Ngāti Awa

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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