Waikato

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.