te Wānanga Pūtaiao (Division of Health, Engineering, Computing and Sciences) with postgraduate degrees in computer engineering and te reo Māori. His research focuses on traditional navigation, Māori language technologies, Indigenous language interfaces, and use of te reo in a technological environment.
Karyn is a lecturer in Te Tumu – School of Māori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies at the University of Otago, where she obtained her BA (Hons), MA and PhD degrees.
Mohi is NPM's Pou Pātai Whānau and is based at the University of Auckland | Waipapa Taumata Rau. He has research and teaching interests in: Māori health and inequities; Social determinants of health; Māori culture, heritage and identity; Poverty, the precariat and homelessness; Kaupapa Māori research, theory and methodologies; Decolonial practices; indigenous psychological perspectives of the interconnected self; Sport and rangatahi (Māori youth).
Shaun Awatere (Ngāti Porou) is a resource economist for Landcare Research in Hamilton. He has been working to improve the incorporation of Mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge and values) into local government planning by developing the systems and processes that will enable Māori values to be integrated into urban design and development.
Professor Helen Moewaka Barnes is based out of Massey University and is currently Director of Whāriki and Co-director of the SHORE and Whariki Research Centre. She has worked on research in many areas; more recently relationships between the health of people and the health of environments, sexual coercion, alcohol and youth well-being and identity.
Meegan teaches courses on higher education learning and teaching and hosts teaching orientations and events. Most of her teaching is to lecturers and tutors whilst she also contributes to the programme offered by Te Kawa a Māui, the School of Māori Studies, such as their introductory course about Māori society and culture and their postgraduate course about Māori research methodologies.
Dr Hinekura Smith (Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi) is NPM's Emerging Researchers’ Leader, providing further national leadership and coordination of MAI Te Kupenga and developing and nurturing initiatives that contribute to the outcomes and objectives of NPM’s Capability and Capacity Strategy.
A Pacific feminist development geographer of Cook Island, Niuean and Pakeha descent, Professor Yvonne Underhill-Sem is the Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga connector to the Pacific Aotearoa Researcher Collective.Yvonne joined the staff in Pacific Studies, Te Wānanga o Waipapa (Maori Studies and Pacific Studies), Faculty of Arts in 2021 after many years in Development Studies. Her expertise areas are: Gender and development, critical population geographies, feminist political ecology, Pacific development, and progressive social movements.
