Introducing our speaker line-up for Nui te Kōrero 2025!
Ara Alam-Simmons (British Bangladeshi)
Ara is an educator, researcher, writer, and founder of Manawaka Ao, a BIPOC community space dedicated to curating grassroots community art experiences that bring Māori, Pacific, and ethnically diverse communities together. She is in the final stages of her PhD in Māori and Indigenous studies, exploring South Asian–Māori solidarities and the possibilities of shared decolonial futures.
Drawing on collaging, found poetry, storytelling, and her own lived experience as critical methods, her work poses the question: Who can we be without colonisation? Through art, scholarship, and community weaving, Ara (along with others) creates spaces that honour Indigenous knowledge systems, nurture solidarity, and cultivate mutuality beyond colonial limits.
Kim Anderson (Ngāti Maniapoto, Singaporean-Chinese)
Kim is a freelance illustrator, designer, and writer based in Tāmaki Makaurau.
Through comics, zines and personal essays, Kim’s work often explores mental health, growing up mixed-race, being a third culture kid, and what it means to live a good life, particularly through a disabled lens. Her comics have featured in Speck Comics and Everything that moves, moves through another, an anthology about the mixed-race experience in Aotearoa published by 5eva Books. You can find her artwork, writing and other projects on her website kimcandraw.com.
In 2025, she received the Whakahoa Kaitoi Whanaketanga Creative New Zealand Artist Fellowship through Arts Access Aotearoa. This Fellowship recognises the contribution of Deaf and disabled artists to the arts in Aotearoa and supports them to develop their practice through a significant project. Kim is using the Fellowship to work on a memoir graphic novel.
Duncan Armstrong
Duncan is a founding member of Wellington Inclusive Dance (WIDance), and a support dancer and tutor.
After attending as many dance workshops and residencies as he could find, he first danced with Touch Compass – Hau Tipua Toi in 2011 in the youth project Embedded, and joined as a company dancer in 2015, performing in many projects and events nationally, including the Wellington and Auckland Dance Festivals. He is currently working with Touch Compass on Abilitopia, expected to premiere this summer.
Alongside his dance career, he is a drummer, and a stage and film actor. As a drummer, he won an Arts Access Aotearoa Young Artist Award in 2010, and has performed with his band at multiple venues including Parliament. He received the Arts Access Aotearoa Highly Commended award in 2017, and was very proud to win its Artistic Achievement Award in 2020.
Over the last decade he’s also been busy with an acting career, including film and TV work, most recently starring in April Phillips’ short film The Last Man on Earth, where he won several awards for Best Supporting Actor at film festivals in the US in 2020. With theatre company Everybody Cool Lives Here he made his solo show, Forcefield, winning Best Performance at the 2018 Auckland Fringe Festival.
Tusiata Avia (Samoan. Villages: Lefaga, Iva, Solosolo)
Tusiata is a poet, writer and performer. She has published five books of poetry. She is also the author of children’s books, short films, radio documentary and plays. Her iconic play Wild Dogs Under My Skirt showed Off-Broadway in 2020, where it won the Fringe Encore Outstanding Production of the Year.
Tusiata has received a number of awards during her 25-year career, including:
- 2024 Prime Ministers Award for Literary Achievement
- 2024 Creative New Zealand Pacific Senior Artist Award
- 2023 Distinguished Alumni at Te Herenga Waka University of Victoria
- 2020 Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to poetry and the arts
The Savage Coloniser won the 2020 Best Book of Poetry at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. The stage version, The Savage Coloniser Show, won New Aotearoa Play of the Year in 2024 at the Wellington Theatre Awards
Dr Jess Berentson-Shaw (Pākehā, Tangata tiriti)
Jess is a public narrative researcher and advisor with a PhD in Health Psychology from Victoria University (2003). Throughout her career in government and not for profit organisations, she has consistently championed the integration of knowledge and equity into decision-making.
Since 2017, Jess has dedicated her research to developing narrative strategies that foster engagement, critical thinking, and improved decision-making on pressing social and environmental issues. She is the author of "A Matter of Fact: Talking Truth in a Post-truth World" (2018), a BWB text and appears often in the media. Jess is the co-founder of The Workshop and is Director of Narrative and Strategy, where she has researched and advised on issues from climate change through to education and arts, culture and creativity. She gets enormous joy from gardening, her chief creative pursuit.
