Tania Pouwhare (Ngāi Tūhoe) is the Pou Kahukura of Mana Ātea, a Māori-owned business tackling abliesm and providing tikanga-led supports and allyship to tangata whai kaha (disabled people) and their whānau in their mana motuhake. She recently supported Ngā Toki Whakarururanga as Te Hiwa in an interim role, taking over from Ben Morgan, and had earlier supported the establishment’s outreach phase. Before that, Tania was the General Manager of Auckland Council’s Social Innovation department and The Southern Initiative which focused on just, inclusive, circular and regenerative economic development that upholds and enhances the mana of everyday people, and the natural world. Her work spanned social procurement, Māori and Pasifika entrepreneurship, active labour market policies, the Green New Deal, the politics of the urban diaspora and democratising wealth and economic power. She was also formerly the head of policy and campaigns at a UK women’s rights organisation and started her career as a policy analyst with NZ Women’s Refuge. Tania is a founder of Aotearoa’s supplier diversity intermediary, Amotai, an honorary fellow of Engineering NZ, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Fellowship for Social Equity, co-chair of the Māori Economic Development Advisory Board and member of Te Kāhu Mātai WorkSafe Partners Council on behalf of the National Iwi Chairs Forum. She also represents Ngā Toki Whakarururanga on the civil society advisory group for the UK-NZ FTA Labour Sub-committee.

Dr Maria Bargh (Te Arawa and Ngāti Awa) is a Professor of Politics and Māori Studies at Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington. She has researched and published widely in the area of politics (Māori, local, national and international) and Māori resource management and environmental matters. She has analysed Māori rights and interests in international trade and foreign policy particularly in relation to questions of sovereignty, environmental protections, climate change and hidden economies. Three of her books have been highlighted on the Te Takarangi, Royal Society/Ngā Pae list of 150 important books by Māori: Resistance: An Indigenous Response to Neoliberalism (2007), Māori and Parliament (2010) and sole-authored monograph A Hidden Economy: Māori in the privatised military industry (2015). She has served on a number of governance boards and is Minerals Advisor for her hapū Ngāti Kea/Ngāti Tuara at Horohoro, Rotorua.

Dr Karaitiana Taiuru (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Rārua, Ngāti Pāhauwera, Ngāti Hikairo, Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Hauiti, Ngāti Whitikaupeka and Pākehā) is an expert in digital and Māori data (biological and digital) sovereignty, and how tikanga and mātauranga Māori are applied in this environment. He is currently an independent consultant and honorary academic at the School of Engineering at the University of Auckland working with tikanga and robotics and data. Karaitiana is a member of the Māori Trade Marks Advisory Committee and was one of the expert witnesses in the Waitangi Tribunal’s stage two report for WAI 2522, the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement inquiry.

Dr Veronica Tawhai (Ngāti Porou and Ngāti Uepohatu) is Associate Professor and Pūkenga Tiriti (Tiriti Cpability Lead) for the Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Māori at Massey University and a Tiriti o Waitangi educator for Te Ata Kura Educators nationally. Previous to her Pūkenga Tiriti role, she lectured for 14 years in policy and politics for Te Putahi a Toi School of Māori Studies at Massey University, is a founding member of Te Ata Kura (Society for Conscientisation), a life member of Te Mana Ākonga (the National Māori Tertiary Students Association), and holds other roles advancing critical education at national and community levels. Between 2012-2017 she coordinated the Matike Mai Aotearoa Rangatahi Youth for Constitutional Transformation education project for Moana Jackson and Margaret Mutu. She is a past recipient of the Fulbright-Ngā Pae o te Maramatanga scholar award which assisted with her PhD research examining best evidence-based practices in teaching and learning about Indigeneity and the implications for citizenship education in settler colonial societies. She has also held research fellowships at the Centre for World Indigenous Studies based out of The Evergreen State College (Olympia, WA, USA) and the National Centre for Indigenous Studies, Australian National University (Canberra, Australia).

