Te Aupouri

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. 

Wiremu coordinates the publication processes of AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, as well as contributing to other publishing projects at Ngā Pāe o te Māramatanga.

Wi holds a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences from Brigham Young University–Hawaii, and a Bachelor of Human Biology from the University of Auckland.  He also holds a Diploma in Applied Science (Animal Biology) from the University of Waikato, and a Graduate Diploma in Teaching (Secondary) from the University of Auckland.

Wi has previously worked in cultural tourism, and in all levels of education from kōhanga reo, through primary and secondary schooling, and on to the tertiary sector.  He was previously the Māori science tutor for the Student Learning Centre and an IC Consultant at Te Tumu Herenga, University of Auckland.

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. 

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.

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 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.