Associate Professor Jani Wilson

Jani Wilson (Ngāti Awa, Ngā Puhi, Ngā iwi o Mātaatua) hails from Pāroa on the outskirts of Whakatāne, in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, and grew up on the Rangitāiki river. She is currently Associate Professor in Aotahi, School of Māori & Indigenous Studies, but most importantly, she is the proud māmā of a very entertaining daughter, Manaaki (23).

Initially trained in vocals/drama at performing arts school (Excel), she later studied Film, TV & Media Studies to PhD level at the University of Auckland. Since graduating, Jani has worked in public health (smoking cessation, child poverty & problem gambling, UoA), was the inaugural Māori/Pasifika research fellow in Art & Design (DCT), an academic, teacher, and curriculum builder in Māori Media, screenwriting, creative writing  (all at Te Ara Poutama, AUT), and led the critical creative media practice pathway (Massey). At this time, she straddles both digital, general arts courses, and teach-ins in community music.

A member of the Royal Society of New Zealand and Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, Jani is a certified Teaching Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (London), and is a reviewer/assessor for a number of journals and publication houses (MAI Journal, AlterNative, Continuum, WINHEC, Routledge, NAIS) and organisations such as Toi Aotearoa/Creative NZ. She is an experienced judge, has mentored a number of new and emerging Māori/Pasifika screen producers, and provides cultural advice for new screen productions as part of Te Rautaki.

Jani is published across Māori screen history, theory and audience, and examines and supervises in screen arts and design and creative technologies. Her research interests include Indigenous screens, Indigenous research methodologies and excellence, the mahi-toi relationship between theory and praxis, and – most prominently – the ongoing evolution of screened kapa haka and the impacts and influences screen production has on the performance of haka, in a current Marsden funded project entitled Kia Rite! In 2026, Jani has been on Research Leave and Sabbatical, making Te Urupounamu screen produced research with key kaumātua in the Mātaatua rohe, and Te Aro understanding the Mātaatua kapa haka audience.

Jani was the kairangahau/kaituhi matua on the report Aroha Noa ki te Ao - A Te Matatini collaborative inquiry (2025, with Kerrie-Anna Tana & Kate MacDonald, in partnership with Te Matatini and The Grace Foundation) which pivots on the transformative nature of kapa haka for kaihaka, all of whom are former prison inmates, and is pou manawa Māori on another Te Matakitenga project Indigenising movement: Building technology to fuel cultural vitality among rangatahi and whānau Māori in Aotearoa (2026) led by Dr. Sierra Keung. In 2024, she completed research collaborations; a Ministry of Culture & Heritage report, Measuring and Articulating the value of live performance in Aotearoa (with collaborators, Creative Futures at Massey University), a Ngā Pae o te Māramamtanga project with Assoc. Profs. Hinekura Smith (UoQueensland) & Donna Campbell (UoWaikato), Toiora, Hauora: Developing Māori arts-based pedagogy for whānau wellbeing (Te Matakitenga Grant).