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.
Professor Poia Rewi is currently Chief Executive of Te Mātāwai. He was peviously Dean of Te Tumu (School of Māori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies), the University of Otago. His main areas of research and teaching, and community engagement involve the Māori language, Māori culture, education and performing arts. He is Co-Principal Investigator on the three-year Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Pae Tawhiti initiative on Te Reo Māori.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
