Tāngata · People 293
Dr Andrea Reid
Dr. Andrea Reid is a citizen of the Nisga’a Nation and an Associate Professor with the University of British Columbia’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries. She has launched and is leading the Centre for Indigenous Fisheries, working to build an inclusive hub for the study and protection of culturally significant fish and fisheries. Her research program adopts highly interdisciplinary and applied approaches to improving our understanding of the complex interrelationships between fish, people and place. Reid’s PhD in Biology (Governor General’s Gold Medal; Carleton University, 2020) centred on multiple stressor effects on Pacific salmon, using tools and insights from Indigenous and Western sciences in tandem. Reid is a cofounder of Riparia, a Canadian charity that connects diverse young women with science on the water to grow the next generation of water protectors. She is also a National Geographic Explorer and a Fellow of The Explorers Club.
Dr Coen Hird
Coen is an environmental scientist and ARC DAATSIA Fellow in the School of the Environment at The University of Queensland. His research reaches across Indigenous studies, environmental sciences, animal ecology and science and technology studies in asking how research can better respond to Country.
Coen's work spans several connected areas: native stingless bee science; herpetofauna and environmental physiology; Indigenous Data Sovereignty; and the ethics and epistemology of environmental research. His current projects are focused on how culturally significant organisms are studied, monitored and cared for.
Coen is a trawlwoolway pakana related to northeast lutruwita (Hearps, Briggs family) and is accountable to the Tasmanian Aboriginal community. Coen grew up as a visitor to many lands in so-called Australia and currently is living on Yuggera land at Tulmur.
Dr Susanna Ragnhild Andersdatter Siri
Jeg er Fimben-Áillu-Ántte Susanna ja Gáren-Niillas-Máhte-Ristena Susanna, men døpt som Susanna Ragnhild Andersdatter Siri. Som forsker ved Senter for samisk helseforskning har jeg ansvar for biobank delen til SAMINOR undersøkelsen hvor alle blodprøvene er lagret. Jeg har tatt doktorgrad i emne epidemiologi og temaet for doktorgraden (2021) var risikofaktorer og risikoen for hjerte- og karsykdommer hos samer og ikke-samer. Siden 2021 har jeg engasjert meg i spørsmål om urfolks rett til selvbestemmelse over egne forskningsdata og har sammen med førsteamanuesis Per Axelsson ved Umeå Universitet ledet GIDA-Sápmi nettverket som er et nordisk samisk nettverk. GIDA-Sápmi nettverket ledes av oss sammen med forsker I, Rauna Kuokkanen fra Lapland Universiet i Finland.
Professor Elisa Loncon
Elisa Loncón currently works at the Departamento de Educación, University of Santiago, Chile. Elisa does research in Syntax, Sociolinguistics and Morphology. Their most recent publication is 'Educación mapuche y Educación Escolar En la araucanía: ¿doble racionalidad Educativa?'. and, El poder Creativo del mapuzugun y la formación de neologismos
Professor Awi Mona
Dr. Awi Mona (Chih-Wei Tsai) is the first indigenous person in the country obtained a Doctorate degree in Law. His research is primarily in the areas of Indigenous law, Aboriginal Title law, cultural and education law. Over the past decade since his return from Seattle, he has continuously worked extensive collaborative on indigenous rights movements with local communities in Taiwan, as well as providing legal and policy advice on a wide variety of Indigenous law and related issues. Awi is a member of the Seediq Nation
Emalani Case
Emalani Case is a lecturer in Pacific Studies in Te Wānanga o Waipapa, the School of Māori and Pacific Studies at Waipapa Taumata Rau, The University of Auckland. As a Kanaka Maoli activist, teacher, and writer, she is deeply engaged in issues of Indigenous rights and representation, settler colonialism and decolonisation, militarism and demilitarisation, and environmental and social justice. Her work, including her teaching, is motivated by a desire to draw on Pacific and Indigenous knowledges and histories to reflect upon the past, promote action and solidarity in the present, and envision better futures. She is the author of Everything Ancient Was Once New: Indigenous Persistence from Hawaiʻi to Kahiki (2021, UH Press). She comes to Aotearoa from Waimea, Hawaiʻi.
Associate Professor Hiria McRae
Hiria is an Associate Professor in the School of Education and Associate Dean Māori for the Faculty of Education, Health & Psychological Sciences. She has extensive experience in working with practicing teachers and teaching postgraduate students and teacher trainees in the areas of mātauranga Māori, te reo Māori, science and technology, critical pedagogies, education for sustainability. Her research focuses broadly on Māori education in areas ranging from iwi Māori student success models, kaiako Māori leadership and computational thinking.
Professor Peter Adds
Peter Adds is an Associate Professor at Te Kawa a Maui - the School of Māori Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. He is from the Otaraua Hapu of Te Ātiawa in Taranaki. His academic training is in archaeology but he has extensive experience in Treaty Settlements and is also an accomplished Treaty trainer. He was the claimant researcher for the Taranaki Land Claim and subsequently the claim negotiator for Te Ātiawa. He is also the inaugural and current Chairperson of the Māori Association of Social Science.
Dr Jade Le Grice
Jade Le Grice (Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi) is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of Auckland. Her research focuses on Indigenous sexuality and reproduction. She engages decolonising praxis - deconstructing dominant sociocultural norms and legitimating mātauranga Māori as they shape and inform lived realities, and across knowledge, health and education systems.
Dr Annie Te One
Annie Te One (Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Mutunga) is a senior lecturer in Te Kawa a Māui. Annie’s PhD is from the Australian National University and focussed on iwi and local government relationships in Wellington and the Hutt Valley.
She is currently undertaking research relating to the Mana Wāhine Inquiry (WAI2700), rangatahi-led research focussing on the future of Māori housing, as well as being a Fulbright Scholar to teach and research at the University of Hawaii with a particular focus on the connections between Māori and Kanaka Māoli political philosophies. Her research interests are also focussed on how Crown institutions engage with tikanga.
Dr. Chelsea Grootveld
Chelsea is a respected wāhine Māori leader in education, kaupapa Māori research and governance. She holds a PhD in Education from Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington and is the founder of an indigenous research and evaluation company dedicated to advancing Māori aspirations.
Chelsea brings deep governance expertise, currently serving on the boards of High Performance Sport NZ, Taumata - Ihi Aotearoa Sport NZ, Tātai Aho Rau - CORE Education, International Funders For Indigenous Peoples; as Chair of the JR McKenzie Trust, Deputy Chair of Ngāitai Iwi Authority and Iti Kōpara Public Governance Aotearoa.
She is a member of the Institute of Directors and a former Chair of the Hato Pāora College Board of Trustees. In 2019, she was recognised with a Women in Governance award and served as a Future Director on the Sport NZ Board.
Proud māmā to Kahuroa and Mihi-Terina, and wife to Timoti, Chelsea has transitioned from triathlon and trail running to crossfit, yoga and netball coach of the PIC ‘aunties’. Her mahi is grounded in whakapapa, whanaungatanga and creating spaces where Māori thrive.
Professor Sarah-Jane Paine
Professor Sarah-Jane Paine (Tūhoe) is a leading Māori health researcher and internationally respected authority on Indigenous child wellbeing. She is Research Director and Principal Investigator of Growing Up in New Zealand, Aotearoa’s flagship longitudinal study of child development, and a Professor at Te Kupenga Hauora Māori, Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland.
Her work in Kaupapa Māori epidemiology has influenced national policy in maternal and child health, racism and child wellbeing, food security, and youth wellbeing. Known for combining scientific rigour with strong community partnerships, she ensures research translates into meaningful outcomes for whānau and communities.
Professor Paine is an internationally recognised leader in Indigenous research, contributing to global initiatives including The Lancet Commission on Racism and Child Health. She is widely respected for mentoring emerging leaders and for strengthening connections between research, policy, and communities. In 2025, she received the University of Auckland Research Impact Award, recognising the real-world difference of her work for tamariki and whānau.
Associate Professor Hona Black
Hona Black (Tūhoe, Te Whānau a Apanui, Te Whakatōhea, Ngāti Tūwharetoa) works in te reo Māori revitalisation and has a particular interest in language acquisition and the restoration and expansion of te reo Māori domains within everyday life.
He is presently an Associate Professor in Māori Studies at Massey University, where he also serves as Programme Co-ordinator for Te Aho Paerewa. His work spans Māori language teaching, curriculum and assessment development, translation, and research, with a strong focus on creating environments where te reo Māori can be naturally acquired and used within homes, communities, and institutions.
He is also the author of several te reo Māori publications, including He Iti Te Kupu, Ngā Hapa Reo, and Te Reo Kapekape. His work frequently bridges academic research and community practice, reflecting a commitment to strengthening Māori language futures and supporting the normalisation of te reo Māori across homes, communities, and institutions.
Dr Meika Foster
Dr Meika Foster has a background in Law, Biochemistry and Nutrition Science, with particular interests in the development of plant-based, functional foods and ingredients of benefit to human and animal wellbeing and the environment; indigenous organisms research and conservation; and the protection of cultural and intellectual property. She is the Founding Director of Edible Research Ltd., a values-driven organisation that provides translational research services to the science sector, government organisations, and food and beverage businesses (including multi-national and small- and medium-sized enterprises) and community groups.
In addition to her governance role with Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, Meika serves as an independent Board member on the Research Funding New Zealand Board and is one of the New Zealand representatives on the Food Safety Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) Trans-Tasman Board. Formerly, she served on the Pūhoro Charitable Trust Board, which oversees the Pūhoro STEMM Academy, and on the Board of the New Zealand Food Safety Science & Research Centre (NZFSSRC).
Dr Foster has a track record and passion for supporting Māori Researcher capability building, through governance, supervision and mentorship activities. Her varied roles and contributions demonstrate a strong preference for working in transdisciplinary research environments, in recognition of the increasingly central role of science in legal, economic, social, environmental, and cultural decision-making in Aotearoa New Zealand. She lives with her extended family in Ōhoka, North Canterbury.
Dr Sonia Garcia Garcia
Sonia Garcia grew up in Spain with Catalan, Galician and Spanish as her family languages. Her career has largely focused on policy and programme management.
In the Catalan public service, Sonia designed and managed grants and programmes to support the internationalisation of Catalan literature. She later pursued her interest in fisheries, earning a PhD from the University of Technology Sydney for research on Australian fisheries policy.
Sonia moved to Aotearoa in 2020 and worked as a Senior Policy Analyst and Programme Manager in the international fisheries team at the Ministry for Primary Industries. In this role, she led legislative reforms to the Fisheries Act and managed Te Pātuitanga Ahumoana a Kiwa, a capacity development programme for Pacific fisheries agencies.
A first stint at NPM was instrumental in Sonia’s bonding to Aotearoa. Now as Pouhere Rangahau, she feels privileged to support Māori researchers to achieve their goals and loves operating in a Māori-led environment.
Professor Simon Holdaway
I research how to interpret the past using the material remains found by archaeologists. This has involved field work in a number of regions of the world including southwest France, semi-arid and tropical regions of Australia, the north of Egypt, and northern parts of Aotearoa | New Zealand. I have an interest in stone artefacts particularly their interpretation as surface deposits at a landscape scale. I continue to have active fieldwork programmes as well as laboratory-based studies of material remains.
After receiving a BA(Hons) and MA degree in Anthropology from the University of Otago I moved to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia graduating with a PhD in 1991. I taught at The University of Auckland for a year in 1992 before taking up a post-doctoral fellowship at La Trobe University, Melbourne in 1993. I subsequently lectured at La Trobe from 1994-1998, returning to The University of Auckland in 1999, where I became Professor of Archaeology in 2009. From 2016-2021 I was Te Urumatua | Head of School, Te Pokapū Pūtaiao Pāpori | School of Social Sciences, in the Faculty of Arts. Currently I am Manupiri Ihorua Rangahau | Associate Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research, working with colleagues in Te Tari Rautaki Rangahau, Matatika | the Office of Research Strategy and Integrity (ORSI).
I was elected as a Corresponding Fellow Australian Humanities Academy in 2018 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2022.
Dr Daniel Wilson
Daniel Wilson is a lecturer in Computer Science at Waipapa Taumata Rau | University of Auckland. His teaching and research are in the areas of AI, Māori Data Sovereignty, Māori Algorithmic Sovereignty, and AI ethics. Daniel is a member of Te Pokapū in The Māori Data Sovereignty Network Te Mana Raraunga, Co-Director of the Centre of Machine Learning for Social Good, member of the Kāhui Māori for the AI Forum, treasurer of the AI Researchers Association, and an establishment member of the AI in Health Research Network. Daniel has a PhD in Philosophy and a Master of Professional Studies in Data Science from Waipapa Taumata Rau. His first job in software development involved maintaining code to avoid the Y2K bug.
Sarah-Maru Berghan
As Pouhere Whakaaweawe at NPM, she helps drive positive change through grants, awards, and the Research portfolio, all grounded in Māori values. Drawing on a wealth of experience in the tertiary sector, including her recent work in research services at Waipapa Taumata Rau’s Faculty of Science, she is committed to advancing excellence and supporting our people.
Cheryle Rewha Willoughby
Cheryle has a BA in Media/Marketing and Māori studies from Massey University. Diploma in Project Management (TWWOA) and Sales Management, Business Studies (AUT). Her background is advertising and marketing working at Wilson & Horton Ltd for 12 years as EA and Sales Exec. Also in Event Management and Operations, finance, HR, sales and training.
She has worked with her whanau and hapu over 35 years. As a secretary, trustee and negotiator, for the Hauai whenua claim and the first successful settlement with the Crown, on behalf of her hapu.
Working as a Marketing Consultant with Dept of Labour, (CEG) Community Employment Group with various hui throughout Aotearoa developing communities and whanau to help lift and create opportunities towards self sustainability for their own region.
She has worked for Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga since 2022 also as MAI Journal Coordinator dealing with various stakeholders Authors, Peer Reviewers, Editors and Production contractors.
Associate Professor Deborah Heke
Associate Professor Deborah Heke (Ngā Puhi, Te Arawa) is the Director of Ngā Wai a Te Tūī Māori and Indigenous Research Centre at Unitec. With a background in Exercise Physiology, Psychology, and Public Health, her current research centres on Mana Wahine scholarship. Recent work includes an exploration of Māori and Indigenous women’s embodied practices and physical activity in te taiao as a means for connecting, communicating, and healing. Deborah is also passionate about building the capability and capacity of Māori and Indigenous (future) scholars and providing spaces for Indigenous creativity and excellence in academia. She is an alumna of Auckland University of Technology, MAI ki Aronui, and the Eke Tangaroa Māori and Pacific Early Career Academic programme at AUT.
She currently leads Te Kupenga o MAI as MAI Strategy Lead.
Professor Melinda Webber
Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Co-Director Melinda Webber is Professor of Education at Te Pūtahi Mātauranga | The Faculty of Arts and Education, Waipapa Taumata Rau | University of Auckland. Melinda specialises in Māori Education and Social Psychology and is the Aotearoa New Zealand co-director of the Atlantic Fellows for Social Equity programme based at The University of Melbourne. She wrote Walking the space between: Identity and Māori/Pakeha (NZCER Press, 2008), co-wrote A fire in the belly of Hineāmaru A collection of narratives about Te Tai Tokerau tupuna & Ka ngangana tonu a Hineāmaru - He kōrero tuku iho nō Te Tai Tokerau (Auckland University Press, 2022), and co-edited Sociocultural realities: Exploring new horizons (Canterbury University Press, 2015) and Mana Tangatarua: Mixed heritages and biculturalism in Aotearoa/New Zealand (Routledge, 2017).
Melinda has led research with and for her iwi, hapū, and numerous educational organisations utilising a diverse range of research methods. She is committed to the revitalisation of mātauranga tuku iho and kaupapa-ā-iwi research approaches. Melinda is a daughter of Te Tai Tokerau (Ngāti Hau, Ngāti Hine, Te Paatu / Ngāti Kahu) and Rotorua (Ngāti Whakaue) and lives in Tāmaki Makaurau with her partner and daughters.
Kiri Edge
Kiri has contributed to a wide range of interdisciplinary research and evaluation projects across both academic and community contexts. Kiri is experienced working within complex and sensitive topics, and engaging with people, whānau, and communities that some consider ‘hard to reach’. Kiri’s research interests are diverse, but pivot towards endeavours that contribute towards Māori wellbeing and flourishing, equity, social justice and sustainable community-driven development. Kiri’s current rangahau interests include reclamation of indigenous pathways to wellbeing, grieving within and across cultural worlds, and relational & sexual ethics in adult relationships. Kiri is passionate about supporting kaimahi with their rangahau interests, and growing rangahau across TWoA.
Ahere Hapi
Ahere (Te Arawa, Ngāpuhi, Muriwhenua) proudly comes from the timber town of Tokoroa and has connections to both Maketu and Te Taitokerau. She is a passionate facilitator having worked with highly vulnerable youth to gain sustainable employment and life skills, as well as hapori throughout the Taupō-Ruapehu area to improve community engagement when conducting the 2023 Census. She has also worked with whānau in the Emergency Housing sector to navigate systems in order to reach better living circumstances, on top of several student-based roles to improve experience and participation in university.