Michael Bell
Michael is an arts practitioner based in Ōtautahi Christchurch. He has been a regular on the arts scene since 2005, founding and running businesses such as Orange Recording Studios, and NZ Playhouse - a busy touring theatre company that takes original kiwi shows to 400 schools across the motu each year. Presently, you can usually find him at Christchurch-based Little Andromeda, hosting a wide variety of local and touring artists presenting new work each week.
Nigel Borell (Pirirakau, Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāi Te Rangi, Te Whakatōhea)
Nigel is a curator, writer, Māori arts advocate, educator and artist specialising in Māori art in both customary and contemporary fields of research. Borell has had an active role in the arts and culture sector spanning the past 25 years. His career began working on three meetinghouse projects under tohunga whakairo Pakariki Harrison and Peter Boyd followed by formal study at Massey University and Auckland University gaining a Master of Fine Arts (Hons) in 2003.
As a curator his key projects include Kura: Story of Māori Woman Artist, The Mangere Arts Centre Nga Tohu o Uenuku (2011), co-curating with Zara Stanhope Moa Hunter Fashions by Areta Wilkinson, for 9th Asia Pacific Triennial, QAGOMA, Brisbane (2018) and The Māori Portraits: Gottfried Lindauer’s New Zealand, to deYoung Fine Arts Museum, San Francisco (2017). Most recently Borell curated the large survey exhibition Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki (2020-2021), where he was the curator Māori art from 2015-2020. In 2023 he is co-curating Histōrias Indīgenas- Indigenous Histories at Museu de Art de (MASP), São Paulo, Brazil.
He was the inaugural recipient of The New Zealand Art Foundation’s A Moment In Time – He Momo, awarded for his contribution to New Zealand arts and culture in curating the landmark exhibition Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art and made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori art in 2022. He is currently Curator Taonga Māori at The Auckland War Memorial Museum Tamaki Paenga Hira.
Pelenakeke Brown (Gataivai, Siutu-Salailua)
Pelenakeke is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice explores the intersections between disability theory and Sāmoan concepts. Her practice spans visual art, text, and performance. She is from Aotearoa and is an Sāmoan/Pakehā, crip artist.
She has worked internationally presenting performances, exhibitions, published writing and residencies in New York, California, Berlin, Hamburg, London and Aotearoa.
She has worked with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gibney Dance Center, The New York Library for the Performing Arts and other institutions globally. Selected residencies include Eyebeam, The Laundromat Project, and Denniston Hill. Her work has been written about in Art in America, The New York Times, Art Agenda and The Art Paper. In 2020 she was recognised with a Creative New Zealand Pacific Toa award.
In 2024, she was a BRIClab Contemporary Artist in Residence, a programme supporting innovative contemporary artists in New York. She was also recently awarded a Wynn Newhouse Award, which recognises talented artists who have a disability and whose work contributes significantly to contemporary art.
She is informed by the Samoan concept of the vā- relationships across time and space, crip time and is continually trying to find sites to investigate that hold both of these dual theories. Pelenakeke’s work straddles many mediums, is it a poem, a visual work or a choreographic score- she asks, why not all three?
Puawai Cairns (Ngāti Pūkenga, Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui)
Award winning author and experienced arts governor, Puawai Cairns is a respected leader with over two decades of experience in museum practice and cultural heritage in Aotearoa. She is the Director of Audience and Insight at Te Papa Tongarewa, where she leads the strategic work of connecting the national museum with diverse audiences across Aotearoa and beyond.
Puawai has an extensive background in curatorial practice and research, including her previous role as Head of Mātauranga Māori at Te Papa. Her work has centred on contemporary social history, with a focus on amplifying the voices and stories of Māori communities. Her award-winning book Protest Tautohetohe: Objects of resistance, persistence and defiance which she co-wrote won the 2019 Ockham Book Award for Best Illustrated Non-fiction, and Gallipoli: The Scale of our War an in-depth exploration of Te Papa’s renowned Gallipoli exhibition.
Beyond her work at Te Papa, Puawai is an active advocate for Indigenous perspectives and leadership in the heritage sector. She serves on multiple boards, including Heritage New Zealand, the Māori Heritage Council, and Atamira Dance Company. Her advisory work extends nationally and internationally, where she champions inclusive and transformative museum practices.
