Ko Rakaumangamanga te maunga, ko Ipipiri te moana, ko Te Rawhiti te marae, ko Ngāti Kuta te hapu, ko Ngapuhi te iwi. Ara, Ko Hikurangi te maunga, ko Waiapu te moana, ko Tai Rawhiti me O Hine Waiapu ngā marae, ko Ngāi Tane me Te Whānau-a-Takimoana nga hapū, ko Ngāti Porou te iwi. Tēnā koutou katoa.

My primary field of research is Māori art history and my focus has been on identifying, promoting and recuperating matauranga about art forms, art practices, artists and theories. This area encompasses Māori art and culture from c800 to the present day and includes both marae and gallery-based art practices. I have concentrated on pre-1900 art, especially tribal carving, moko signatures, personal adornment and identity. Currently, I am the only Māori art historian employed at the tertiary level, which encourages me to work collaboratively with Māori in other disciplines, such as Fine Arts, Architecture and History. During the past five years, I have disseminated Māori-centred methodologies, terminologies, and research about Art History across a broad range of audiences. My research has sought to transform the nature of Art History as we know it to present new paradigms and theories to Art History as a whole.

DISTINCTIONS/HONOURS:

2025 With Deidre Brown and Jonathan Mane-Wheoki: Apollo 2025 - Book of the Year Award 

2025 With Deidre Brown and Jonathan Mane-Wheoki: Art Association of Australia and New Zealand 2025 - Best Book Award, and Best Art Writing by an Aotearoa Māori or Pasifika Award.

2025 With Deidre Brown and Jonathan Mane-Wheoki: BookHub Prize for Illustrated Non-Fiction, Ockham Book Awards, Auckland, for Toi Te Mana: An Indigenous History of Māori Art. 

2021 Faculty of Arts He Tōtara Whakamarumaru: Mātauranga Māori Excellence Award: Team award for Ngarino Ellis, Renee Hau, Kate Harris, Tāniora Maxwell and Eliza Macdonald for work on 'Ngā Taonga o Wharawhara.'

2020 Royal Society Early Career Research Excellence Award for Humanities

2019 Award for Sustained Excellence in Tertiary Teaching – Kaupapa Maori category. Ako Aotearoa. One of two awards in this category.

2018 With Natalie Robertson: Writing by Maori or Pacific Prize, Art Association of Australia and New Zealand, for 'A Whakapapa of Tradition'.

2018 Sustained Excellence in Teaching Award, the University of Auckland.

2018 Faculty of Arts Early Career Research Award, the University of Auckland.

2017 With Natalie Robertson: Judith Binney Prize for Illustrated Non-Fiction, Ockham Book Awards, Auckland, for A Whakapapa of Tradition: One Hundred Years of Ngāti Porou carving.

2017 With Natalie Robertson: Mahi Toi Maori Arts Prize, Nga Kupu Ora Maori Book Awards, Wellington, for A Whakapapa of Tradition: One Hundred Years of Ngāti Porou carving.

2017 With Natalie Robertson: Inaugural Best First Book Prize, New Zealand Historical Association, Auckland, for A Whakapapa of Tradition: One Hundred Years of Ngāti Porou carving.

MAJOR GRANTS - ROYAL SOCIETY MARSDEN STANDARD GRANTS.

2019-25. Nga Taonga a Wharawhara: The World of Maori Body Adornment. Principal Investigator /PI (sole). The University of Auckland

2012-6. Toi Te Mana: A History of Indigenous Art from Aotearoa New Zealand. PI along with Deidre Brown (NICAI) and Jonathan Mane-Wheoki. The University of Auckland

2001-4. Ta Moko: Culture, Body Modification and the Psychology of Identity. PI (early career) along with Ngahuia Te Awekotuku and Linda Waimarie Nikora. Waikato University.


RESEARCH COLLABORATIONS.

2012-2024: 'Toi Te Mana: An Indigenous History of Māori Art.' Co-written with Deidre Brown (Architecture) and Jonathan Mane-Wheoki. 