Having just come back from a long international trip around Europe, Southeast and Eastern Asia, Ahere takes these new life experiences into this new Pou Hapori role. She has a belief that anyone who is willing to learn should be given a means to learn and uses all her professional roles and networks, to help those around her to achieve that principle.
About Kanapu:
Kanapu - Accelerating Māori RSI Talent, Leadership and System Navigation Kanapu is a Māori-led initiative on a mission to ignite Research, Science and Innovation (RSI) talent and leadership across Te Ao Māori. Māori researchers, scientists and knowledge-holders are fundamental to a vibrant RSI system but the evidence shows they are largely undervalued and unsupported.
Kanapu - which means lightning or instantaneous glow - will strike at the obstacles that block Māori pathways into the RSI system. Existing professional development and leadership programmes do not address the unique needs and aspirations of the Māori RSI workforce, nor offer fit for purpose training strategies and learning solutions. The RSI system is also fragmented, making it challenging for Māori communities, businesses and organisations to connect with the right people to meet their own research needs and aspirations.
Designed and led by Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga (NPM) Māori Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE), Kanapu is funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to connect and nurture a diverse puna (pool) of Māori talent in the wider RSI system and expand the impact of Vision Mātauranga.
Vanessa Clark
Kanapu is a for Māori, by Māori-led approach to grow Māori talent and leadership in the RSI sector. Kanapu is led by Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga and is located at the University of Waikato.
Vanessa obtained a Masters of Management Studies in 1998 and has spent the majority of her career in the Information and Communications Technology sector in Hong Kong, the UK, Australia, and the USA. Since returning to NZ in 2011, Vanessa has held a variety of roles in the private and public sectors. Most recently, she led Māori Engagement in the Research & Enterprise Office. Her research interests include Māori data sovereignty and entrepreneurship.
Dr Awanui Te Huia
Awanui (Ngāti Maniapoto) is a senior lecturer at Te Kawa a Māui at Te Herenga a Waka where she provides significant leadership and support to its Māori language programme. With a PhD in Psychology, her research interests include te reo Māori, identity formation, ancestral language learning, cultural wellbeing, biculturalism and anti-racism.
Miriama Cribb
Miriama Cribb is Te Ātihaunui-ā-Pāpārangi, Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Porou and Ngāti Tama, but is most active at her home in Whanganui. Miriama is completing a PhD in Management at Massey University, looking at implementing Indigenous frameworks in non-Indigenous organisations, using Te Awa Tupua as her case study. She also works part time as a researcher at Te Atawhai o Te Ao Research Institute in Whanganui. Her research interests are in Māori management and Māori business, organisational studies, and social and governance structures that advance hapū and iwi aspirations.
Dr Shaun Awatere
Shaun Awatere is facilitating this webinar. He is a member of the NPM research leadership team and works as a resource economist for Landcare Research. Shaun works to improve the incorporation of Mātauranga Māori into local government planning by developing the systems and processes that enable Māori values to be integrated into urban design and development.
Dr Joe Te Rito
Dr Joe Te Rito is of Ngāti Hinemanu descent from Ōmāhu out of Hastings. The community was devastated by Cyclone Gabrielle which flooded the whole community including over 100 houses, the marae, cemetery, school, and kohanga reo. Joe has actively assisted in the recovery efforts by his community since then to provide shelter for displaced families; water, food and stores to local whānau, the rural farming community and other marae; plan for future housing; gather up kōiwi from the cemetery and an ancient burial site unearthed by the flood; recover old carvings from an old pātaka; and revive local Māori history that had been forgotten. He was former head of Māori Studies at EIT (17 years), worked at Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga (11 years), currently works for Ako Aotearoa (7 years); and is the original and current head of Radio Kahungunu (35 years).
Meihana Watson
Meihana Watson is of Ngāti Hinemanu, Ngāi Te Upokoiri descent and lives in the small rural community of Omahu. He is the current chairperson of Omahu Marae and the Ngāti Hinemanu, Ngāi Te Upokoiri me ōna Piringa Hapū Authority Trust (Piringa Hapū). Meihana leads the charge in calling for Piringa Hapū to responded to the devastation left by Cyclone Gabrielle within the takiwā of the authority. The efforts of the UTAINA 10-year Recovery Plan has been informed by the whānau, the community and validated by Price Waterhouse Coopers. Meihana is from the generation of Kōhanga Reo, Kura Kaupapa Māori, Wharekura and is a graduate of the Bachelor of Arts Māori from EIT. He is the former communications manager of He Toa Takitini, operations manager for Heretaunga Tamatea Settlement Trust and is currently employed as a senior advisor for Te Puni Kōkiri.
Kelly Stratford
Kelly represents the people of the Bay of Islands-Whangaroa General Ward on the Far North District Council. Her portfolio is housing and she sits on the Joint Climate Change Adaptation Committee and the Civil Defence Emergency Management Committee.
Willie Te Aho
Willie Te Aho is from Raukokore in Te Whanau a Apanui where he lives. He is married to associate Professor Linda Te Aho of Ngati Koroki Kahukura and they have two sons and a mokopuna of 10 months – the new centre of his universe! Willie holds a BA, LLB and MBA. He worked on housing developments within Maori Affairs in the late 1980s and has established a number of papakaenga developments from the Waikato to the Bay of Plenty. Willie was the inaugural Managing Director for Toitu Tairawhiti Housing Limited ($73m) until May 2022 when Annette Wehi who started with him succeeded him. Willie is Annette’s Strategic Adviser through to June 2023.
Hera Ngata-Gibson
Hera Ngata-Gibson is of Te Aitanga a Hauiti people of Uawa (Tolaga Bay) on the East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand, and lives with her family in Anaura. Community and environmental advocate, Hera led the charge in calling for an independent inquiry into land use in the region after the devastation wrought by recent weather events. She is a member of Mana Taiao Tairāwhiti, a group which represents farmers, landowners and conservation workers seeking to change outcomes when adverse weather events occur in the region.
Associate Professor Reremoana Theodore
Research Associate Professor Reremoana (Moana) Theodore is the Co-Director of the National Centre for Lifecourse Research (NCLR), and a member of the Royal Society Te Apārangi Council. Moana is an inaugural HRC Māori Health Research Emerging Leader Fellow. She is an Investigator on the Graduate Longitudinal Study NZ (GLSNZ) and Te Kura Mai i Tawhiti – a Māori community research programme. She is a Co-Investigator on the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study and an Associate Investigator in Brain Research New Zealand. Moana is a member of the University of Otago Te Poutama Māori (Māori academic staff caucus), an Associate Investigator on the University of Otago Poutama Ara Rau Research Theme and a member of the University of Otago Edgar Diabetes and Obesity Research Centre. Moana is a former HRC Erihapeti Rehu-Murchie Postdoctoral Fellow.
Her research interests include lifecourse research, Māori health and education, child health and development and the development of chronic disease.
Professor Michelle Thompson Fawcett
Dr Michelle Thompson-Fawcett (Ngāti Whātua, Ngāti Te Ata) is Distinguished Professor in the School of Geography at the University of Otago Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka. She has 40 years’ experience in planning practice and university teaching and research. Michelle’s research explores urban and environmental planning activities by Indigenous communities at the local level. In particular, she examines the extent to which groups are able to engage in, influence, and achieve self-determination in regard to urban and environmental decision-making. She works with Māori communities on their aspirations for urban development, cultural landscape management, indigenous impact assessment, and the management of natural and physical resources.
Dr Sara-Jane Paine
Sarah-Jane (Ngāi Tūhoe) is the recently appointed research director of Growing Up in NZ (GUINZ), Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest contemporary longitudinal study of child development, tracking the lives of 6,000 children and their families over 21 years. The study has produced many reports, policy briefs and papers that contribute to a growing body of knowledge on what helps to improve childhood health and well-being in Kiwi families.
Sarah-Jane was previously director of the Tomaiora Research Group at Te Kupenga Hauora Māori (TKHM) in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences. She has been involved with GUINZ since 2018, as part of the kaitiaki group. Her expertise is Māori public health, as a kaupapa Māori epidemiologist.
Associate Professor Ricci Harris
Dr Ricci Harris (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāi Tahu) is a public health physician and Research Associate Professor at Te Rōpū Rangahau Hauora a Eru Pōmare. She has research expertise in Māori health, epidemiology (including quantitative aspects of Kaupapa Māori research) and the investigation and elimination of ethnic health inequities in New Zealand. This has included research into the classification of ethnicity, ethnic disparities in health status and receipt of health services, and the impact of social determinants (e.g. SES and racism) on Māori health and inequities. Her current research focus is on racism as a determinant of health. This includes the relationship between experiences of discrimination and health, the impact of socially-assigned ethnicity, ethnic consciousness and ethnic density on health, and ethnic bias among health professionals.
Hana Burgess
Hana (Ngäpuhi, Te Roroa, Te Ätihaunui a Päpärangi, Ngäti Tüwharetoa) (she/her) is doing a PhD in Mäori health, with supervision from Donna (Käi Tahu, Käti Mämoe) (she/her) and Papaarangi (Te Rarawa) (she/her)
Associate Professor Jason Paul Mika
Jason is Tūhoe, Ngāti Awa, Whakatōhea, Ngāti Kahungunu. He is an associate professor at Te Raupapa Waikato Management School and Te Kotahi Research Institute, University of Waikato, in Hamilton, New Zealand. Jason’s research, teaching, writing, and practice centres on Indigenous business philosophy in multiple sites, sectors, and scales, including Indigenous trade, tourism, agribusiness, and the marine economy. In 2015, Jason completed a PhD in Māori entrepreneurship at Massey University. In 2019, Jason was a Fulbright-Ngā Pae o Te Māramatanga senior scholar at Stanford University’s Woods Institute for the Environment and the University of Arizona’s Native Nations Institute. Jason is a member of the Academy of Management, Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management, and Te Apārangi Royal Society of New Zealand. Prior to academia, Jason was a management consultant and policy analyst in Māori economic development. Jason’s research has influenced several areas of public policy, including trade, environment, and statistics.
Dr Matthew Rout
Matt works on indigenous socio-economic development and environmental sustainability initiatives and projects with a focus on applied outcomes through theoretical synthesis. He has a particular interest in how philosophical insights from ontology and epistemology can be used in practical ways to aid indigenous development.
- Indigenous and modernist ontology and epistemology
- Institutional economics
- Postcolonial psychology
- Settler colonisation
- Sustainable development
Erina Watene
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.
Ms Watene-Rawiri grew up alongside the Waikato River and has whakapapa connections to Waikato Iwi. Her strong technical expertise in freshwater management sits alongside her community connections.
Che Wilson
Che Wilson is a Poukura (director) of Naia Limited, a Māori consultancy based in Christchurch and Waikato. At Naia, Che is leading research into the Māori New Year for his tribal region and the application of tūpuna wisdom relating to weather and land use practices. He is also a leadership and strategy mentor, facilitator and resource developer.
Che was raised in a large whānau at the foot of Mount Ruapehu. He was given access to his tribal Houses of Knowledge. With a career that spans governance, leadership and cultural advocacy, Che has held prestigious roles as Chair, General Manager and Negotiator for his tribe, Ngāti Rangi, as well as Deputy Secretary for the Ministry for the Environment. He also served as president of Te Pāti Māori.
Che has been a director in tribal governance, the primary sector, on government advisory roles, Māori and government cultural and business delegations abroad and international philanthropy. He chairs Te Reo o Whanganui, a board dedicated to the revitalisation of the Whanganui dialect and is a board member of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga.
Cindy McQuade
Cindy McQuade is the communications advisor for NPM. She has a varied career in the media, working both as a journalist and free-lance writer and as a graphic designer for many years.
She holds a Bachelor of Social Science, majoring in Political Science, Bachelor of Media Art, majoring in graphic design, and Cert. Journalism.
Associate Professor Yvonne Underhill-Sem
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.
Professor Te Kawehau Hoskins
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. She is presently the Pro-Vice Chancellor Māori at Waipapa Taumata Rau | The University of Auckland.
Tā Pita Sharples CBE KNZM
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.
He went to secondary school at Waipukurau District High School and Te Aute Māori Boys College, where he developed his skills in kapa haka and a passion for Māori language and culture. He went on to establish the New Zealand National School of Maori Weaponry, where he became Tumu Whakarae (Sacerdotal Head and Master), and he founded Te Roopu Manutaki Maori Cultural Group.
He studied at Auckland University and trained as a teacher. In 1977 he was awarded a PhD from Auckland University in Anthropology and Linguistics. In 1982 he was appointed inaugural Chairman of the Ngati Kahungunu Tribal Runanga which he chaired for eight years.
For eight years he headed the Office of the Race Relations Conciliator, and then became Director of Culture at the Department of Māori Affairs. He has also been a Professor of Education at Auckland University and an Adjunct Professor at Unitec.
Living in West Auckland, he led the establishment of Hoani Waititi Marae throughout the 1970s, and has been actively involved there ever since, including as chairman for 37 years. He also led the establishment of the first Kura Kaupapa Maori in New Zealand, Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Hoani Waititi. Dr Sharples has belonged to numerous Māori community and education organisations, and has been a consultant to many government agencies and professional boards.
In 2004 he became Co-leader of the Māori Party, and was elected as MP for Tamaki Makaurau in 2005, 2008 and 2011. He was the Minister of Māori Affairs and Associate Minister of Education and Corrections from November 2008 to September 2014.
In 2015 In June, he was appointed a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services as a Member of Parliament and to Māori in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.
He is married to Arapera and is a proud father of five children and grandfather of 16 mokopuna.
Associate Professor Te Taka Keegan
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. He developed the Microsoft Māori keyboard, Microsoft Office in Māori, Moodle in Māori, Google Web Search in Māori and the Māori macroniser. He is Chair of the Kāhui Māori, Science for Technological Innovation National Science Challenge. He has won the Prime Minister’s Supreme Prize for tertiary teaching. Science Challenge. He has won the Prime Minister’s Supreme Prize for tertiary teaching.
Associate Professor Karyn Paringatai
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. Her teaching and research interests are in a number of areas that intersect at various points that include: Sociological issues surrounding Māori urbanisation and Māori identity development and maintenance; Māori performing arts, particularly poi, the analysis of haka and waiata compositions and the role kapa haka plays in identity; Grammatical aspects of the Māori language and second language acquisition; and Māori teaching methodologies. She is a co-director of an Otago Research Theme, Poutama Ara Rau, was awarded the Prime Minister’s Supreme Award for Tertiary Teaching Excellence in 2014, and is part way through a Marsden funded research project looking at the socio-cultural impact of genetic research.
Professor Tahu Kukutai FRSNZ
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. She co-edited Indigenous data sovereignty: Toward an agenda (ANU Press, 2016), Indigenous data sovereignty and policy (Routledge, 2020) and The Oxford Handbook of Indigenous Sociology (Oxford) .
Tahu has undertaken research with and for numerous iwi, hapū, and central government agencies, and provided strategic advice across a range of sectors. She is a technician for the National Iwi Chairs Forum Data Iwi Leaders Group and serves on the Board of Pūhoro STEMM Academy. Tahu has degrees in history, demography and sociology from The University of Waikato and Stanford University. She lives in Waikato with her husband, three tamariki and three cats.
Sacha McMeeking
Sacha brings a serial entrepreneur’s approach to working with and for Iwi Māori. From instigating United Nations proceedings to architecting a Māori social enterprise fund and leading commercial negotiations, she is known for solution-building that meets Iwi Māori aspirations.
Before coming to UC, Sacha was the director of a boutique consultancy working with Iwi Māori in strategy development, kaupapa Māori asset management and innovation and the General Manager Strategy and influence with Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, responsible for government relations on behalf of the Iwi.
Recognised as an emerging New Zealand leader, Sacha won the inaugural Fulbright Harkness Fellowship in 2010. Sacha is a change agent and compliments her varied background with a desire to support and grow the next generation of Māori scholars. Initiatives like the Māui lab are a product of that intent and just one of the many innovations that Sacha intends to bring through Aotahi in the years to come.
Sacha is researching in the areas of:
• Iwi Māori development, innovation and entrepreneurship
• Iwi Māori futures, social and cultural capital
• Comparative approaches to Indigenous peoples
• Public policy
Dr Lynne Russell
Dr Lynne Russell works as a Senior Research Fellow - Maori Health with the Health Services Research Centre (HSRC) at Victoria University of Wellington. Much of her professional and academic work has centred around the Indigenous knowledge and healing practices used in recovery from trauma associated with mental distress, suicide loss and self-harm. She describes herself as an writer, activist and public speaker stirred by cultural resilience, social justice, Indigenous and LGBTI rights, and the amplification of voices more readily silenced in society.
Dr Keri-Anne Wikitera
Dr Keri Wikitera is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Hospitality and Tourism. Her Māori tribal affiliation is Tūhourangi, Ngāti Whakaue of Te Arawa. Keri's personal and academic interests are specifically positioned within promoting and enhancing indigenous tourism development, intercultural exchange, Māori cultural identity, Māori economic development and management studies.
David Hakaraia
David is the Programme Director - First Year Design at the School of Design. He gained his qualification for Victoria University of Wellington
Dr Mike Ross
Mike is a lecturer at Te Kawa a Māui, where he teaches courses on Māori language and customs.