Moana Ete (Ngāti Wheke, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, Savai’i Samoa)
Moana Ete is an artist, director, performer and musician based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. She creates and performs work that is bold, poetic and socially charged.
As a director, Moana’s work has been praised for its ability to weave multiple voices into cohesive, powerful storytelling. Her recent production of Aiga (in partnership with Lusi Faiva, Auckland Arts Festival / Touch Compass) was described by Dance Aotearoa NZ as “a cri de coeur — a cry from the heart… inclusive theatre in every sense of the word, working to give voice to those whose stories are not always easy to hear.”
Since graduating from Toi Whakaari in 2010, Moana has worked across stage, screen and music. Under her moniker Mo Etc she creates alt-soul / alternative RnB music. Through her practice she celebrates the beauty and resilience of wāhine Māori and fafine Pasifika, and through her art she makes space for new perspectives, encouraging dialogue and connection across cultures.
Lusi Faiva (Samoan and Palagi descent)
Lusi is a multi award-winning dancer and performer. She is a founding member of Touch Compass, which has been performing for almost 30 years. She performed and toured New Zealand and Australia in the company’s major shows and starred in the highly acclaimed autobiographical performance Lusi’s Eden. In 2014, her DanceBox short film Mr and Mrs Jones paid tribute to two key people in her life, her foster parents. Lusi attended the Mixed Dance Teacher’s workshop in Germany in 2003 and she has regularly supported and danced with Touch Compass’s creative community classes. She represented Touch Compass at Creative New Zealand’s Pacific Summit at Te Papa, Wellington, in 2018.
In 2021, Lusi performed Taupou, a new Samoan traditional dance performance, in collaboration with Everybody Cool Lives Here and LeMona at CubaDupa Festival, and at Kia Mau Festival. In 2022, Lusi became the lead creator of the Aiga, a Crip time, three years in the making devised theatre work, directed by Moana Ete. Lusi’s many awards include the Toa Artistic Achievement award at Creative New Zealand Arts Pasifika Awards 2020; the Artistic Achievement award at the Arts Access Aotearoa 2021 awards, and the Taumafaiga Achievement Award, 2024 Tofa mamo Sa’ilimalo Awards, FAME Mid-Career award 2025 Performing Arts Network of New Zealand.
Ria Hall (Tauranga Moana, Te Whānau a Apanui, Ngāti Porou, Waikato, Ngāti Tuwharetoa)
Born and raised in Tauranga Moana, Hall discovered her voice through kapahaka, performing with Te Waka Huia under the guidance of haka icons Drs Ngāpō and Pimia Wehi. That grounding in tikanga and te reo Māori shaped her path as an artist dedicated to cultural preservation and innovation.
Her self-titled 2011 EP won critical acclaim, fusing fierce hip hop rhythms with layered bilingual vocals. She drew on her hometown’s history for her debut album Rules of Engagement (2017), inspired by Henare Taratoa’s 1864 code of conduct for the Battle of Gate Pā. Political and personal, the album established Hall as one of the most provocative voices in Aotearoa. Manawa Wera (2020), a Taite Prize finalist co-created with Laughton Kora, carried that kaupapa forward — weaving reggae and soul with the urgency of today’s political and cultural climate.
A solo māmā of three, Hall holds a BA in te reo Māori and political science from Waikato University. She served as head curator and senior producer of M9 Aotearoa and continues to pursue higher education as a form of liberation.
Renowned for her commanding live performances, Hall’s vast vocal range and fearless genre-blending create transformative experiences. In art and life alike, she pushes boundaries, challenges convention, and empowers the collective.
Jessica Hansell aka Coco Solid (Ngāpuhi/Samoa)
Jessica is a writer, multimedia artist and musician from Auckland.
She is currently the Director of the underground artist-led community space Wheke Fortress in Onehunga, Auckland.
With music projects (Coco Solid, Parallel Dance Ensemble, Badd Energy and Fanau Spa) and an international following, Jessica heads artist-led record label and production house Kuini Qontrol.
