Dr Amber Aranui (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Tūwharetoa) has a special job. As a researcher for the Karanga Aotearoa Repatriation Programme at Te Papa Museum, she has spent the past 10 and a half years searching the world for our tūpuna, and working to bring t

Lynell Tuffrey Huria is the only Māori patent attorney in Aotearoa. She is helping Māori navigate the intellectual property system, identify cultural property and develop protocols and processes for recognition and protection within Western structures.✊

Damaris Coulter (Ngāti Kahu) started her hospitality journey as a child, working at her uncle’s restaurant in Kaitaia. She grew up around hospo and spent her early adult life learning from some of the best chefs and restauranteurs in the business, both he

Donna Tamaariki and Moana Tamaariki-Pohe are twin sisters whose affinity for the Ocean was passed down to them from their tūpuna. Of Māori (Ngāti Whatua Orakei, Te Waiohua), Cook Islands, Tahitian and Tauiwi descent, the pair have spent their entire lives

Chelsea Winstanley is a filmmaker. She directed the documentary Tame Iti: The man behind the moko, and co-directed Waru, the heart-wrenching film about child abuse, made by 8 Māori female directors. Her producer credits include What We do in the Shadows,

When you think of a librarian, what image pops into your head? Because for me, before I met Kim Tairi, I saw an old nanny wearing a cardigan, glasses with a beaded chain, and a long burgundy skirt. Damn all those television programmes that embed stereoty

Ninakaye Taane-Tinorau is of Ngati Maniapoto whakapapa. She was born and raised in Otautahi, Christchurch before moving to Auckland at age 19. There, she became a peep show dancer and stripper, working in the sex industry for 4 years. With that lifestyle,

Hinewirangi is one of those kuia that you want to sit with for hours. Her knowledge, her experience and her stories, are mesmerising.  She is a writer and poet. An activist and a tohunga of taonga puoro. She has worked in rape crisis centres and, in

Dr Huhana Hickey (Ngāti Tahinga, Tainui, Ngai Tai) is a Crown Director and a passionate advocate for our disabled community, our whanau hauā. She has a long standing interest in human rights, particularly the rights of people who come from marginal backgr

Melissa Robinson-Cole is of Ngāti Hine and Ngāti Kahu descent.  She is a full-time artist and designer, and is also a staunch advocate for body positivity. Lissy, as she likes to be known, is also a walking bubble of joy. It's a feeling she is passio