Dr Tina Makereti
Dr Tina Makereti has a PhD and Masters in Creative Writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters. She is a novelist, essayist, curator and short fiction writer. Her first novel, Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings (Vintage, 2014) has been described as a New Zealand classic and 'a remarkable first [book that] spans generations of Moriori, Māori and Pākehā descendants as they grapple with a legacy of pacifism, violent domination and cross-cultural dilemmas.' It was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award 2016 and won the 2014 Ngā Kupu Ora Aotearoa Māori Book Award for Fiction.
Her short story collection, Once Upon a Time in Aotearoa (Huia Publishers, 2010), which combines mythological and contemporary stories, also won the Ngā Kupu Ora Māori Book Award for Fiction in 2011. Her latest novel, The Imaginary Lives of James Pōneke (Vintage, 2018) was longlisted for the Ockham NZ Book Awards Fiction Prize 2019 and the Dublin Literary Award 2020. In 2019 it was published in the UK by Eye & Lightning Books, and in audiobook by Aurora. A forthcoming film adaptation, from Taika Waititi and Carthew Neal's Piki Films, was announced in 2020. Tina is editor of an anthology of Māori and Pasifika fiction, Black Marks on the White Page (Vintage, 2017), with Witi Ihimaera. She has curated exhibitions on social and cultural history at Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision and the Courtenay Place Light boxes, and been guest curator for Verb Festival and Auckland Writers Festival.
At the Auckland Writers Festival Free Public Lecture in 2017 , Tina advocated for a more rich and representative house of New Zealand literature, which continues to be the goal of much of her research, teaching and writing. She has spoken about writing and Māori literature throughout New Zealand and in London, Edinburgh, Jamaica, Toronto, Taiwan and Frankfurt. In 2016 Tina won the Pacific Regional Commonwealth Short Story Prize with her story, 'Black Milk'. Other recognition includes the Royal Society of New Zealand Manhire Prize for Creative Science Writing 2009 (non-fiction), the Pikihuia Award for Best Short Story Written in English 2009, the 2014 Randell Cottage Writer in Residence and the 2016 Beatson Fellowship. She is currently working on her third novel and completing a collection of personal essays, titled This Compulsion in Us. Tina is of Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Ati Awa, Ngāti Rangatahi Pākehā and, according to family stories, Moriori descent.
Dr Pania Te Maro
Ko Hikurangi te Maunga, Ko Waiapu te Awa, Ko Ngāti Porou te Iwi, Ko te Whānau a Pōkai te Hapū, Ko Te Kapa o Hinekōpeka te Tūrangawaewae, Ko Pōkai te Marae, Ko Pōhatu te Wharekai. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā rā tātou katoa.
My main accomplishments to-date are my five children and (so far) eight mokopuna.
I am a senior lecturer/researcher in education with a main focus on mathematics education in relation to kaupapa and mātauranga Māori in kura.
My teaching career began in 1992 in a bilingual class, and carried on to teaching in rūmaki units, kōhanga reo, kura and wharekura. My tertiary teaching career began at Victoria University where I spent eight years mainly focusing on maths education and education for Māori. I moved to Massey University after spending six and a half years lecturing in teacher education at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi, some masters classes, and some adult numeracy and te reo Māori teaching for bridging-to-nursing students. My main focus at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi was teaching Pāngarau/maths and integration of curriculum area teaching and learning that centralises kaupapa and mātauranga Māori.
My PhD explored the relationships that kura communities have with mathematics education with a view to ensuring that kura have emancipated decision-making power to determine how kaupapa and mātauranga Māori are equitably privileged with kaupapa and mātauranga mathematics.
Danny Poa
Mr Danny Poa is the Te Koronga Kaitiaki Kaupapa Manager at the University of Otago.
Danny is also a member of the Coastal People: Southern Skies collaboration that connects communities with world-leading, cross-discipline research to rebuild coastal ecosystems.
Professor Jarrod Haar
Professor Jarrod Haar (PhD) is a Professor of Human Resource Management in the Department of Management and has tribal affiliations of Ngati Maniapoto and Ngati Mahuta. In 2018, Professor Haar was appointed as a Member of the Marsden Fund Council and is the Convenor of the Marsden Economics and Human Behavioural Sciences panel. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi (2020), a Research Fellow of the Australia & New Zealand Academy of Management (since 2012), and Chartered Fellow of the Human Resource Institute of New Zealand (HRINZ). He won the inaugural HRINZ HR Researcher of the Year Award in 2016. In April 2016, he became the Deputy Director of the NZ Work Research Institute.
In 2017, he won the Faculty of Business and Economics (AUT) Individual Researcher of the Year. He won AUTs premier award: The AUT Medal in 2021. His research approach spans broadly across a wide range of management topics, but with a strong focus on Human Resource Management and Organizational Behaviour.
Jarrod’s research falls into five clusters: (1) how employees manage their work, family, and life roles such as work-life balance; (2) the role of cultural factors in the workplace (especially for Māori) and mātauranga Māori in business; (3) team functioning and its influence on team member wellbeing and job outcomes; (4) leadership and its influence on followers; and (5) innovation/entrepreneurship.
Professor Haar has over 400 refereed academic outputs (including 130 journal articles) including Personnel Psychology, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Human Resource Management Journal, Journal of Occupational Health Psychology and The International Journal of Human Resource Management (amongst others). He has given 53 keynotes or invited presentations. He has won around $5 million in research grant funding and is also a named researcher on a $100 million National Science Challenge (Science for Technological Innovation).
Under the New Zealand Governments Research Performance ranking (PBRF scheme), Jarrod was ranked in the top 6% of New Zealand business researchers (Ranked A – world-class) for the past 12 years. He is an award-winning writer (10 best paper awards), an award-winning lecturer, and has a keen interest in mentoring and publishing with PhD students and junior colleagues. Jarrod is a strong quantitative researcher and enjoys mentoring students and colleagues towards publishing research (including high-ranked journal articles). He has a strong combination of research, supervision, teaching, and service excellence (e.g., Research Centre Director, promotion committees and appointment committees) and brings a high-level focus on research and publications including the timing of PBRF rounds. He does this in a relaxed, informal and fun manner – especially as he likes to collaborate with colleagues and students. He has 16 successful PhD completions (10 as Chief Supervisor) and 5 current PhD students. He has over 60 Master’s students. He has examined 28 PhD theses and 18 Masters theses.
Tā Mason Durie ONZ KNZM
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.
Sir Mason previously served as NPM’s International Research Advisory Panel Chair and has been a valued past Principal Investigator leading research on the project Fostering te pā harakeke: Advancing Healthy and Prosperous Families of Mana.
Sir Mason was appointed NPM Ruānuku in October 2019.
Tā Tīpene O'Regan Kt
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. He was a major architect and negotiator of the Treaty of Waitangi fisheries settlements of 1989 and 1992, he was also the founding Chairman of the Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission.
Tīpene is the retired Assistant Vice-Chancellor Māori of the University of Canterbury, a Distinguished Fellow of the Institute of Directors and held a 28 year term on the New Zealand Geographic Board. He holds Honorary Doctorates from the Universities of Canterbury, Lincoln and Victoria University of Wellington and has published and lectured extensively over many years on Ngāi Tahu traditional history, Polynesian migration, Treaty issues and the evolution of biculturalism.
Tā Tīpene was appointed as an NPM Ruānuku in October 2019.
Dr Simon Hills
The overarching theme of my research is understanding the composition, distribution and evolutionary history of New Zealand’s unique ecosystems. My primary focus is the rich, and largely endemic, marine mollusc fauna. However, I apply my broadly ranging expertise in genomics, ecology and evolutionary biology, to a diverse range of research topics involving New Zealand’s biodiversity, both native and exotic.
As a Māori scientist, I am increasingly focused on research collaborations with iwi/hapu. These projects generally involve working with Māori communities to build capacity and generate data that will inform enhanced kaitiakitanga.
Dr Matthew Roskruge
Matthew Roskruge (Te Atiawa, Ngāti Tama) is codirector of Te Au Rangahau and a Senior Lecturer in the School of Economics and Finance. He has an academic background in health and population economics, and researchers broadly as an applied economist and social scientist. His current research projects include:
- Māori economics & mixed-methods
- Social capital and wellbeing research
- Effective health systems and service delivery; Health Economics
- Population, labour and regional economics
Dr Natasha Tassell-Matamua
Natasha Tassell-Matamua is a senior lecturer in the School of Psychology at Massey University, where she teaches in the area of cultural psychology. Her research platform encompasses two primary threads: Indigenous Psychology with a focus on mātauranga Māori as it relates to: ethics, spirituality, well-being, and the environment - and also Exceptional Human Experiences with a particualr focus on near-death experiences [NDEs].
Dr Jordan Waiti
Jordan started as a lecturer within Te Hautaki Waiora Faculty of Health, Sport and Human Performance at the University of Waikato in early 2018. Previously, he was a Māori Health Consultant based out of Whaingaroa/Raglan.
He completed his PhD at Massey University, which focussed on Māori notions of ‘Resilience’ and how they are utilised by whānau who had experienced adversity. He has Honours and Masters degrees from Otago University, with research expertise that is broadly based in the area of Māori Health. He has also been a volunteer facilitator for the Te Taitimu Youth Trust in Hawkes Bay.
Dr Adreanne Ormond
Adreanna is a Senior Lecturer in Te Kura Māori in the Faculty of Education. Her research interests include youth, education, and health as well as Māori development with a specific interest in Indigenous – ethnic minority youth and how existent issues within the community influence life experience and the articulation of that experience.
Historically her research is conducted through a sociological consideration of social injustice issues and deploys qualitative and critical research methodologies which include the Indigenous epistemology Kaupapa Māori. She is grounded in her community Te Mahia where she grew up on the whānau farm and like many other Indigenous scholars she supports her community by acting as an advocate for our Indigenous rights and liaising between her people and various institutions, leading and participating in research and writing projects and mentoring the younger generation.
Dr Arama Rata
Arama is of Ngāti Maniapoto, Taranaki, and Ngāruahine descent. She completed her PhD in Psychology at Victoria University of Wellington in 2012, which focused on Māori cultural engagement, identity, and psychological well-being in State secondary schools.
Arama then lectured at Te Kawa a Māui (the School of Māori Studies), where she received a Research Establishment Grant to study Māori collective remembering of the New Zealand Wars.
Dr Rata is currently involved with research relating to Māori health experiences, Māori in rural communities, as well as iwi consultancy.
Dr Tia Neha
Tia is a lecturer at the school of psychology, Victoria University of Wellington. Her research interests include four key areas, broadly linked and overarched by relationships within Māori and Indigenous Developmental Psychology.
These areas include:
- Indigenous and developmental psychology in the interdependent relations between whānau and their children’s learning
- Autobiographical memory with whanau
- Language research
- Māori pediatric health
Associate Professor Sonja Macfarlane
Sonja’s research interest’s focus on the importance of culturally responsive, evidence based approaches in education, psychology, counselling, health and human development in order to enhance the social, cultural, educational and health outcomes that are achieved by Māori.
The importance of exploring 'what works well' for Māori as a pathway to responding to disparity and unlocking potential guides most of her research endeavours. She argues that many of the solutions for reducing such disparities actually reside in 'te ao Māori' (the Māori world, which includes Māori knowledge, protocols and practices). Strength-based, restorative and holistic approaches to individual and collective wellbeing are drawn on to support the development of such responses in contemporary times.
Dr Farah Palmer
Farah research interests include gender issues in sport from a sociological or kaupapa Māori perspective, diversity issues in sport management and leadership and Māori leadership and governance in sport and business.
She is a senior lecturer at the School of Management, Massey University coordinating a number of courses including Fundamentals of Leadership and Teamwork. She is on the board of NZ Rugby and is an former world cup winning captain of the Black Ferns.
Tame Malcolm
Tame has more than a decades experience in environmental management roles in the Bay of Plenty, Waikato, Canterbury and Marlborough regions. This has included working for OSPRI (TB Free), Waikato Regional Council, Department of Conservation (Waikato) and most recently the Maori Biosecurity Network.
His is a member of the Bay of Plenty Conservation Board, is on the Advisory Board for Biological Heritage National Science Challenge, was interim executive of Te Tira Whakamataki (Maori Biosecurity Network), and is a member of the Royal Society.
Dr Jamie Newth
Jamie is a lecturer in Management and International Business at the Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Auckland. He is also the CEO of Soul Capital, which invests in social enterprises and social business in Aotearoa New Zealand.
He is a board member on the National Advisory Board for Impact Investment, on Connect: Supporting Recovery, on Social Enterprise Auckland and works as a consultant on Business Model Innovation, Strategy and Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
Dr Kiri Dell
Kiri is a lecturer in property in the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Auckland. Her teaching focuses on Māori land issues and Māori entrepreneurship and business development. Kiri’s research and areas of expertise focuses on competitive Māori strategy, Māori economics and Māori business.
Dr Rāwiri Tinirau
Rawiri is a graduate of Massey University and Co-Director of Te Atawhai o te Ao. He was previously Project Manager for MANU AO with the responsibility of implementing key projects, such as the Leadership Course and Academic Forums.
Rawiri has expertise in Project management; Māori event management; Māori business and organisations; and Māori oral history. He has tribal affiliations to Te Āti Haunui-ā-Pāpārangi, Ngāti Rangi, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Kahungunu me Ngāi Tūhoe.
Fiona Wiremu
Fiona is Chairperson of Te Puna Ora o Mataatua and Med Central (Whakatāne medical practice) and is also an executive director at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi. Her research interests are focused on Māori health outcomes and economic initiatives.
Associate Professor Hinekura Smith
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.
Hinekura was initially a secondary school te reo Māori teacher then moved into teacher education research almost 10 years ago, when she commenced her postgraduate studies. She has worked as a professional development facilitator in Māori medium schools, te reo Māori facilitator in English-medium schools and a professional teaching fellow at Te Puna Wānanga, School of Māori and Indigenous Education. Since February 2017 she has been a lecturer and academic developer Māori at the Centre for Learning and Research in Higher Education, University of Auckland.
Her research grounded in kaupapa Māori theory, includes the reclamation and revitalisation of Māori language, culture and identity - particularly for Māori women and children as well as the development of qualitative Kaupapa Māori and art-based methodologies.
From 2018-2020 Hinekura is a co-Principal Investigator on a 2 year intercultural Ako Aotearoa project named He Vaka Moana, which is focused on developing and evaluating an inter-institutional Oceanic research fellowship to support Māori and Pasifika student success and retention.
Dr Marama Muru-Lanning
Marama holds a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Auckland. She is a Senior Research Fellow and Acting Director at the James Henare Māori Research Centre. Marama also advises on elderly health projects in the School of Population Health. Her research is primarily concerned with debates and critical challenges in social anthropology where she focuses on the cultural specificity of iwi-Māori and their unique sense of place and belonging in New Zealand. What distinguishes Marama nationally as a social scientist is her specialization in water, environment and indigenous rights. She currently holds a Royal Society Marsden Research Grant, is on the Board of the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania and is a Council member of the Journal of the Polynesian Society, New Zealand’s oldest scholarly journal.
Her book Tūpuna Awa: People and Politics of the Waikato River, was published by Auckland University Press in 2016. Marama was awarded a Visiting Chilean Research Fellowship in 2015 and has conducted research with scholars from Pontificia Catolica Universidad examining the impacts of increased privatised geothermal and hydro electricity generation on Mapuche who reside in the Araucania of Chile. She also has research collaborations with other University of Auckland scholars that involve improving the water quality of New Zealand Rivers and investigating the resilience of Maori buildings.
Marama is from Turangawaewae Marae and is of Waikato and Ngati Maniapoto descent.
Melanie Mark-Shadbolt
Melanie is an Indigenous environmental sociologist, and the Māori Research Manager – Kaiārahi for the Bio-Protection Research Centre (a Centre of Research Excellence) based at Lincoln University.
She is also the Māori Manager for New Zealand’s Biological Heritage National Science Challenge, a founding member of Te Tira Whakamātaki; the Māori Biosecurity Network and a project leader and researcher in a number of National Science Challenge, Tertiary Education Commission and Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment programmes including ‘Mātauranga Māori characterisation of NZ’s biodiversity,’ ‘Protecting NZ’s primary sector from plant pests: a toolkit for the urban battlefield,’ and ‘Protecting New Zealand from extreme fire.’
Since 2011 Melanie has been funded through various research institutes and government agencies to examine disaster risk reduction (DRR) and the effects of the Canterbury earthquakes on Māori communities, work that she believes links closely to the biosecurity sector. Melanie worked for Te Runanga o Ngāi Tahu and its education subsidiary Te Tapuae o Rehua from 2001-2008.
Associate Professor Ocean Mercier
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.
Current research projects
- Social and cultural perceptions of novel biotechnological controls of pest wasps, with Prof. Phil Lester
- Virtual exchanges on Indigenous knowledge(s) and science in global contexts, with Dr Beth Leonard, University of Alaska, Fairbanks
- Student learning and engagement in the Te Kawa a Māui Atlas
- Place-based and map-based work in Māori Studies
- The 48 Hour Film Competition: what do the audio commentaries reveal?