The creator of cult Māori cartoon Aroha Bridge, she has screenwriting credits ranging from comedy Wellington Paranormal, indigenous soap Ahikaroa, through to her upcoming science-fiction series Jupiter Park. In 2022 Jessica released her Ockham Award-nominated and bestselling novel How To Loiter In A Turf War; the story of three artist friends navigating their gentrifying city.
Jessica was named the Fulbright Creative New Zealand Pacific writer in residence in 2018, studying at the University of Hawai’i. The following year, she was named a national art laureate by The Arts Foundation NZ.
Across all mediums, Jessica consistently strives to prioritise Oceanic narratives, wāhine, LGBTQIA+ expression and underground creatives of colour.
Dr Laura Haughey
Laura is an award-winning theatre maker, researcher, creative access consultant and embodied mindfulness practitioner. She is artistic director for the Deaf and hearing theatre company Equal Voices Arts, which she established in 2014. Alongside her Deaf and hearing collaborators at Equal Voices Arts, Laura explores and creates sites of cross cultural and cross linguistic exchange, devising original theatre productions that are accessible to both D/deaf and hearing audiences. The company has recently completed a 2-year national programme of work designing and delivering professional level theatre training for Deaf communities, working alongside internationally renowned Deaf and disabled theatre practitioners.
Her original devised theatre works have been performed on global stages with multiple national and international tours, and she has taught in universities and in conservatoire settings internationally. Laura is now based at the University of Waikato, where she convenes the theatre programme.
Laura’s passion and research area is the intersection of artistic practice, creative access, social justice and wellbeing, which inspires and informs all her work. She was recently awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship from the European Commission to explore and develop accessible embodied mindfulness-based performer training practices. Her project developed inclusive, non-hierarchical research methods that foster equitable collaboration between Deaf and hearing researchers. These methods have gained international attention, with invitations to present and deliver workshops in Italy, Ireland, the UK, and Aotearoa.
Graham Hoete (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngai Te Rangi, Ngati Awa)
Graham, also known as Mr G, is a renowned Māori multidisciplinary artist from Tauranga Moana in the Bay of Plenty, Aotearoa. He has been a full- time artist for 25 years. Born in Whakatāne, raised in Kawerau and Tauranga, Graham draws deep inspiration from his life experiences and Māori culture.
A painter, carver, designer, digital iIllustrator and visual storyteller, his work is rooted in hononga (connection) and is passionate about helping Māori artists navigate the space in between Te Ao Tawhito (the old world) and Te Ao Hurihuri (the ever-changing world) of today.
Internationally celebrated for his large-scale murals, Mr G has created iconic works across the world, including Scotland, the United States, Australia, Aotearoa, and beyond, honouring figures such as Prince, Muhammad Ali, Steven Adams, Merata Mita, Hana Te Hemara Jackson, and June Jackson.
He has collaborated with global brands including Star Wars, Disney, FIFA, Nissan and Nike, and led national kaupapa like TŪMANAKO, empowering rangatahi Māori and small town communities through visual storytelling.
Graham lives in Pāpāmoa with his wife Melissa and their dog Teddy Boy, continuing his mission to uplift, connect, and inspire through the power of Toi Māori.
Robyn Hunt ONZM
Robyn Hunt ONZM has a background in media, the disability community, human rights and policy. She was one of the instigators of New Zealand’s first disability TV series, and has won media and communications awards. She was a human rights commissioner with disability responsibility from 2002 – 2010. With many years arts involvement she has extensive arts access experience, winning the 2019 Arts Access Accolade. She co-founded a web accessibility company in the early 2000s. A writer, she co-founded Crip the Lit, a project based initiative to celebrate Deaf and disabled writers and ensure their unique voices and stories are included and valued in mainstream writing in New Zealand. She was the inaugural recipient of the Toi Pōneke d/Deaf and/or Disabled Artist Residency . Robyn writes mostly non-fiction for publications such as The Spinoff and the DList. She is a member of the Arts Council and supported the development of Creative New Zealand's Tapatahi Accessibility policy. She lives in Whanganui a Tara.
Tama Kirikiri (Te Whānau-ā-Apanui, Ngāti Konohi, Ngāti Rākaipaaka, Ngāti Kahungunu, Kāi Tahu)
Tama is a values-driven leader and dedicated practitioner of tikanga Māori, who brings over two decades of experience in advancing kaupapa Māori across education, the arts, and community development. His leadership approach is grounded in te ao Māori principles—manaakitanga, whakapapa, and aroha—informing his strategic thinking and people-focused style. These values have enabled effective leadership in complex environments, aligning cultural integrity with organisational performance.
