Our People
Merata Kawharu (Ngāti Whātua, Ngāpuhi).
Merata is an academic, researcher and writer who is currently Research Professor at the Centre for Sustainability, University of Otago, Dunedin. After completing a doctorate in anthropology at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, she has taught at Auckland and Otago universities, and published widely in the areas of indigenous leadership and resource management. Merata has been a consultant to the UN and UNESCO and is a member of the New Zealand Geographic Board. Her books include Whenua: Managing our Resources (2002), Tahuhu Kōrero: The Sayings of Taitokerau (2008) and Maranga Mai! Te Reo and Marae in Crisis? (2014).Whāriki The growth of Māori community entrepreneurship (2019). In 2012 she was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for services to Māori education
Paul Tapsell (Te Arawa, Ngāti Raukawa)
Paul is currently a director of the Te Potiki National Trust and is formally Professor of Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne, following tenure as Professor of Māori Studies and Dean of Te Tumu: School of Māori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies at the University of Otago, and eight years as Tumuaki/Director Māori at the Auckland Museum. A graduate of Auckland and Oxford universities, Paul’s research interests include indigenous entrepreneurship and leadership, Māori identity, and cultural heritage within museums. His previous books include Pukaki: a comet returns (a Montana Book Award winner that was published in a Māori edition in 2017), Ko Tawa: Maori treasures of New Zealand and Whāriki: The growth of Māori community entrepreneurship (2019).
Krushil Watene (Ngāti Manu, Te Hikutu, Ngāti Whātua o Orākei, Tonga). Krushil is an Associate Professor at Massey University Department of Philosophy, specialising in moral and political philosophies of well-being, development, and justice with a particular focus on indigenous philosophies. She completed her Bachelors and Masters degrees at the University of Auckland, before completing her PhD at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, in 2011. Dr Watene has held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Auckland, and visiting fellowships at the University of Vienna in Austria, and Durham University in the UK. Her research has been supported by the Marsden Fund, Ngā Pae ō te Māramatanga, and the Land and Water National Science Challenge, and she works closely with Māori communities to support the revitalisation and sustaining of mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge).
Stephen McTaggart
Stephen is a mixed methodological sociologist, action researcher and musician. He holds PhD, Masters and BA (Hons) degrees with the University of Auckland. His mahi focus is the gathering and interpretation of Māori focused data/statistics using a kaupapa Māori research approach. Stephen's current research includes investigating the diasporic geographic movement of individual iwi descendants within New Zealand, developing web based demographic information platforms for Māori and examining the nature of social communication networks for urban Māori youth and connections with the people living close to their ancestral marae.