Research interests
- The interface between mātauranga Māori and science
- Cultural mapping and digital media in documenting local knowledge and diversifying the tertiary education experience
- Kaupapa Māori readings of film, especially those of Taika Waititi
- Portrayals of culture in limited-time film, especially the V48 Hours Furious Filmmaking Competition
- Use of locally relevant 'cultural context' in science resources, especially Te Whata Kura Ahupungao, an initiative of the Faculty of Science (Equity) that has provided multimedia resources for learners and teachers of physics. Short, educational films can be downloaded or watched online in te reo and English.
- Indigenous academic experience.
Rebecca Kiddle
Rebecca Kiddle began her career working for the New Zealand government. Following the completion of undergraduate degrees in Politics, Women’s and Maori studies, where she worked predominantly as a Housing policy analyst for the Aotearoa/New Zealand government and as Private Secretary Housing for the Associate Minister of Housing in New Zealand’s parliament. During this time she became increasingly aware of the need to link housing research and policy to physical space design more directly. This led her to undertaking an MA and PhD in urban design at the Joint Centre for Urban Design at Oxford Brookes University, throughout which she has focused my research on topics that aim to realise the built environment implications of current policy and practice. For her MA, she explored the spatial implications of policy that encourages mixed income neighbourhoods. For my PhD, she investigated the spatial implications of social constructivist pedagogy on university educational space. Throughout my PhD, she taught on both postgraduate and undergraduate modules at the Joint Centre of Urban Design.
More recently she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Royal Holloway, University of London on a project called Indigeneity in the Contemporary World: Politics, Performance, Belonging funded by the European Research Council. This transnational and interdisciplinary project explores “what indigeneity has come to mean in particular places and at key moments over the last several decades, and what kind of cultural, political, ethical and aesthetic issues are negotiated within its canvass” (www.indigeneity.net). Her fellowship sought to understand how Māori notions of sustainability and Māori identity generally could be used to inform New Zealand’s place identity.
Rebecca then spent 3 years working in China at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University as a Lecturer in Urban Planning and Design before returning home to Aotearoa to work for Victoria University as a Lecturer in Environmental Studies and Geography.
Dr Phil Lyver
Phil’s research has used ecological science and indigenous and local knowledge to interpret changes in demographic trends and abundance of wildlife populations (e.g. terrestrial and marine birds). The key focus of his research has been on climatic and anthropogenic (e.g. harvest) drivers of population change, and the development of models to forecast population trends. He has expertise in interpreting ecosystem structure and function within scientific and indigenous worldviews, in particular the ways that different cultures ‘sense’ the environment. Phil has experience interfacing both scientific and cultural frameworks to design and interpret biodiversity indicators for Māori resource users, scientists, policymakers, and government and non-government officials. Strong cross-cultural partnerships with indigenous people, especially Māori, are core to his research. Also of interest are the arrangements used by Māori and indigenous people internationally to achieve governance and management over their lands and natural resources.
For the last decade, Phil has worked as part of national and international multidisciplinary teams, comprising ecologists, modellers, social scientists, and school teachers. Outcomes include amendments to government policy resulting in the re-establishment of a customary harvest of grey-faced petrel chicks; presentation of principles and priorities for the future governance and management of Te Urewera; and the restoration of coastal forest ecosystems using palaeo-pollen records and mātauranga. His results contribute significantly to understanding biodiversity and ecology in New Zealand and Antarctica, and have been communicated through international and national peer-reviewed journals and conferences, community newsletters, TV and print media, school journals, and the NCEA Year 10–13 Geography curriculum.
Professor Kyle Powys Whyte
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. Kyle is President of the Board of Directors for the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition and the Pesticide Action Network North America.
Professor Megan Davis
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.
Megan was the Rapporteur of the UN EGM on an Optional Protocol to the UNDRIP in 2015 as well as the author of a UNPFII study on a supervisory mechanism for UNDRIP (2014). Megan was the UN Rapporteur for the International Expert Group Meeting on Combating violence against indigenous women and girls: article 22 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the UN Rapporteur for the International EGM on Indigenous Youth.
Professor Davis researches in public law and public international law. Her current research focuses on constitutional design, democratic theory and Indigenous peoples. Megan is one of the CIs in an ARC project on the impact of extra-legal factors on the sentencing of Indigenous offenders of sexual abuse of Aboriginal women in the Northern Territory.
Dr Jason Paul Mika
Jason MIka is a senior lecturer and Co-Director of Te Au Rangahau, the Māori Business & Leadership Research. His research interests include indigenous entrepreneurship, management and methodologies.
Professor Jenny Bol Jun Lee-Morgan
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. In 2106, she was awarded Te Tohu Pae Tawhiti Award by the New Zealand Association for Research in Education for her significant and high-quality research contribution to Māori education. Dr Lee-Morgan’s co-edited book ‘Decolonisation in Aotearoa: Research, education and practice’(Hutchings & Lee-Morgan, 2016) won Te Kōrero Pono (non-fiction category) in the Ngā Kupu Ora Aotearoa Māori Book Awards 2017.
Dr Tony Trinnick
Tony’s research interests are broadly focused on a number of areas in the teaching and learning of mathematics in the medium of Maori.
This includes researching the complex relationship between te reo Maori and mathematics, particularly the development of the mathematics register and the teaching and learning of the register.
His research also focuses on student achievement in Maori medium mathematics and the factors that support and impinge on student progress.
Associate Professor Meegan Hall
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.
Her research interests lie in Māori academic development, Māori pedagogies, Māori student achievement and retention in higher education.
Dr Matire Harwood
Dr Matire Harwood (PhD, MBChB) lives in Auckland. Matire’s background is in primary health care and rangahau hauora Māori.
She is the Director for Tōmaiora, Māori Health Research, and Senior Lecturer at the Auckland Medical School; editor for the Māori Health Research Review; and GP Champion for Primary Care Health Targets at Counties Manukau DHB.
Dr Harwood sits on the Board and Māori Health Committee at the Health Research Council, and the Māori Advisory Committee for Auckland / Waitemata DHB.
Other recent roles include Clinical Director at Tamaki Healthcare PHO; Deputy Chair for Te ORA (Māori Medical Practitioners Association); previous member of the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation, and Health and Disability Ethics Committees.
Professor Tahu Kukutai
Tahu is the incoming Co-Director of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga and is Professor of Demography at the National Institute of Demographic and Economic Analysis, University of Waikato. She specialises in Māori and Indigenous demographic research and has written extensively on issues of Māori population change, Māori identity, official statistics and ethnic and racial classification.
She is a founding member of the Māori Data Sovereignty Network Te Mana Raraunga and the Global Indigenous Data Alliance. She co-edited the landmark book Indigenous Data Sovereignty: Toward an Agenda (ANU Press) and a forthcoming edited volume Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Policy (Routledge).Tahu has undertaken research for numerous iwi, Māori communities, and Government agencies, and is a member of the Chief Science Advisor Forum. She was formerly a journalist and has degrees in History, Demography and Sociology from The University of Waikato and Stanford University.
Professor Margaret Mutu
Professor Margaret Mutu is of Ngāti Kahu, Te Rarawa, Ngāti Whātua and Scottish descent. She is the Professor of Māori Studies at the University of Auckland where she teaches and conducts research on Māori language, tikanga (law), history and traditions, rights and sovereignty, Te Tiriti o Waitangi and treaty claims against the English Crown, constitutional transformation and Māori-Chinese encounters.
She holds a BSc in mathematics, an MPhil in Māori Studies, a PhD in Māori Studies specialising in linguistics and a DipTchg. She has published four books: a grammar of the `Ua Pou dialect of Marquesan (2002); the history and traditions of her hapū, Te Whānau Moana (2003); her collection of annual reviews of issues affecting Māori, The State of Māori Rights (2011); and Ngāti Kahu: Portrait of a Sovereign Nation, on the traditions, history and Tiriti o Waitangi claims of her iwi (nation), Ngāti Kahu (2017).
She has also published numerous articles and book chapters and is called on frequently by local, national and international media to provide information and expert commentary. Margaret is the chair of her iwi parliament, Te Rūnanga-ā-Iwi o Ngāti Kahu of the Far North and of two of her marae. She has been a mandated representative of Ngāti Kahu and of Māori in a number of national and international fora. She has three children, six grandchildren and a huge extended family.
Dr Lisa Te Morenga
Lisa Te Morenga is a Research Fellow in the Department of Human Nutrition and is affiliated with the Riddet Institute – a National Centre of Research Excellence in food science and nutrition. Lisa works closely with Professor Jim Mann and collaborates with researchers associated with the Edgar National Centre for Diabetes and Obesity Research at the University of Otago Medical School. Her PhD was on “the effects of macronutrient composition on risk of diabetes” in 2010, both at the University of Otago.
Lisa’s primary motivation is to undertake research that is of direct benefit to Māori and thus focuses on the role of nutrition in the development of preventable diseases that inflict a particularly high health burden on the Maori community. She is actively engaged with Maori students and academic staff at the University of Otago and developing research relationships with Ngāti Whātua that are necessary to be able to contribute to kaupapa Maori health research.
Her research specialties include: Epidemiological studies, dietary intervention studies, and systematic review and meta-analyses examining the effects of macronutrient composition (including free sugars, dietary fibre, carbohydrates, fats and protein) on physiological endpoints associated with increased risk of preventable diseases including obesity, the metabolic syndrome, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Primary macronutrient interests include dietary sugars, dietary fibre and dietary protein.
Dr Hauiti Hākopa
Hauiti is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow based at Te Tumu - University of Otago and specialises in collecting information about waahi tapu, waahi tipuna (sacred|cultural/heritage|ancestral sites), oral narratives (moteatea - traditional songs/chants, korereo purakau - stories) and whakapapa (genealogies) embedded in ancestral landscapes and uses modern GIS mapping technology to enhance this process.
Associate Professor Linda Te Aho
Linda is the Associate Dean Māori at Te Piringa Faculty of Law, University of Waikato, and is co-editor of the Waikato Law Review. In 2014, Linda was appointed to provide expert technical advice on the proposed reforms to Te Ture Whenua Māori 1993 (the Māori Land Act).
In 2015, Linda was contracted to provide advice on the proposed reforms to the Resource Management Act. She was appointed by her iwi of Waikato-Tainui as a guardian mandated under the 2010 settlement for the co-management of the Waikato River ecosystem to develop the long term vision for its holistic restoration.
Linda served as a lead negotiator for Ngāti Koroki Kahukura Treaty Claims and continues to provides specialist advice on Treaty of Waitangi claims and Post-Settlement Governance issues to iwi and hapū organisations. She provides technical advice on Māori legal issues in relation to lands and freshwater to Iwi leaders, to Crown agencies and government departments.
Dr Lily George
Lily gained her doctorate in social anthropology from Massey University in 2010, with research on Awataha Marae in Northcote, Auckland. The research explored innovation of Māori tradition through three periods of cultural renaissance.
She recently completed a Health Research Council Erihapeti Rehu-Murchie Postdoctoral Fellowship, based in the Research Centre for Māori Health & Development, Massey University. Her research investigated the life experiences of Māori women who have been incarcerated, ultimately to garner a better understanding of the multitude of factors which lead to incarceration, but which might also redirect lives toward more positive and fruitful endeavours.
Lily is also commited to the development and growth of indigenous anthropology, and contributing to an international network of indigenous scholars. At present she is engaged in supporting Māori student research and building community research capability, as well as working towards translating the findings of her postdoctoral research into practical action.
Dr Katharina Ruckstuhl
Katharina is a Senior Research Analyst and Researcher at the University of Otago. She uses a kaupapa Māori framework to focus on the translation of policy into practice for Māori. Her research is broad-ranging and includes Māori small and medium enterprises, Māori business innovation, Māori language, and Māori ‘social licence’ in the oil, gas and mining industries.
Katharina has governance, research and leadership roles for Ngāi Tahu at the tribal and local levels, and has been consulted on or involved in a number of regional economic development projects. She joined the University of Otago in 2008 after working for Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu for five years as education manager and project consultant and worked with communities, local and central government agencies to implement Māori-focused initiatives throughout the South Island education sector. Prior to that, she had been in the teaching profession.
Dr Ruckstuhl completed her Honours degree and Ph.D. through the English Department at Otago. As well, she has post-graduate qualifications in Education through Massey University.
Dr Karyn Paringatai
Karyn's research interests are in a number of areas that intersect at various points. These are: sociological issues surrounding Māori urbanisation and Māori identity development and maintenance; Māori performing arts, particularly poi, the analysis of haka and waiata compositions and the role kapa haka plays in identity; grammatical aspects of the Māori language and second language acquisition; Māori language and Māori performing arts teaching methodologies.
She is a co-director of an Otago Research Theme, Poutama Ara Rau, alongside Professor Jacinta Ruru (Faculty of Law) and Associate Professor Suzanne Pitama (Christchurch Medical School). The aim of Poutama Ara Rau is to research how Māori knowledge and teaching and learning pedagogies can transform tertiary teaching to enhance student success.
Dr Kahu McClintock
Kahu is the Manager Research at Te Rau Matatini. Kahu has worked in the health and disability sector for over 20 years, with a special focus on Māori health research and child and adolescent mental health.
Kahu holds a Dip Nursing (Psychiatric), Higher Dip Teaching, B Ed, M Phil (Māori), D Phil (Psychiatry). She was a Member of the Māori Health Committee, New Zealand Health Research Council from 2008 to 2014, and Chair of Ngā Kanohi Kitea Community Research Committee, New Zealand Health Research Council during that term, She is the lead for Te Rā o Te Waka Hourua
Dr John Pirker
John's fields of research include marine ecology, aquaculture and marine algae and his research interests centre around aquaculture.
His disciplines include ecology, evolution and behaviour within marine ecological systems and he belongs to the Māori Research Advisory Group (MRAG) and Marine Ecology Research Group (MERG)
Veronica Tawhai
Ms Tawhai lectures in policy and politics at Te Pūtahi a Toi. A recent recipient of the Fulbright-Nga Pae o Te Maramatanga scholar award, Ms Tawhai's fields of research and community work include the Treaty of Waitangi, Māori and youth political engagement, constitutional change, and electoral, civics and citizenship education.
Veronica has co-edited two books, authored several papers and presents widely on these issues. She is a member of Matike Mai Aotearoa, the Independent Working Group on Constitutional Transformation and is completing her PhD on the role of citizenship education in transforming Indigenous-coloniser relations.
Professor John Broughton
John is responsible for the integration of Hauora Māori/oranga niho in the curriculum of the undergraduate Bachelor of Dental Surgery and the Bachelor of Oral Health. John is also the director of the Ngai Tahu Maori Research Unit within the Centre for Hauora Māori. The Unit was established in 1996 as a partnership between Te Runanga O Ngai Tahu and the Dunedin School of Medicine.
John has published widely on oranga niho. His PhD thesis topic was ‘Oranga niho: A review of Māori oral health service provision utilizing a kaupapa Māori methodology’. The thesis was originally submitted for the Master of Community Dentistry but on the recommendation of the examiners it was awarded the higher degree of a PhD. John has also published numerous papers and books on a number of aspects of hauora Māori including hauora rangatahi; hauora wahine; Kai paipa and Maori and Injury Prevention.
John established Te Whare Kaitiaki, a Māori oral health clinic for whanau within the Faculty of Dentistry in 1990, so it is now in its 23rd year of operation. One of his current responsibilities is the coordinator for the Faculty of Dentistry final year dental student clinical placement with Māori oral health providers throughout the motu.
Associate Professor Joanne Baxter
Joanne is a public health medicine specialist with research interests in Māori health workforce development, Māori mental health, Māori child and youth health, hazardous drinking among tertiary students and health inequalities.
Joanne has current research collaborations with the Injury Prevention Research Unit (Hazardous drinking project) and the New Zealand Mental Health Epidemiology Survey team.
She is also the Theme Leader for Māori Health in the Dunedin longitudinal study, a multidisciplinary, longitudinal study of 1,037 babies born in Dunedin during 1972–3. The Study members have been followed up since birth, at age three, then every two years to age 15, at ages 18, 21 and 26, and most recently at age 32. Her involvement with the Study began at the age 32 assessments when she led the New Zealand Society, Identity and Health aspects of the study
Joanne has two key positions in the University of Otago: within the Dunedin School of Medicine she is the Associate Dean (Māori) and Associate Professor of Māori Health; within the Division of Health Sciences she is the Associate Dean (Māori) for the Division and also the Director of the Māori Health Workforce Development Unit.
Associate Professor Jo Smith
Jo's research examines the socio-political power of media technologies with a primary focus on how colonial histories inform contemporary media practices. She has developed her research profile across three interrelated fields (Indigenous, Postcolonial, and Settler Colonial Studies) to ask new questions about the ways in which media technologies, institutions and aesthetic practices help shape notions of identity, nationhood and community.
Her research interests include Māori Television; Postcolonial Media Cultures; Indigenous Film and Media; Race and Ethnicity; Media, Subjectivities and Identities.