• 2022-3: ‘Whakawhānaungatanga: Making connections of taonga Māori across time, place and people.’ Team leader with Ulrich Menter, Linden Museum on a collaborative project with Awhina Tamarapa (PhD student, VUW), Justine Treadwell (PhD student, UOA) and Dougal Austin (Te Papa Tongarewa). Goal: to produce an exhibition, text and updated collection information. Funded through the German Cultural Foundation. Exhibition from Dec 2022-May 2023.
  
  2021-3: Editorial panel for Special Issue of ANZJA focused on Indigenous. Collaborator: Heather Igloliorte (Inuk, Nunatsiavut, Tier 1 University Research Chair in Circumpolar Indigenous Arts.
  
  2019-2024 Associate Collaborator: 'The Space Between Us: Co(lab)orations within Indigenous, Circumpolar and Pacific Places Through Digital Media and Design (2020-22).' Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) in Canada. PI: Julie Nagam, University of Winnipeg. Output: Co-editor for Special Issue of ANZJA focused on Indigenous. Co-editor: Heather Igloliorte (Inuk, Nunatsiavut, Tier 1 University Research Chair in Circumpolar Indigenous Arts and Associate Professor of Art History, U Winnipeg). 2022-2023.
  
  
  SERVICE - CURRENT.

- Associate Head Mātauranga Māori, School of Humanities

- PhD Committee, Art History
- Trustee, The New Zealand Art Crime Trust. 2015-present.
- Online editor, The New Zealand Art Crime Trust website.

Previous service:

- Associate Dean Mātauranga Māori, Faculty of Arts

- Tomokanga Maori and Pacific post doc selection panel, Faculty of Arts.

- Major Specialisation Lead (aka Head of Department), Art History, 2021.

- Staffing Committee, Faculty of Arts. 2022-2025.
- Postgraduate Adviser, Art History. 2022-2024 [and July 2025 - Jan 2026].

- Judith Binney History Awards selection panel. 2023-present.

- Art Association of Australia and New Zealand Early Career Publishing selection panel

- Postgraduate Adviser, Museums & Cultural Heritage. 2012-2017.
- Gus Fisher Gallery Board, The University of Auckland. 2020-2024.

- Postgraduate Committee, School of Humanities. 2016-2019.
- Equity Committee, School of Humanities. 2016-2018.
- Student Engagement and Retention Group (SERG), Faculty of Arts. 2020-2021.
- Pūtoi Ako member, Curriculum Transformation Project team focused on Kaupapa Maori Pedagogies. 2020-2021.
- Executive (Maori and Pasifika representative), Art Association of Australia and NZ (AAANZ),
- Chair, Decolonisation/Indigenisation Advocacy Group, AAANZ. 2018-2023.
- Member, Subject Expert Group, Art History, NCEA, Ministry of Education. 2020-2024.
- Art Acquisition Committee, University of Auckland. 2020-2021.
- Creative Practice working group, University of Auckland. 2016.
- Selection panel: Faculty of Arts Teaching Excellence Awards, 2019 (selector of final awardees). 2019.
- Selection panel: Faculty of Arts Research Excellence Awards, 2019 (selector of final awardees). 2019.
- Selection panel: Nancy Bamford library grants , Faculty of Arts. 2013-2018.
- Selection panel: Museums Aotearoa, Taonga Maori and Te Reo Maori categories awards. 2023-2024.
- Advisory group: Maori and Pasifika Gallery renewal, Melbourne Museum. 2018-2020.
- Advisory group: Tākiri: An Unfurling exhibition, National Maritime Museum. 2018-2019.

QUALIFICATIONS:
FRSA, PhD, MA (Hons), BA/LLB.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE:
- Māori and Indigenous Art History and Architecture
- Māori adornment
- Tribal Māori Carving, especially Ngāti Porou
- Indigenous museology
- Moko signatures
- Art crime, particularly looting and theft in Aotearoa New Zealand
- Indigenous women's art and visual culture

MEDIA KEYWORDS:

Art crime, Non-western feminisms, Moko, Māori architecture, Māori art, Indigenous art historiography, Māori adornment