Emeritus Professor Jane Kelsey (Pākehā) has worked as an academic and activist on Te Tiriti o Waitangi and critic of neoliberal policy and globalisation for more than 40 years. She is an internationally recognised expert on international trade and investment agreements, especially on services, investment and digital trade, highlighting their potential to constrain domestic policy and regulation, including honouring of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Jane has written many academic articles and technical reports, addressed international conferences, briefed and advised governments and affected sectors, and run training workshops on related matters for government officials, legislators, trade unions, and civil society. She has given expert evidence for claimants in numerous Waitangi Tribunal claims and was the Wai 2522 claimants’ expert in the Tribunal claim on the TPPA. Jane has law degrees from Victoria University of Wellington, Oxford University, Cambridge University and a PhD from the University of Auckland, and is a Professor Emeritus of the Faculty of Law at the University of Auckland.

Dr Carwyn Jones (Ngāti Kahungunu) is Pūkenga Matua (Lead Academic) in the Ahunga Tikanga (Māori Laws and Philosophy) programme at Te Wānanga o Raukawa. Prior to joining the Wānanga, Carwyn was an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at Victoria University of Wellington. He has worked in various roles at the Māori Land Court, Waitangi Tribunal, and Office of Treaty Settlements. He also served as a negotiator for the iwi and hapū of te rohe o Te Wairoa in the settlement of their historical claims against the Crown. Carwyn’s primary research interests relate to the Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the rights of Indigenous peoples, and Indigenous legal traditions, and he has published numerous articles on these topics. He is the author of New Treaty, New Tradition – Reconciling New Zealand and Māori Law (UBC Press and VUP, 2016) and co-editor of Indigenous Peoples and the State: International Perspectives on the Treaty of Waitangi (Routledge, 2018). He is also Co-Editor of the Māori Law Review, and of AlterNative – an international journal of Indigenous peoples.

Aroha Te Pareake Mead (Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Porou and Tūhourangi) is an independent Māori researcher specialising in mātauranga Māori/Indigenous knowledge, biocultural heritage, Indigenous cultural and intellectual property policy and law and biotechnology and conservation. Aroha has worked across sectors, including public policy, academia, journalism, iwi and Māori organisations, as well as national and international NGOs. Her current roles include being a member of Te Rūnanga on Ngāti Awa, as well as member of the Māori Advisory Trademarks Committee and the Repatriation Advisory Panel of Te Papa Tongarewa the National Museum of NZ. Aroha chairs Te Rōpu Rangaputanga (Mānaki Whenua) and the Strategic Oversight Group for the Review of NZ’s Wildlife Act. Previous roles include the International Union for Conservation of Nature Governing Council (16 years), Global Chair, IUCN Commission on Environment, Economic and Social Policy (8 years), Fonterra Sustainability Advisory Panel, Greenpeace NZ Board member and Foreign Policy Convenor for Māori Congress.

Annette Sykes (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Mākino and Te Arawa waka) has been a long-standing advocate of Māori land rights and appears regularly before the New Zealand Courts and in the special jurisdiction of the Waitangi Tribunal, including as claimants’ counsel throughout the Wai 2522 TPPA claim. Annette is currently a Principal of her own law firm Annette Sykes & Co based in Rotorua which seeks to re-establish the operation of Māori systems of law and custom, tikanga Māori, as the first law of this country. Outside of the law practice, Annette is currently a member of Te Tai Timu Tai Pari Technical Roopu, who provide technical expertise and knowledge to Te Arawhiti on the transition of takutai moana rights under the resource management reforms, a member of Te Tai Kaha technical roopu who provide expert advice to the Ministry for the Environment on Te Mana o Te Wai Policy in the Three Waters legislation, and an advisory member of Te Ara Takatū roopu, a group of survivors who advise the Royal Commission on Inquiry into Abuse in State Care. She is also a representative of the Māori Appointers to the Crown Forest Rental Trust (CFRT) which oversees the management of administrative process arising from the operation of the Crown Forest Assets Act regime.