Dr Hinemoa Elder
Dr Hinemoa Elder is a mother of two from Ngāti Kuri, Te Rarawa, Te Aupouri and Ngāpuhi nui tonu. She works as a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist in private practice. She is a deputy member of the Mental Health Review Tribual and on the list of Medical Consultants under the Intellectual Disability Compulsory Care and Rehabilitation Act 2003.
Dr Elder provides neuropsychiatric assessment and treatment for tamariki, taiohi and their whānau who have experienced traumatic brain injury (TBI) via ACC. Dr Elder's focus is the development of a tikanga-centred approaches for tamariki who have experienced TBI and their whānau. Dr Elder is currently a Professorial Fellow at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi and holds an Eru Pomare Post-doctoral Fellowship from the Health Research Council of Aotearoa NZ.
Dr Erica Williams
Erica (Te Arawa, Ngāti Whakaue, Ngāti Pikiao, Te Whānau ā Apanui) started at NIWA in 1995. After completing a MSc (University of Waikato) developing a blue mussel embryo-larval toxicity test, she spent a number of years in the NIWA freshwater fisheries team. Here she gained skills in fish population studies, the downstream migration adult eels and fish passage through culverts.
Her PhD (University of Auckland) investigated the effects of a group of contaminants called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) on shellfish. She is currently working on a wide range of projects spanning both the marine and freshwater environments within the National Centre of Māori Environmental Research.
Dr Ella Henry
Ella Henry has a background in Sociology, Māori Studies, Management Studies and Māori Development. Her PhD focused on Māori entrepreneurship in screen production, and her Masters on Māori women and leadership.
Dr Henry has been actively involved in the Māori screen industry, serving as Chair of Nga Aho Whakaari, the Association of Māori in Screen Production.
Dr Elana Taipapaki Curtis
Dr Elana Taipapaki Curtis is a Public Health Physician currently working as Senior Lecturer Medical at Te Kupenga Hauora Māori, University of Auckland.
She is Director Vision 20:20 which provides academic leadership of Hikitia Te Ora - Certificate in Health Sciences (bridging/foundation education for Māori and Pacific), Māori and Pacific Admission Scheme (MAPAS, admission and retention support for Māori and Pacific students) and the Whakapiki Ake Project (WAP, Māori recruitment).
In 2004-2005, Elana was a Harkness Fellow in Healthcare Policy based at the University of California (San Francisco) - investigating ethnic disparities in breast cancer mortality and survival. Prior to this, Elana worked at the National Screening Unit, Ministry of Health in Wellington where she investigated Maori:non-Maori disparities in breast cancer epidemiology, and at Te Ropū Rangahau Hauora ā Eru Pōmare – Māori Health Research Centre at the University of Otago investigating ethnic disparities in access to invasive cardiovascular procedures/caesarean sections and the relationship between disparities and deprivation.
She has recently submitted her Doctorate of Medicine (MD) focused on indigenous health workforce development and is involved in Kaupapa Māori Research investigating the teaching of indigenous health within medical education, ethnic inequities within emergency department settings, ethnic inequities in cardiovascular care and is developing a research focus exploring the prevalence of dementia amongst Māori.
Associate Professor Donna Cormack
Donna has been involved in work on the collection and classification of ethnicity data in New Zealand, particularly as it relates to measuring and monitoring disparities. Most recently, Donna has been focused on work examining disparities in cancer outcomes and access to cancer services for Māori. She is involved in the Differential Colon Cancer Survival by Ethnicity in New Zealand project as well as Unequal Treatment: The Role of Health Services with Te Rōpū Rangahau Hauora a Eru Pōmare.
Dr Dean Mahuta
Dean conducts research into traditional Māori knowledge, revitalisation of te reo Māori (the Māori language), Māori history, the representation of Māori customs, language and lore in video games, Māori digital media and identities.
He also supervises a number of Masters and PhD students at AUT.
Sir Hirini Moko Mead
Dr Hirini Moko Mead is a prominent Māori writer and commentator. Author of over 70 books, papers and articles, he was Foundation Professor of Māori Studies at Victoria University and was closely involved in establishing the Māori university Te Whare Wānangā o Awanuiārangi in Whakatāne.
A scholar of rare expertise in Māori language and culture, Hirini was made a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2007 for his services to Māori and to education.
Dr Carwyn Jones
Carwyn's primary research interests relate to the Treaty of Waitangi and indigenous legal traditions. Before joining the faculty in 2006, Carwyn worked in a number of different roles at the Waitangi Tribunal, Māori Land Court, and the Office of Treaty Settlements.
He is the author of New Treaty, New Tradition – Reconciling New Zealand and Maori Law (UBC Press, May 2016) He is the Co-Editor of the Māori Law Review and maintains a blog, Ahi-kā-roa, on legal issues affecting Māori and other indigenous peoples.
Carwyn’s research is currently focused on a major project exploring the legal traditions of Ngati Kahungunu (see http://maorilaw.org/ ). He is also a member of a team of authors working on developing a comprehensive text addressing Maori dimensions of New Zealand law.
Dr Bridgette Masters-Awatere
Bridgette's research speciality is in the area of indigenous evaluation research. She has lead, been a team member, and/or supervised evaluations in the general area of indigenous social well-being.
Project research areas include: family violence; intimate partner relationships; women’s and children’s health; tobacco, alcohol, drug, use and reduction; positive learning environments (primary, secondary and tertiary institutions); cultural competency and evaluation training.
She has worked with different types of agencies from: Private, Public and not-for-Profit sectors.
Dr Beverley Lawton
Dr Lawton (Ngāti Porou) trained at Otago medical school. She worked as a general practitioner in Newtown, Wellington for and co-founded the Wellington menopause clinic. These experiences lead to an interest in research to answer the many questions relevant to women’s health.
She joined the Department of General Practice and Primary Healthcare in 1998 which was followed by the establishment of the Women’s Health Research Centre. Bev was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2004, for services to women’s health.
She is currently a member of the New Zealand Perinatal Maternal Mortality Committee and Member of the National Kaitiaki group for the cervical screening program.
Bev's areas of research interest include women’s health with specific focus on sexual and reproductive health, mid-life health and menopause, diabetes and heart disease risk, clinical trials, Māori Health and inequalities, Kaupapa Māori research, Maternal and infant health.
Dr Armon J Tamatea
Armon Tamatea is a clinical psychologist who served as a clinician and senior research advisor for the Department of Corrections (New Zealand) before being appointed senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Waikato. He has worked extensively in the assessment and treatment of violent and sexual offenders, and contributed to the design and implementation of an experimental prison-based violence prevention programme for high-risk offenders diagnosed with psychopathy.
Armon is principally involved in the post-graduate diploma of clinical psychology programme in the School of Psychology. His research interests include psychopathy, New Zealand gang communities, and exploring culturally-informed approaches to offender management. He is also New Zealand editor for Sexual Abuse in Australia and New Zealand: An Interdisciplinary Journal. Armon currently divides his professional time between teaching, research, supervision, and clinical practice in the criminal justice arena.
Dr Heather Gifford
Heather is a trained nurse working in the field of child and family health, and has taught at a tertiary level in health services, as well as working as a manager with a Māori Development Organisation and in primary health care.
She has completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Public Health at Otago University, a Masters in Public Health from the same university and a PhD and Postdoctoral Fellowship with Te Pūmanawa Hauora, the Research Centre for Māori Health and Development, Massey University.
In collaboration with Ngāti Hauiti, Heather established Whakauae Research for Māori Health and Development, an iwi based research centre and from 2005 - 2016 she held the role of Research Centre Director.
In 2016 Heather assumed a senior advisory role and since then her research interests have concentrated on health service delivery and intervention, and the development of whānau, hapū and iwi based models to address Māori health issues, in particular tobacco control research with a focus on prevention and policy work.
Associate Professor Māmari Stephens
Māmari completed an MA (Distinction) in Classical Studies, BA (Hons), and an LLB (Hons) at Victoria University. She then spent three and a half years at Russell McVeagh in Wellington working in the Māori legal team in the Corporate Advisory Group, latterly concentrating on ACC law.
Māmari has been with the Faculty of Law at Victoria University of Wellington since January 2006 and, with Assistant Professor Mary Boyce of the University of Hawai'i, runs the Legal Māori Project. The outputs of this project are available free online at www.legalmaori.net.
Her primary research interests are law and language, Māori and the New Zealand legal system, and social security law. She is currently working on a social security law textbook to be published by Thomson Reuters. This book is also being supported by a grant from the Law Foundation.
Research Interests
- The use of Māori language in legal contexts
- Māori and the New Zealand legal system
- NZ legal history and jurisprudence
- Social Security law (including ACC law)
- Criminal Law
- Treaty of Waitangi
Dr John Reid
John is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Canterbury’s Ngai Tahu Research Centre. He is a specialist in leading and developing multi-disciplinary research and development programmes focused on addressing interrelated social, economic, and environmental problems.
His research explores the way in which Indigenous and Western cultures shape identity, sense of place, and approaches to social and economic development.
John's current research interests are focused on sustainable development within indigenous tribal communities and in fostering novel approaches to development through engagement between Indigenous and Western ways of knowing.
He is currently working on the project Identifying Frameworks for Effective Iwi and Hapū Development with Associate Professor Merata Kawharu from the University of Otago.
Dr Anne-Marie Jackson
Anne-Marie Jackson is a lecturer in Māori physical education and health at the University of Otago, and joined the School of Physical Education as an academic staff member in 2011.
After obtaining a Bachelor of Physical Education Honours degree majoring in Exercise Sport Science and a Master of Physical Education focusing on education policy at the School of Physical Education, she completed a doctorate in Māori studies and physical education examining rangatiratanga and Māori health and well-being within a customary fisheries context.
Her research focuses on the examination of Māori conceptualisations of physical education and health, rangatiratanga and the right to self-determination, the role of the Tiriti o Waitangi for Māori health and Māori approaches to research.
Anne-Marie is a member of the leadership group for the Sustainable Seas National Science Challenge and an associate investigator for Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga. She is an advisor to the East Otago Taiāpure Management Committee, a member of Hauteruruku Waka ki Puketeraki (Kāti Huirapa ki Puketeraki), a member of Te Houhanga-a-Rongo Marae Centenary Committee (Ngāti Whātua), a mentor and Futures Group member at Te Taitimu Trust (Ngāti Kahungunu) and a beginner crew member of Haunui Waka.
Dr Anna Thompson (nee Carr)
Anna Thompson is a senior lecturer and course coordinator at the University of Otago. She serves as the Department representative on the School's Undergraduate Advisory Group and the University of Otago Women's Development Programme. She is Kaiawhina Māori and on the Teaching and Learning Committee for the Tourism Department.
Anna has published internationally in peer reviewed academic journals and been invited as a chapter contributor to numerous edited books. Her current research interests are focused on the environmental management of tourism,indigenous business development, cultural landscapes, heritage tourism, Maori sport and leisure activities.
Associate Professor Angela Wanhalla
Angela’s research focuses on the intersections between gender, race and sexuality in colonial history, with a specific focus on the connections between race and intimacy within and across colonial cultures.
Between 2010-2012 she was co-investigator, with Professor Judy Bennett, on an archival and oral history-based research project concerned with exploring the fate of children born of American servicemen and indigenous women in the South Pacific Command during World War II. This project has resulted in a book, a website, and a documentary film.
Angela is a Partner Investigator on an Australian Research Council Discovery Project (2015-2018) on violence and intimacy in settler societies, she is an active member of the University of Otago’s Centre for Research on Colonial Culture a co-editor, of the New Zealand Journal of History and serves on the editorial boards of Australian Historical Studies and the Journal of Pacific History.
Andrew Waa
Andrew (Anauru) is a Research Fellow with the Department of Public Health, at the University of Otago. He is a trained social scientist with postgraduate degrees in Public Health.
His work has included evaluations of community, national and government level policies, programmes and services and has also lectured and developed aids for teaching evaluation methods. Andrew’s public health interests include Māori health, tobacco control, social marketing, nutrition and psychosocial recovery following disasters.
He is currently working on the Te Ara Auahi Kore (TAKe) research project which will provide much needed high quality evidence for addressing smoking disparities between Maori and non-Maori
Dr Andrew Erueti
Andrew is currently a senior lecturer at Auckland University School of Law. Previously he has taught at the Law Schools of the University of Waikato and Victoria University of Wellington. Between 2008 and 2012 he was Amnesty International’s lead adviser on Indigenous rights based in London and Geneva and he was also lead counsel in the claim by Taranaki hāpu to Petroleum before the Waitangi Tribunal.
His primary area of research is in indigenous customary law and legal pluralism, and indigenous peoples’ rights in domestic and international law. His PhD thesis (defended in April 2016) examines the politics behind the drafting of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and its implications for domestic application.
Dr Amohia Boulton
Dr Amohia Bolton is the Research Director at Whakaue Research for Māori Health & Development with a career that has spanned public policy and academia. She has previously worked as a data analyst (Ministry of Education) policy analyst, senior analyst (Te Puni Kōkiri) and Private Secretary (Māori Affairs) and was awarded an HRC Māori Health Training Fellowship to pursue doctoral study at Massey University in Palmerston North. Her post-doctoral research took her to the University of Northern British Columbia in Canada where she worked with the Lheidli T'enneh First Nations people.
Her research interests are in the fields of Māori health and mental health services, health governance, health reform, and the interface between health policy and service-level implementation. Her work to date has involved a number of evaluations of health systems and health services, including being a Principal Investigator on the Health Reforms 2001 Research Project, (a five year, HRC-funded evaluation) and, more recently the Evaluation of Multisystemic Therapy Alcohol and other Drug Services for the Hutt Valley District Health Board.
Amohia is currently a member of the Māori Health Committee of the Health Research Council of New Zealand and an Executive Member of the Health Services Research Association of Australia and New Zealand.
Dr Amanda Black
Amanda’s research expertise is in environmental soil and water chemistry, focusing on major nutrient cycling, including the incorporation of molecular techniques to explore the relationship between functional gene expression and soil product activity.
She has recently focused her research on ecosystem resilience in soils from managed and natural ecosystems, with a particular focus on investigating disease resistant traits (i.e. evidence of PTA resistance in kauri forests). She is also part of a Māori Biosecurity Focus Group, seconded by the Ministry for Primary Industries, and is funded by MBIE to establish a Māori biosecurity network.
Amanda completed her BSc (Geology) and MSc (Environmental Science) at the University of Otago, before working at the Otago Regional Council and then CRL Energy as a consultant. She returned to academia with an ESR doctoral scholarship to study soil chemistry at Lincoln University, and was awarded an MSI Postdoctoral Fellowship (TTP scheme) before being employed in 2013 as a lecturer within the Bio-Protection Research Centre.
Associate Professor Carla Anne Houkamau
Carla Houkamau (PhD) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Management and International Business, the Director of the Mira Szászy Research Centre for Māori and Pacific Economic Development and the Associate Dean for Māori and Pacific Development for the Business School.
Carla is of Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāi Tahu and Pākehā descent. She holds a deep personal interest in the history of Māori-Pākehā relations and promoting cultural understanding. Her current research focuses mainly on intergroup relations, chiefly how group memberships influence attitudes and behaviour. Her publications typically examine how ethnicity helps reproduce socio-economic inequalities but can be leveraged to address them.
Reflecting her role in the Business School her work has broadened to include diversity management, identity economics and implicit bias. Her research using the Multidimensional Model of Māori identity and Cultural Engagement (MMM-ICE) has been recognised nationally and internationally for advancing ethnic identity research using psychometric measures and large samples.
Dr Brad Combes
Brad's research focus is the participation of indigenous peoples in conservation management and environmental planning. This research focuses on the obstacles to establishing partnership approaches, and the appropriateness of comanagement, collaborative science and community-based management for resolving conservation conflicts.
He has been involved in several research projects which were commissioned to support the environmental claims of iwi (Maori tribes) before the Waitangi Tribunal. Those projects focus on the capacity of indigenous peoples to influence landscape change and halt environmental degradation through the planning process. They also emphasise the impacts of conservation on the communities which surround national parks, and the search for policies which attempt coexistence between conservation, development and Treaty rights.
He also has research interests in long-standing dilemmas in environmental management, conflicts about and approaches to promoting indigenous habitat protection and water quality control on private land, strategies to motivate the public to participate in environmental projects and community-based restoration projects throughout New Zealand.
Professor Tīmoti Kāretu
Dr Kāretu, of Tūhoe and Ngāti Kahungunu descent, is one of three Directors of Te Panekiretanga o Te Reo Māori (School of Māori Language Excellence) at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. He is considered a master of te reo Māori (the Māori language) and is recognised nationally and internationally for his knowledge and work in the language.
In 1992, he received the Queen’s Service Order (QSO) for services to the Māori language. In 1970, he was appointed as the first Professor of Māori Studies at the University of Waikato. In 1987 he became the first Māori Language Commissioner at Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori (The Māori Language Commission). He continued in the role until 1999. From 2003, Dr Kāretu was the Head of Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust (Māori language and culture preschools).
He has been involved in numerous Māori performing arts competitions as a tutor, a composer, a judge and an organiser. He was the head of the national Māori performing arts competition for many years. He is also one of the three New Zealand Fellows of the International Centre for Language Revitalisation.
Professor Te Kani Kingi
Te Kani Kingi is Director of Te Mata o te Tau, The Academy for Māori Research and Scholarship at Massey University in Wellington. His specialist interests are in mental health research, psychometrics and Māori health.
He has been an executive member of the New Zealand Public Health Association, the Mental Health Advocacy Coalition, the National Ethics Advisory Committee, the National Health Committee and the Public Health Advisory Committee.
He currently sits on Statistics New Zealand’s Māori Advisory Group, the Pharmacy Council and is Chair of the Mental Health Commission’s Advisory Board. He was born and raised in Poroporo and attended St Stephens Māori Boys College in South Auckland. He has tribal affiliations to Ngāti Pukeko, Ngāti Awa and Ngāi Tai.
Professor Tania Ka'ai
Professor Tania Ka‘ai has worked in tertiary education for over 20 years. As an Indigenous scholar Professor Ka‘ai uses the cultural values transmitted to her by her elders and mentors as an epistemological framework which informs her own academic writing and teaching (including supervision) within the university academy.
Her work as Director of Te Ipukarea and Te Whare o Rongomaurikura, provides an opportunity to share her knowledge not only with students and staff at AUT and others nationally, but internationally too.
Professor Ka‘ai’s work with endangered and minority languages has taken her around the globe to showcase the research being undertaken within the Institute and the Centre.
Tania teaches in Indigenous research methodologies and her research focuses on language revitalisation strategies and in particular Māori and Pacific languages, Indigenous epistemologies and methodologies, and Māori education
Paora Sharples
Paora is Kaihautu Tikanga (Te reo me ngā tikanga Māori leader) at NPM and also a Professional Teaching Fellow at the Department of Māori Studies, University of Auckland where he lectures in Kapahaka, Traditional & Contemporary Māori Performing Arts and Te Reo Māori.
He has had a significant career in kapahaka as well as traditional and contemporary Māori performing arts, including areas of performing, teaching/training, directing, judging as well as choreography and composition within this indigenous genre of dance.
Paora has also spent 30 years developing, teaching and promoting the art of Māori weaponry, empowering thousands of students both nationally and internationally within the ceremonial, performing and fighting art that is Mau Rakau.
He is a past CEO of Hoani Waititi Marae and also of Te Whare Tu Taua o Aotearoa Inc, has fulfilled a number of consultancy and advisory roles nationally and has performed, spoken and taught at a large number of international and national events.
Paora is the current leader of the cultural group Te Ropū Manutaki, and fulfils an ongoing role judging regional, national and international Kapahaka competitions.
Dr Rachel Wolfgramm
Rachel's training has been multi-disciplinary, incorporating the fields of organisation, consumption, leadership and economic theory and practice. She has taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Management, Organisation Behaviour, Māori Enterprise, Sustainability, Business, Culture and Society, Business Ethics and Sustainability.
Rachel is currently investigating the “Romance of Sustainability; enchantment, illusion, entrapment and re-enchantment”. This is examined in the context of management, consumption and leadership theory and practice. She is also co-leading a longitudinal research project “Echoes from the future, status and sustainability in new lifestyle trends” and is supervising a cohort of postgraduate and doctoral students whose interests cohere around business in society and business futures.
Her research activity also includes Māori organisation and enterprise (with a recent focus on the dynamics of Māori careers and leadership in the creative industry), leadership for sustainability (with a specific focus on global initiatives involving universities) and spirituality at work.
Research interests: Sustainability, socio-economic trends, Māori organisation and enterprise.
Dr Robert Joseph
Robert is a Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand and was a senior research fellow for the Te Mātāhauariki Research Institute at the University of Waikato under the leadership of Judge Michael Brown and Dr Alex Frame. Dr Robert Joseph was the second Māori in New Zealand - and the first Māori male - to graduate with a PhD in Law in 2006.
Robert's research interests are many and varied: the realisation of the Treaty of Waitangi rights and responsibilities, the interface of traditional Māori knowledge systems and western science; internal self-determination rights and responsibilities of Indigenous institutions; Canadian and North American Indigenous studies; treaty processes and post-settlement development; dispute resolution processes, particularly with respect to resolving disputes between different cultures; and Māori and Indigenous Peoples' governance in settler nation-states. He is currently writing a biography of his paternal tupuna (ancestors), who fought at the famous 1864 Battle of Orakau during the Waikato Wars.
Garth Harmsworth
Garth is a senior environmental scientist based in Palmerston North and has worked for Landcare Research since 1992. His career spans over 28 years in resource management, land resource assessment, national environmental databases, GIS applications, and indigenous research. Garth pioneered much of the Māori led research in Manaaki Whenua-Landcare Research Ltd., working on a wide range projects with Māori organisations and regional councils throughout New Zealand, particularly in the areas of land use planning, ecosystem health, bio-physical and cultural indicators, restoring indigenous landscapes, climate change, sustainable iwi/hapu resource development, building Māori research capability, collaborative learning, and indigenous Māori knowledge and values.
Major achievements and publications reflect an in-depth relationship and extensive networking during the last 29 years, work in at least 40 Māori research projects, and a large number of consultancies/working relationships/supply of information to staff in: iwi and hapu organisations; central and local government; non government organisations.
Dr Chellie Spiller
Dr Chellie Spiller, of Māori and Pākehā lineage, is a senior lecturer and Associate Dean Māori and Pacific at the University of Auckland Business School. She has over 30 years of corporate experience in tourism, finance and marketing, holding senior executive positions in New Zealand and abroad, and brings this experience to her academic work and leadership and management development programmes. Her research explores how Māori and indigenous businesses create authentic and sustainable wealth and wellbeing.
Chellie was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the Harvard Kennedy School and the University of Arizona between November 2011 and March 2012. She is a recipient of a 2011 Dame Mira Szászy Māori Alumni Award, 2011 National Māori Academic Excellence Award, and 2010 AuSM Best Lecturer Award, AUT University. In 2013 she released a co-edited book with Professor Donna Ladkin titled Reflections on Authentic Leadership: Concepts, Coalescences and Clashes published by Edward Elgar Press, which was nominated in the top ten leadership books of 2013 (University of San Diego Outstanding Leadership Book Awards).
Chellie is a co-author of a book on traditional Polynesian navigation Wayfinding Leadership: Groundbreaking Wisdom for Developing Leaders with Hoturoa Barclay-Kerr and John Panoho. She is a co-editor of Indigenous spiritualties at work: Transforming the spirit of business enterprise with Dr Rachel Wolfgramm and a co-editor on two special issues: “Intellectual Shamans, Wayfinders, Edgewalkers, Difference Makers, Social Entrepreneurs, and Other Change Makers” for the Journal of Corporate Citizenship and “Indigenous leadership” for Leadership.
Professor Chellie Spiller
Dr Chellie Spiller, of Matawhaiti Iwitea, Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairoa, is Professor of Management and Leadership, and Associate Dean Māori at the University of Waikato. She was previously a senior lecturer and Associate Dean Māori and Pacific at the University of Auckland Business School. She has over 30 years of corporate experience in tourism, finance and marketing, holding senior executive positions in New Zealand and abroad, and brings this experience to her academic work and leadership and management development programmes. Her research explores how Māori and indigenous businesses create authentic and sustainable wealth and wellbeing.
Chellie was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the Harvard Kennedy School and the University of Arizona between November 2011 and March 2012. She was a recipient of a 2011 Dame Mira Szászy Māori Alumni Award, 2011 National Māori Academic Excellence Award, and 2010 AuSM Best Lecturer Award, AUT University. In 2013 she released a co-edited book with Professor Donna Ladkin titled Reflections on Authentic Leadership: Concepts, Coalescences and Clashes published by Edward Elgar Press, which was nominated in the top ten leadership books of 2013 (University of San Diego Outstanding Leadership Book Awards).
Chellie is a co-author of a book on traditional Polynesian navigation Wayfinding Leadership: Groundbreaking Wisdom for Developing Leaders with Hoturoa Barclay-Kerr and John Panoho. She is a co-editor of Indigenous spiritualties at work: Transforming the spirit of business enterprise with Dr Rachel Wolfgramm and a co-editor on two special issues: “Intellectual Shamans, Wayfinders, Edgewalkers, Difference Makers, Social Entrepreneurs, and Other Change Makers” for the Journal of Corporate Citizenship and “Indigenous leadership” for Leadership.
Bridget Robson
Bridget (Ngāti Raukawa) is the director of Te Rōpū Rangahau Hauora a Eru Pōmare at the University of Otago, Wellington. Her research interests are in the areas of social and economic determinants of health, inequitable treatment in the health system, the impact of racism on health, and the development of kaupapa Māori epidemiology.
Bridget is the Principal Investigator of Unequal Treatment: The Role of Health Services. She is also involved in the Mauri Tangata project on unemployment and health, several projects on Māori cancer outcomes, and she is active in providing Tackling Inequalities workshops for the health sector. Bridget was also an author on Hauora: Standards of Health III.
Dr Diane Ruwhiu
Diane teaches strategic operations and supply chain management at under and post-graduate levels. In addition, she also introduces Māori values and practice into other areas, such as entrepreneurship, research methods, business communication, and organisations and sustainability.
Diane's PhD, 'The Sleeping Taniwha: Exploring the practical utility of kaupapa Māori in firm performance', engaged with the premise that improved Māori firm performance and sustainable advantage, are not merely an outcome of economic activity, but are also determinants of the value derived from combinations of distinct Māori socio-cultural resources and capabilities.
Other research questions of specific interest to Diane are:
- What does an Indigenous perspective of practice offer our understanding of organisational practice?
- How do social-cultural resources and capabilities inform business practice?
- What are specific characteristics of clusters or networks based around Indigenous groups?
- What are the socio-cultural dynamics that influence relationships management between general and Indigenous organisations?
- What forms of traditional Māori exchange are evident today and how do they add value?
Professor Papaarangi Reid
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.
Professor Michael Walker
Professor Michael Walker is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and the Royal Institute of Navigation in London. He is best known for his research on the existence, capacities and use of the magnetic sense in navigation over long distances. Recently, he has developed research investigating the mechanisms of the lunar and tidal rhythms in marine organisms.
He also led other NPM projects, He Reo no te Whenua: The establishment of a Māori-centric conservation paradigm and Use of advanced technologies to develop culturally appropriate pest-management strategies for rural Māori communities.
Mike has worked to increase participation of Māori and Pacific Island people in all aspects of the sciences and research beginning with the Tuakana Programme in the School of Biological Sciences and through his teaching. He was a founding Joint Director of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence, from 2002-2010. His personal research and work in Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga were profiled in Science in 2007.
He was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2009, and was awarded the Prime Minister’s Supreme Award for Sustained Tertiary Teaching Excellence in 2011.
Professor Helen Moewaka Barnes FRSNZ
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.
Her work is both qualitative and quantitative and she is also involved in developing research within Māori paradigms. Helen is a long time NPM researcher and is now a NPM Theme Leader (Te Tai Ao - Natural Environment ) and member of our Research Leadership Team.
Related Projects
Associate Professor Emma Wyeth
Emma was a Deputy Director at Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga 2016 to 2018 and now leads a research project. She is also the Director of Te Rōpū Rangahau Hauora Māori o Ngāi Tahu (Ngāi Tahu Māori Health Research Unit) and a Lecturer in Māori Health, both in the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine at the University of Otago.
Emma has a range of research interests within the field of hauora Māori. She currently holds a Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC) Emerging Researcher First Grant (2014–2017) entitled Maori Disability Outcomes: Pathways and Experiences After Injury. She is a former HRC Eru Pōmare Post-Doctoral Research Fellow and a Co-Investigator (Māori Health) in the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, a longitudinal study of 1,037 babies born in Dunedin during 1972–1973.
Professor Jacinta Ruru FRSNZ
Jacinta Ruru is a Professor of Law at the University of Otago. Her research has focused on exploring Indigenous peoples' legal rights to own, manage and govern land and water including national parks and minerals in Aotearoa New Zealand, Canada, United States, Australia and the Scandinavia countries.
She has led, or co-led, several national and international research projects including on the Common Law Doctrine of Discovery, Indigenous peoples’ rights to freshwater and multidisciplinary understandings of landscapes and writes for several legal publishers including Adams’ Land Transfer and edit the Brookers Maori Legislation Handbook.
Professor Papaarangi Reid
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.
Professor Paul Tapsell
Professor Tapsell is a graduate of the University of Auckland (MA - Social Anthropology) and University of Oxford (DPhil - Museum Ethnography) and has had a distinguished career working within both the Museum community and also academia. He was Tumuaki/Director Māori of Tamaki Paenga Hira/Auckland Museum from 2000-2008, and was appointed as a Professor of Māori Studies in 2009 when he joined the University of Otago in Dunedin. Paul is currently also Director, Collections and Research at Museums Victoria.
Paul has published many articles, essays and award winning books and his research interests include Māori identity in 21st century New Zealand, cultural heritage & museums, taonga trajectories in and beyond tribal contexts, Māori values within governance policy frameworks, Indigenous entrepreneurial leadership, marae and mana whenua, genealogical mapping of tribal landscapes and Te Arawa historical and genealogical knowledge. Paul is a co-Principal Investigator on the NPM project Waka Wairua with Associate Professor Merata Kawharu.
Dr Maria Bargh
Maria Bargh (Te Arawa, Ngāti Awa) has a PhD in Political Science and International Relations from the Australian National University. She is a Senior Lecturer in Māori Studies at Victoria University and editor of Māori and Parliament (Huia Publishers, 2010) and Resistance: an Indigenous Response to Neoliberalism(Huia Publishers, 2007).
Dr Matiu Tai Ratima
Matiu's PhD research is on the factors that influence the development of proficiency in te reo Māori amongst adult learners. He also researches and has published on Māori Academic development.
Khylee Quince
Khylee is from the iwi of Te Roroa/Ngapuhi and Ngati Porou. She teaches Criminal Law, Advanced Criminal Law and Youth Justice. Her research interests lie within those fields; in particular Māori and the criminal justice system, tikanga Māori and the law, restorative justice and alternative dispute resolution, Māori women and the law, indigenous peoples and the law.
Prior to joining the University of Auckland's Law Faculty in 1998, Khylee practiced in criminal and family law for three years. Khylee is now Associate Head of School and Director of Maori and Pacific Advancement at the AUT School of Law.
Dr Pauline Harris
Dr Pauline Harris is the Chairperson of the SMART board and a postdoctoral researcher at Victoria University. Her research involves searching for extra-solar planets.
Professor Linda Waimarie Nikora FRSNZ, HFNZPS
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.
Professor Nikora has a celebrated research and academic career, working in community, social and indigenous psychologies, with a specific focus on Māori wellbeing and self-determination. Her research in recent years has focused on Tangi: Māori ways of mourning; traditional body modification; ethnic status as a stressor; Māori identity development; cultural safety and competence; Māori mental health and recovery; social and economic determinants of health; homelessness; relational health; and social connectedness.
Professor Rangi Matamua
Associate Professor Matamua of Tūhoe, is a senior lecturer based in the School of Māori and Pacific Development at Waikato University. He has undertaken significant research in the areas of Māori language revitalisation, Māori culture, Māori astronomy and broadcasting. In his MA thesis Rangi focused on traditional Tūhoe weaponary, and his PhD examined the role of Māori radio in Māori language revitalisation. In addition, Dr Matamua has produced a number of publications in his specialist areas, and sits on a number of related boards including Society for Māori Astronomy Research and Traditions (SMART).
Professor Joanna Kidman
Joanna is a sociologist with affiliations to Ngāti Maniapoto and Ngāti Raukawa. Her work spans indigenous sociology, Māori youth, higher education, decolonization studies and comparative education. She is especially interested in the interplay of power relations between different groups of people.
Joanna is working on two Marsden projects: He Taonga te Wareware: Remembering and Forgetting New Zealand’s Colonial Past investigates how New Zealanders selectively remember and forget difficult and violent events from our colonial past; and
What Inspires and Sustains Young People's Engagement in Social Movements?, led by A/P Karen Nairn, University of Otago, explores the ways that hope for a better future motivates young New Zealanders to engage with politics and new social movements
Professor Tracey McIntosh
Tracey McIntosh (Ngāi Tūhoe) is Professor of Indigenous Studies and Co-Head of Te Wānanga o Waipapa at the University of Auckland. She previously taught in the sociology and criminology programme at the University of Auckland. Tracey brings a high level of experience to her roles in international work, community development, student equity and in her wider contributions to the academic community. Tracey has lectured at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, was a Fulbright Visiting Lecturer in New Zealand Studies at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. in 2004, and has served on Fulbright selection panels and as a Fulbright student advisor since then.
Tracey's recent research focuses on incarceration (particularly of indigenous peoples), inequality, poverty and justice. She also sits on a number of external research assessment panels including the Marsden Fund Social Science Panel, the Rutherford Discovery Humanities and Social Science Panel and on the FoRST Te Tipu o te Wānanga Māori Research Investment Panel. In 2012 she was the co-chair of the Children’s Commissioner’s Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty. She sits on a number of boards particularly in the area of social harm reduction including the Robson Hanan Trust: Rethinking Crime and Punishment and Te Waka Moemoea: Being the Change Trust.
Dr Waikaremoana Waitoki
Waikaremoana Waitoki is a Research Officer in the Māori and Psychology Research Unit (MPRU) at the University of Waikato. She is also a Clinical Psychologist specialising in mental health.
She is one of the Bicultural Directors for the New Zealand Psychological Society and the Co-convenor of the National Standing Committee on Bicultural Issues (NSCBI). Her broad interests are in mental health, cultural competency, curriculum development, cultural supervision, indigenous psychology and research. Waikaremoana advocates for kaupapa Māori inclusion in all parts of psychology education and practice. She holds a nidan grade in Kyokushin karate, competes in full-contact fighting tournaments and also instructs rumaki-tamariki karate classes and adult classes.
Dr Shaun Awatere
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.
Associate Professor Gregory Cajete
Professor Karina Walters
Karina L. Walters is the Associate Dean for Research and the William P. and Ruth Gerberding Endowed University Professor at the University of Washington School of Social Work. Dr. Walters is also the Director of the Indigenous Wellness Research Institute National Center of Excellence funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The Institute’s many notable contributions include hosting the 2010 International Network of Indigenous Health Knowledge and Development conference, a biennial gathering aimed at improving the health of indigenous peoples in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States through indigenous and community-led research, health services and workforce development. Dr. Walters is also a recipient of the prestigious Fulbright Senior Research Award where she was an honorary visiting scholar at Ngā Pae o te Maramatanga National Institute for Research Excellence in Maori Development and Advancement at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
Her research focuses on historical, social and cultural determinants of physical and mental health among American Indians and Alaska Natives. She has published and presented nationally and internationally on her research and mentors numerous American Indian and Alaska Native junior faculty, researchers, post-doctorate, graduate and undergraduate students. Dr. Walters serves as principal investigator on several groundbreaking studies associated with health-risk outcomes among American Indian individuals, families and communities funded by the National Institutes of Health. These include the HONOR Project — a nationwide health survey that examines the impact of historical trauma, discrimination and other stressors on the health and wellness of Native American lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and two-spirited men and women; and Healthy Hearts Across Generations — a project in collaboration with a Northwest Tribe to design and test a culturally appropriate, feasible and generalizable cardiovascular disease prevention program with American Indians living in the Pacific Northwest.
Professor Martin Nakata
Professor Nakata is a Torres Strait Islander who graduated with a Bachelor of Education with honours from James Cook University where he subsequently was awarded his PhD in 1998. He is Chair of Australian Indigenous Education,and Director of Nura Gili at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). He is also a Board member of the Collections Councils of Australia Ltd. He has presented eighteen plenary and keynote addresses at national as well as international conferences in ten countries, and published over seventy articles on Indigenous Australians and education in various academic journals and books in Australia and abroad. He is a former member of the editorial board of The Australian Educational Researcher and current member of the editorial board of the Journal of Indigenous policy and Balayi
Associate Professor Harald Gaski
Associate Professor in Sami literature at the world’s northernmost university, the University of Tromsø, Norway, situated on the 70th latitude. Gaski is the author and editor of several books, journals and articles on Sami literature and culture. The Sami are the indigenous people of the northernmost regions of Fenno-Scandia and the Kola peninsula of Russia. Gaski has been visiting scholar at several universities in the US, Australia, and in Greenland, and is very much used as speaker internationally on Sami issues. Gaski has been instrumental in establishing Sami literature as an academic field. He is a member of the joint coordinating committee of the Norwegian Program for Development, Research and Education (NUFU)-funded research program in Nicaragua conducted as a collaborative project between the University of Tromsø and URACCAN university in Nicaragua. Currently he is also a board member in the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States, and the chair of the Sami Non-fiction writers association in Norway.
Gaski's research topics include indigenous peoples’ literatures with a specific emphasis on Sami literature. He has also specialized on oral tradition – especially the transition of the traditional Sami singing, the yoik poetry, into contemporary lyrics. Gaski has participated in translating Sami prose and poetry into English, which can be found in his anthology In the Shadow of the Midnight Sun. Contemporary Sami Prose and Poetry, 1997. He has also translated the award-winning Sami poet Nils-Aslak Valkeapää into Norwegian and English. He has edited Sami Culture in a New Era. The Norwegian Sami Experience, 1997, and published a trilingual book on a Sami myth Biejjien baernie – Sami son of the Sun, 2003. His most recent publication is an annotated collection of Sami proverbs, entitled Time is a Ship that Never Casts Anchor, 2006. He debuted as a writer of fiction books for young adult readers in 2002 (in collaboration with Lars Nordström) with the award-winning book Ciezain cáziin in Sami, published in English in 2004, Seven kinds of water.
In 2006 Gaski was awarded the The Nordic Sami Language Prize, Gollegiella, established by the Nordic Sami Ministers and the Presidents of the Sami Parliaments in Norway, Sweden and Finland. The same year he also received the Award for Outstanding Dissemination of Research at University of Tromsø. In 2005-2006 Gaski served as a member of a Nordic assessment committee to evaluate the quality of the Finno-Ugric education at Swedish universities. The committee was appointed by the National Agency for Higher Education in Sweden. He has recently been appointed to the International Research Advisory Panel for Nga Pae o te Maramatanga the National Institute for Research Excellence in Maori Development and Advancement.
Dr James Ataria
Dr James Ataria was a Deputy Director of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga for a fixed term 2016 to 2018. He is Senior Lecturer at Lincoln University and an ecotoxicologist at the Cawthron Institute, Nelson and is also an associate trustee of the Tuaropaki Trust and a member of Ngā Kaihautū Tikanga Taiao (Māori Advisory Committee to the board of the Environmental Protection Authority).
His research interests are in the development and application of ecotoxicological tools for the assessment of the biological effects and impacts of legacy and new emerging contaminants on culturally significant species and sites (especially freshwater) in New Zealand. He conducts his research within multi-disciplinary/multi-organisational programmes that are firmly embedded in Māori culture and process but with strong linkages to end-user organisations.
This approach interfaces between science and mātauranga Māori (traditional and contemporary Māori knowledge) and explores mechanisms that promote mutual understanding and equality of uptake in policy and decision making with respect to environmental resource management.
He led the NPM projects He moemoeā mō Ahuriri: A vision plan and health assessment for the Ahuriri Estuary, Ko te huarahi ki mua: Roads for change and He pūau awa – he ūngututanga mātauranga
Professor Huia Tomlins-Jahnke
Associate Professor Huia Tomlins Jahnke has been involved as a researcher and research coordinator of the D Company Māori Battalion Oral History Project since 1997 when the Ngāti Kahungunu veterans of D Company established the project. She is Principal Investigator on the NPM project Au e ihu! Nga Morehu TauaThose that are left must endeavour to complete the work. Huia is currently an Professor of Māori Education, and Head of School in the College of Education at Massey University.
Dr Dominic Andrae
Dr Dominic Andrae is currently a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow working with Tracey McIntosh (Director) on her research programme. Dominic’s role is to conduct research in the area of incarceration, gang membership and gang whānau and to develop new and appropriate methodologies in working with vulnerable groups: generating new knowledge, outputs and research opportunities (funding, support and collaborations). Dominic holds a PhD in Sociology and a MA in Anthropology. His research has focused on working with marginalised communities and their interaction with the judicial system in New Zealand. He recently worked with Aboriginal communities in Alice Springs. Dominic was supervised by Tracey for his PhD, and was a Journal and Publications Coordinator for AlterNative and MAI Journal at NPM.
Distinguished Professor Graham Hingangaroa Smith
Professor Graham Smith, a prominent Māori educationalist, has been at the forefront of Māori initiatives in the education field and beyond. His recent academic work has centered on developing theoretically informed transformative strategies related to intervening in Māori cultural, political, social, educational and economic crises. Professor Smith has made significant contributions to the political, social, economic and cultural advancement of indigenous Māori communities. He has also worked extensively with other indigenous peoples across the world, including Canada, Hawaii, USA mainland, Taiwan, Chile, Australia and the Pacific nations. He was the CEO/ Vice Chancellor of Te Whare Wānanga O Awanuiārangi: Indigenous-University for 8 years, ending his position as CEO in 2015. He is the Principal Investigator of one of NPM's significant research programmesTe Pae Tawhiti: Māori Economic Development.
Distinguished Professor Linda Tuhiwai Smith
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.
She is a member of New Zealand’s Health Research Council, Chair of the Māori Health Research Committee, is President of the New Zealand Association for Research in Education and is a member of the Marsden Fund Council and Convener of the Social Sciences Assessment Panel. She has also most recently been appointed to the Constitutional Advisory Panel Committee in New Zealand and the High Panel - Science, Technology and Innovation for Development in Paris.
She has worked in the field of Māori education and health for many years as an educator and researcher and is well known for her work in Kaupapa Māori research. Professor Smith has published widely in journals and books. Her book Decolonising Methodologies Research and Indigenous Peoples has been an international best seller in the indigenous world since its publication in 1998.
Professor Smith was a founding Joint Director of New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence from 2002-2007 and a Professor of Education at the University of Auckland. She is well known internationally as a public speaker. She is Principal Investigator on the NPM Project - In pursuit of the possible: Indigenous Wellbeing
Professor Merata Kawharu
Merata Kawharu is a graduate of The University of Auckland (BA in Social Anthropology and Māori Studies and Post-Graduate Diploma in Business (Administration)) and of Oxford University (DPhil in Social Anthropology).
She is currently working on the project Identifying Frameworks for Effective Iwi and Hapū Development and was previously the Principal Investigator on the NPM project Waka Wairua.
As a Rhodes Scholar she undertook research on kaitiakitanga. Since completing her doctorate in 1998, she has undertaken research projects for various Treaty claimant groups and the private sector and has been a consultant to the U.N and to UNESCO. She was a member of the NZ Historic Places Trust Board and Māori Heritage Council; the New Zealand Rhodes Committee; a Treaty claims advisor and member of other local committees. She is Director of Research at the James Henare Māori Research Centre at The University of Auckland, and an Associate Professor of Research at Otago University. She has published two edited books (on Treaty and resource management issues, one of which was shortlisted in the Montana Book awards), another book (Tahuhu Korero which won the Te Reo Māori section of the Māori book awards in 2010), along with several treaty reports and journal articles. She was awarded the Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori education in 2012.
Emeritus Professor Ngahuia Te Awekotuku MNZM FAWMM
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.
Associate Professor Amokura Kawharu
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.
Her research interests include international trade and investment law, arbitration, and international disputes resolution. She contributes reviews on disputes settlement for the New Zealand Law Review and co-authored the leading text on New Zealand arbitration law with David Williams QC, "Williams & Kawharu on Arbitration" (LexisNexis, 2011).
Professor Darrin Hodgetts
Darrin Hodgetts is a Professor in Social Psychology at the University of Waikato. Previously he was a teaching fellow at Massey University, and then held a post-doctoral fellowship in Community Health at Memorial University, Canada, followed by a lectureship at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences.
Darrin has published more than 70 peer-reviewed articles and three books relating to health, poverty, community and inequalities. He is an expert in the use of participative, action-orientated ethnographic research methods. Darrin is Co-Principal Investigator on the Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga project Aue Ha! Māori men’s relational health.
Associate Professor Mohi Rua
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).
Mohi has an active research interest in the critique of Māori cultural patterns and behaviours as a vehicle to understanding Māori health and wellbeing through the discipline of psychology. This includes using customary Māori practices to inform mainstream psychological training and theory. His PhD considered the way Māori men constructively participate, engage and contribute positively to their whānau and communities and he was Co-Principal Investigator on the Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga project, Aue Ha! Māori men’s relational health.
Mohi was one of the researchers for the acclaimed book Mau Moko: The World of Māori Tattoo.
Associate Professor Leonie Pihama
Associate Professor Leonie Pihama is a Senior Research Fellow at the Te Kōtahi Institute, University of Waikato, and Director of Māori And Indigenous Analysis Ltd, a Kaupapa Māori research company. Her extensive research interests cover whānau, economic transformation and national identity. She has a long history of involvement in Māori education, including te kōhanga reo and kura kaupapa Māori (total immersion pre–schools and schools), and has published widely.
Leonie sits on the Government-appointed Constitutional Advisory Panel. She has received numerous academic awards, including the inaugural Fulbright-Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Scholar Award and a Hohua Tutengaehe Post-Doctoral Scholarship from the Health Research Council of New Zealand.
Leonie was the Principal Investigator on the Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga research project Tiakina Te Pā Harakeke: Māori childrearing within a context of whānau ora. She has led other NPM projects in the past, on education, eugenics, and neonatal care
Associate Professor Paul Kayes
Associate Professor Paul Kayes is Academic Registrar and Director of Te Whare Taiao – Institute of Indigenous Science at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi. He has responsibility for implementing the Institute’s strategic plan and through that working with iwi especially in areas such as marine biology and customary fishing. He has developed a range of new science programmes at Awanuiārangi. Previously Paul was Head of the Applied Sciences School at Bay of Plenty Polytechnic. In 2005 he received the Award for Excellence from the Polytechnic for establishing the Pacific Coast Research Centre.
He is Principal Investigator on the Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga project An investigation into the fisheries resources and interests of iwi, hapū and marae within Tauranga Moana and the impacts caused by the grounding of the CV Rena.
Dr Simon Lambert
Dr Simon Lambert is a lecturer in Māori Environmental Planning and Development in the Faculty of Environment, Society and Design at Lincoln University. He has previously held a Te Tipu Putaiao post-doctoral fellowship at Manaaki Whenua LandCare Research, and has researched small-scale innovation in the farming, building and energy sectors of New Zealand in the Agribusiness and Economics Research Unit at Lincoln.
He is the Principal Investigator on the Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga project, Networks of support for Māori mental health: The response and recovery of Tangata Whaiora through the Ōtautahi earthquakes.
Simon is the MAI ki Ōtautahi-Lincoln Co-ordinator for the Te Kupenga o MAI programme and has developed a strong interest in the support and mentoring of Māori students.
Professor Angus Macfarlane
Angus Macfarlane is Professor of Māori Research at the University of Canterbury. He is an experienced educator and practitioner and has been an advisor and professional development provider for Special Education Services and the Ministry of Education on a number of national projects. His interest is the exploration of cultural concepts and strategies that affect positively on professional practice, on which he published widely.
In 2010 Angus was presented with the Tohu Pae Tawhiti Award to acknowledge his significant contribution to Māori research. His most recent book, Responsive Pedagogy, was published in October 2011.
He is the Principal Investigator on the Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga project Ka Awatea: An iwi case study of Māori students experiencing success.
Arapata Hakiwai
Arapata Hakiwai has worked for the National Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa for over fifteen years, having worked in a number of roles including Exhibitions Concept Developer, Curator and Community Partnerships Manager Māori for National Services, and is currently Scholar Mātauranga Māori, leading the research on the Māori collections. Arapata was formerly the Manager of Bicultural Operations at Te Papa from 1999 through to 2002 and Director of Mātauranga Māori from 2003-2009. He takes an active involvement in his marae and tribal affairs, and is a former council member for the museums membership organisation Museums Aotearoa. He regularly lectures at Victoria University and has a strong interest in digital/virtual repatriation kaupapa and is well published including being the co-editor of Toi Ora: Māori Ancestral Treasures (2008). Arapata has extensive relationships with overseas museums and in the early 1990s helped lead the restoration of the carved Te Whānau-a-Ruataupare meeting house Ruatepupuke in the Field Museum, Chicago, with Te Waka Toi and colleagues from the Field Museum.
He is Principal Investigator on the NPM project Virtual Repatriation: A database of Māori taonga in overseas museums
Dr Wayne Ngata
Raised in the Tairāwhiti, Wayne resides in Ūawa (Tolaga Bay), and with others in the community, is an advocate for what Ūawa offers itself, the region, the country and the world. He is an active supporter of education towards constructive and productive citizenship, particularly in te reo Māori. His particular area of scholarship is Māori literature, specifically the language of mōteatea (traditional chant). He is a long time supporter of the renaissance in local Māori art as a platform for tribal intellectual, social and economic development, and with other members of Te Aitanga a Hauiti, have developed strong working and research relationships with regional, national and international institutions. He is a teacher, and helped establish Māori Studies at the Tairāwhiti Polytechnic (now EIT Tairāwhiti) in the last two decades. He has been a member of the Board of the Māori Language Commission and currently works in a managerial role for the Ministry of Education with a focus on te reo Māori in schools.
He is Principal Investigator on the NPM project: Te Ataakura: Re-connecting voyage collections in archives and museums through the creation of digital taonga.
Dr Jane Kitson
Dr Jane Kitson is an ecologist and environmental scientist with a background in traditional ecological knowledge research. She has worked in a range of research and management projects including doctoral research on traditional ecological knowledge and harvest management of tītī (Puffinus griseus); microbial food webs in lakes; and coastal and freshwater environmental science as a scientist at Environment Southland, Southland Regional Council. Jane works at Te Ao Mārama Incorporated in Invercargill, which is a resource management agency set up by manawhenua to look after resource management and other aspects related to local government in Southland/Murihiku.
She leads the Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga project on kanakana/lamprey and the use of harvest mātauranga to monitor population trends. She also managed the compilation of the State of Southland’s Freshwater Environment Reports, co-authored by Environment Southland and Te Ao Marama Inc. and until recently was heavily involved in the science of Waituna Lagoon. Jane is also involved with the New Zealand Freshwater Sciences Society and is on its executive committee.
Dr Marion Johnson
A former shepherd and farm manager, Dr Marion Johnson combines academic science and research with practical and traditional farm knowledge. Now a Senior Scientist at The Future Farming Centre, Lincoln Dr Johnson holds degrees in Agricultural Science, Environmental Biology and Veterinary Parasitology.
Her research interests encompass Te Rongoā (Māori traditional medicine) and how native medicinal plants can be incorporated on farm promoting animal health, biodiversity and ecosystem support. Other smaller projects include subclinical parasitism in red deer, the development of mixed pastures and leys incorporating native plants, ( Te Rongoa pastures: healthy animals, resilient farms) and multispecies pastures in cut and carry systems for dairy goats.
She is Principal Investigator on the NPM Project Indigenous Agroecology.
Dr Kepa Morgan
Dr Kepa Morgan's (BE, MBA, PhD, CPEng, FIPENZ ) bi-cultural background is rooted in his cultural identity as Ngāti Pikiao of Te Arawa. During his engineering career Kepa has strengthened his understanding of Pikiaoanga while also striving for excellence both professionally and academically. As an indirect result of this combination of identity, interests and expertise, Kepa has found himself at the juncture between Māori aspirations and the engineering profession on many occasions. At times these have been adversarial situations, and sometimes the results have been less than optimal, however in all cases he has benefited from the opportunities gaining an understanding decision making processes and frameworks.
Kepa's involvement with The University of Auckland allows exploration of the interface between Māori and engineering, with research interests that can be understood broadly as Indigenous engineering and technologies. In his research, the focus is on the enhanced outcomes that are possible when the contributions of multiple knowledge systems produce designs and solutions that are unlikely to originate from any knowledge system on its own. Specifically Kepa has developed alternative construction systems and materials (Uku fibre reinforced earth composite) and a decision framework known as the Mauri Model. He is Principal Investigator on the NPM project How do we return the mauri to its Pre-Rena state?
Dr Hēmi Whaanga
Dr Hēmi Whaanga is a research officer in Te Pua Wānanga ki te Ao (The School of Māori and Pacific Development) at the University of Waikato. Hēmi has been a project leader, writer and researcher in a range of linguistic, indigenous Māori knowledge and curriculum projects. He is the principal investigator on the NPM project The ethics, processes and procedures associated with the digitisation of the Pei Jones collection. He has published in the areas of indigenous Māori knowledge, traditional ecological knowledge, language revitalisation, linguistics, language teaching and curriculum development.
Professor Shaun Ogilvie
Shaun Ogilvie has a PhD in Ecology from the University of Canterbury and is the Director of Eco Research Associates Ltd, a private environmental research company. He is also the Māori Business Development Consultant for the Cawthron Institute in Nelson, and a contractor to other organisations, including Lincoln University and The Environmental Protection Authority.
Shaun is the principal investigator on several Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga research projects:
- Mātauranga Māori of naturally occurring toxins in native plants
- Commercial feasibility of using mātauranga Maori-based fish traps to eliminate bycatch
- Tetrodotoxin in kaimoana: Science and mātauranga mitigating health risks from a lethal neurotoxin.
Shaun was previously Associate Professor of Wildlife Management at Lincoln University, and Tumuaki of the Kaupapa Māori Unit of Lincoln’s Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty. Before this, he was the Principal Scientist – Māori Research at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in Christchurch. He was also a Scientist at Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research. Shaun has extensive experience of environmental research with Māori communities and his research interests include the development of techniques for the management of animal pests. To watch a presentation by Shaun on his research, click here
Tom Roa
Tom Roa is a senior lecturer at Waikato University. He is the principal investigator on the project Exploring a Māori classificatory system of flora and fauna within Tainui waka. His research interests are translation and interpretation of Māori-English, Kīngitanga, Waikato-Maniapoto oral and written history and traditions. He is the Chair of Te Arataura, Waikato Tainui's Executive.
Dr Jason Turuwhenua
Dr. Jason Turuwhenua is a Research Fellow who works between The University of Auckland’s Auckland Bioengineering Institute and the Department of Optometry and Vision Science. He is the principal investigator on the project Whatukura: A bioengineered model of the human eye. Jason is interested in how engineering methods might be applied to problems in vision. At present he is working on developing 'the virtual eye', a physics-based system for investigating eye disease. In 2003 he won the National Māori Academic Excellence Award.
Dr Daniel Hikuroa
Dr Daniel (Dan) Hikuroa is an Earth Systems Scientists who integrates mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) and science to realise the dreams and aspirations of the communities he works with. He is an established world expert on integrating indigenous knowledge and science and has undertaken many projects including co-writing the 2014 State of the Hauraki Gulf Environment Report, geothermal developments, co-writing iwi environmental management plans, hazard and vulnerability assessments and industrial waste rehabilitation.
Dan was the Research Director for Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga from July 2011 - December 2015.
Previously he was the Community Earth Systems Science Programmes Manager at the Institute of Earth Science & Engineering University of Auckland and has an extensive background in Earth Systems Science. After leading a deep field geology mapping expedition for the British Antarctic Survey for his PhD he then completed a Post-Doc Fellowship investigating how the worlds oceans and biota have responded to naturally driven climate change in the ancient past.
Dan has led the following NPM projects:
- Restoring the Mauri to Rotoitipaku (Industrial Waste Site): Implementing Matauranga in a Scientific Paradigm
- Harvesting the Fruits of Papatuanuku - A Kaitiaki Approach to Geothermal Development.
He is contributing to the following NPM project:
- How do we return the mauri to its pre-Rena state?
He has supervised the following NPM interns:
- Ani Kainamu
- Jade Newton
Marie-Chanel Berghan
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. Marie-Chanel has a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration and in Business, Māori Development. Before joining the centre, she was the Whakapiki Ake Project Manager at The University of Auckland’s Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences for five years and prior to that, a Project Administration Manager at Hewlett Packard.
Professor Rawinia Higgins
Professor Rawinia Higgins was appointed Te Tumu Ahurei (Māori) / Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Māori) of Victoria University of Wellington in 2016. She was previously Victoria’s Assistant Vice-Chancellor Māori Research and Head of School for Te Kawa a Māui / School of Māori Studies and went to Victoria as a senior lecturer in 2009 after holding academic positions at the University of Otago for 12 years. Her research expertise is Māori language revitalisation and, more specifically, language planning and policy.
She was Co-Principal Investigator of Te Kura Roa, the three year Ngā Pae o Te Māramatanga Pae Tawhiti initiative on the value of the Māori language which examined state and community responsiveness to Māori language revitalisation efforts in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Professor Higgins is a board member of NPM, a member of the Waitangi Tribunal, a board member of Te Mātāwai, and is the Deputy Chair of the Māori Knowledge and Development PBRF portfolio.
In 2015, the Minister for Māori Development appointed her chair of the review of the Māori Language Bill and she helped shape the legislation enacted in April 2016. Te Mātāwai was created as part of the new legislation and governs The Māori Language Strategy dedicated to whānau, hapū, iwi and Māori communities.
Emeritus Professor Poia Rewi
Happily married with children and mokos who make life so refreshing. My teaching, research and practice included Indigenous language revitalisation, te reo me ngā tikanga Māori, Māori oratory, Māori performing arts and Māori history and have spanned the University of Waikato 1990-2003 and the University of Otago 2023-2020. Poia has also held leadership roles at Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori and Te Mātāwai. And if he didn’t have 5 operations on his achilles tendon he would have definitely been an All Black and a competitor on Dancing with Stars.
Professor Cindy Kiro
Cindy Kiro is the Director of The Starpath Project, at the University of Auckland and was previously Head of School Te Kura Māori at Victoria University and Children’s Commissioner. Her areas of research expertise are Public Health, Māori Health, Children and Young People Policy, and Māori Development. She is a lead author on “Trends in Wellbeing for Māori households/families, 1981–2006".
Dr Tim West-Newman
Tim West-Newman develops and implements technical business solutions including websites for Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga. Tim has a PhD in Human Computer Interaction and has worked mainly in web and information technology systems development, having worked in The University of Auckland and AUT University, as well as an independent contractor for various organisations.
Honorine Franswah
Honorine Franswah is the Research Operation Coordinator in Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga and assists with the contracts, finance and all the administrative functions of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga.
Honorine obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics major with auxiliary subjects Commerce and Statistics at the University of Madras and brings substantial administrative experience from nearly 20 years involvement in the manufacturing sector in India. She provided administrative support at The University of Auckland prior to taking up her role at the Centre
Daniel Patrick
Daniel is the Executive Director of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, and has been since 2011. He directs and plans the entire Centre’s business activities, including contracting, financial operations, resources planning, risk management, systems and performance measures and manages the Centre's investment portfolios.
Daniel holds two degrees, a Bachelor's degree in Applied Sciences and a Master's degree in Health Sciences with honours, and is a member of the Project Management Institute and PM practitioner. He came to the Centre having been the Research Programme Manager for the Social Statistics Research Group, and co-founded the Centre of Methods and Policy Applications in the Social Sciences (COMPASS) at the University of Auckland, prior to that he had four years' as founder and Manager of the New Zealand Social Statistics Network (NZSSN). In 2007 he secured funding, developed and established the New Zealand Social Science Data Service where he was the founding manager. He has redeveloped and held management positions at the Survey Research Unit and the Centre for Health Services Research and Policy, School of Population Health, The University of Auckland; the Health Services Research Team, National Primary Medical Care Study, Department of Community Health, University of Auckland; and others. He also has extensive experience in the field of research, business development, data analytics and management, programme management and strategic planning.
Daniel serves on the Board's of the COMPASS, NZSSN, and Northcote Birkenhead Rugby and Sports Incorporated and was appointed to the Veterans’ Health Advisory Panel in November 2016.
Daniel recently led a programme of research looking at Iwi household whānau wellbeing using New Zealand Census Data. This programme provided five participating Iwi detailed analysis and trends of their peoples environment/households through census based indicators, predominately economic.
Donna Ngaronoa Gardiner
Donna Gardiner is a PhD scholar of NPM. Her doctoral research project "Ka Whawhai Tonu Matou - Our struggle to transform” - looks at Maori leadership today, in a modern context. Donna was previously Research and Community Coordinator for NPM and coordinated the translation of NPM research and activities to our communities, specifically Māori and indigenous, to make positive change. She also coordinated opportunities such as hui, wānanga and conferences for these communities to discuss their research ideas and issues, and creative potential. In the past, Donna has been the outpost manager for Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi, and more recently Programme Leader, undergraduate programmes, for Te Ara Poutama at AUT University.
Dr Joseph Te Rito
Dr Joseph (Joe) Te Rito Joe is currently Deputy-Director/Kaihautū Mātauranga Māori with with AKO AOTEAROA, the National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence. He was previously Kaihautū Tikanga; Senior Research Fellow – Tikanga and Reo at Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga (NPM) until December 2015, where he provided advice and guidance in Tikanga Māori, Te Reo Māori and community/Iwi relationships, as well as conducting research relevant to the NPM Research Plan. Joe was also an assessor and senior advisor for NPM's Grants and Awards programme.
Joe’s research examines a range of oral recordings in the Māori language of his elders, with the aim to promote the oral language of these elders as the exemplars for second-language learners. This involves the development of an online 'talking book' comprised of the oral recordings, transcriptions and translations of them, and a linguistic analysis with a focus on local dialects.
Joe’s passion for the language began in 1971 when he became a member of the Te Reo Māori Society at Victoria University of Wellington. The group was active in collecting signatures for the 30,000-signature Te Reo Māori Petition presented to Parliament in 1972. From there Joe became a teacher and has taught Māori in various settings including Ōmāhu Bilingual School, Queen Victoria School, The University of Auckland and EIT Hawke’s Bay where he became Dean of Māori Studies and worked for 17 years. During that time he led the development of the institute’s BA and BA Honours degrees, a series of on-air Māori language courses and the on-campus marae. He is a recipient of the Sir Winston Churchill Fellowship and the award for ‘Best Contribution to Māori Radio – Last 10 Years’ from Te Whakaruruhau o ngā Reo Irirangi Māori (Federation of Māori radio stations). He moved to Auckland to become General Manager – Te Reo Māori and Tikanga Māori at the Māori Television Service and from there moved to NPM in 2004. Joe is the founding and current Chairperson of Radio Kahungunu, a position he has held since the station began in 1988.
Dr Marilyn Tangi Ina McPherson
Dr Marilyn McPherson was previously Senior Research Fellow – Research Performance at Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga , where she conducted research relevant to the NPM Research Plan and also assisted the Centre in the academic monitoring and evaluation of its research.
Marilyn completed her Bachelor of Arts with a double major in Geography at The University of Auckland in 1976. Following 16 years teaching at St Stephens School, Marilyn enrolled and graduated with a Master of Arts in Geography from The University of Auckland in 1992. Her thesis was entitled Toitu Te Whenua: Relationships Between Whānau and Whenua. Following the completion of her Masters degree, Marilyn continued to work in Māori education, research and health at Pūkenga, Faculty of Māori Education at UNITEC. In 2003, she consolidated these interests by completing her PhD at the Injury Prevention Research Centre, within the Department of Community Health and the Faculty of Medicine at The University of Auckland. Between 2004–11, Marilyn was Research – Programme Leader at Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga. As Programme Leader she developed the annual contestable research round for mid-career and senior researchers. More than 60 Principal Investigators and their research teams have carried out excellent research across a range of broad themes. The writing retreats, symposia, seminar series and international conferences have provided a balanced opportunity for presenting research ideas to a broad range of audiences from local to international contexts.
Marilyn’s current research interests are eclectic, exciting and engaging. Firstly, from her Masters Study she is exploring the need for aroha in research. Secondly, she is updating her PhD thesis It’s about Whakapapa to review current trends and themes in Māori injury prevention and safety. She hopes to work with other indigenous researchers to develop an indigenous model of safe communities. And thirdly, she will construct a blog to explore San Filipo Syndrome, a muccopolysaccharide disorder which killed her nine year old son, Kyle in 1985. She will explore the impact of a debilitating condition, with no cure, on whānau. She intends to write a book from the blog.
Associate Professor Te Manahau Morrison
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.
Scotty has been an Adjunct Professor and the Director of Māori Student and Community Engagement at Auckland's Unitec Institute of Technology, where he continues to promote te reo Māori through awareness, administration and specialised courses. He is also the author of the bestselling The Raupo Phrasebook of Modern Māori and Māori Made Easy.
Born and raised in Rotorua, he now lives in Auckland with his wife Stacey Morrison and their children, Hawaiki, Kurawaka and Maiana. Scotty is a graduate of Te Panekiretanga and has a strong national media profile.
Kerensa Johnston (Chair)
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.
Kerensa has a legal background and has worked as a solicitor in the private sector, as a Barrister, and as a legal academic at the Faculty of Law, University of Auckland, where she specialised in Māori legal development, public law, land law and international law. Kerensa joined Wakatū as General Counsel in December 2012, and was appointed Chief Executive in 2016.
Kerensa is also the Chair of Ngāti Tama ki te Tau Ihu Charitable Trust. She is a member of the International Association of Corporate Counsel, Corporate Lawyers’ New Zealand and Te Hunga Roia.
Professor Pare Keiha
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.
Pare has an extensive background in the governance of public and private companies. He was a member of the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology’s Board from 2002 to 2010. His past directorships include the Legal Services Agency, Waitematā District Health Board, Metrowater Ltd, Port Gisborne Ltd, the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority and the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Manufactures Australia + New Zealand. He is chair of the Mika Haka Foundation. In 2008 he was made a Companion of the Queen’s Service Order for his services to business, education and Māori.
He advises a number of Māori enterprises and state sector entities in business development, management and strategy. He is a trustee of the Te Whānau-a-Taupara Trust Board and his tribal affiliations lie with the principle tribes of Tūranga (Gisborne), specifically the Whānau-a-Taupara hapū of Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki, and Rongowhakaata.
Dr Jane Kitson
Dr Jane Kitson is an ecologist and environmental scientist with a background in traditional ecological knowledge research. Currently, Dr Kitson works in a consultancy capacity undertaking environmental research, science, and project management. Previously, Dr Kitson worked at Te Ao Mārama Incorporated in Invercargill (2012 -2013), which is a resource management agency set up by Ngāi Tahu ki Murihiku to look after resource management and other aspects related to local government in Southland.
Dr Kitson has worked in a range of research and management projects including doctoral research on traditional ecological knowledge and harvest management of tītī (Puffinus griseus); microbial food webs in lakes; and coastal and freshwater environmental science in various scientist roles at Environment Southland, Southland Regional Council (2002 – 2011).
Dr Kitson led the Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga (NPM) project on kanakana/lamprey and the use of harvest mātauranga to monitor population trends. She also managed the compilation of the State of Southland’s Freshwater Environment Reports, co-authored by Environment Southland and Te Ao Marama Inc. and until recently was involved in the science of Waituna Lagoon.