In his current role of Poumatua – Deputy Chief Executive of Toi Mai Ohu Ahumahi – Workforce Development Council, he works in a co-leadership model with the CEO to embody what a Te Tiriti o Waitangi lead organisation looks like. Tama provides strategic leadership using tikanga as a guide to ethical organisational behaviour and to build a culture of Te Tiriti o Waitangi partnership capability. He has been responsible for successfully imbedding tikanga, kawa and te reo Māori as part of the everyday landscape of the workplace.
Across previous roles at Ako Aotearoa and Whitireia Polytechnic, he led large-scale, kaupapa Māori projects—designing frameworks, fostering partnerships, and delivering outcomes that uplift Māori learner success and community engagement. Tama has also held multiple governance roles, including currently as Chair of Te Paepae Ārahi and previously Chair at Taki Rua Productions, further honing strategic planning capability, relationship building, and stakeholder accountability.
Sonya Korohina (Ngāti Porou, Whānau a Hunāra)
Sonya is an arts leader with 25+ years experience across Aotearoa’s creative industries.
She has a background in arts management, education and business development working throughout the sector at Auckland Art Gallery, Artspace Aotearoa, Elam School of Fine Arts, Tauranga Arts Festival and Toi Ohomai. Her consultancy Supercut Projects was behind the CITY ART WALK app, a self-guided tour of public art, and led recent placemaking projects like Midnight Sun (with artist Sara Hughes) and Echoes: Tauranga Moana (with creative studio Storybox). In 2022 she partnered with Tauranga City Council to develop a city-wide public art framework.
Since 2023 Sonya has been the Director of the Tauranga Art Gallery leading a two-year capital development project, set to reopen later this year. Over this time her team have developed new frameworks for Visitor Experience, Māori Engagement, Education and a full review of Membership Programmes that she will share as part of her workshop on Equity and Inclusion.
Gretchen La Roche
Gretchen is an experienced arts leader and a trained musician. Her return to Creative New Zealand as Tumu Whakarae is her third role with us, after starting as a Programme Adviser (then Senior Programme Adviser) in 2006 and returning as Senior Manager Arts Development Services in 2022. She was also an inaugural member of Te Roopu Mana Toi, our advocacy group.
In between these roles, Gretchen managed sponsorship liaison at The Court Theatre. She joined the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra as Artistic Manager before becoming CEO. She has also served as CE of Chamber Music New Zealand and, most recently, was Executive Director of The Court Theatre as the rebuilt theatre opened in Ōtautahi.
Gretchen is from Te Tairawhiti. After several roles based in Te Wai Pounamu, she is now based in Tāmaki Makaurau.
Nicola Owen
In 2011 Nicola trained with Auckland Live as one of Aotearoa’s first professional audio describers. In 2014, alongside her partner Paul Brown who is blind, she launched Audio Described Aotearoa. Their aim was to extend the art of audio description throughout Aotearoa with sighted and blind people working in collaboration. Since then Nicola has worked with a wide range of arts organisations. In 2023 received funding from Manatū Taonga to train Māori and Pacific audio describers and blind consultants as part of a project to increase access to indigenous arts and the diverse cultures of Aotearoa.
Audio Decribed Aotearoa has received national and international awards in recognition of their work in making live performance and arts events accessible to blind, deafblind and low vision people. A highlight was the amazing international response to the audio described ballet broadcast across the world in partnership with RNZB during the first Covid lockdown.
Nicola has extensive experience as an activist, audio describer, performer, training facilitator and project leader and has spent over 30 years campaigning for human rights, accessibility and the arts. She also works part time as an Easy Read translator for People First’s Make it Easy service.
Nicola is originally from Manchester with Irish and Welsh heritage. She moved to Aotearoa in 2004 and lives with Paul and their child in Tāmaki Makaurau.
Anna Rawhiti-Connell
Anna is head of audience and off-platform strategy, and a senior writer at The Spinoff. She was editor of The Bulletin, The Spinoff's popular morning news digest, for two years. She won Best General Columnist at the 2021 Voyager Media Awards and was a regular contributor to Newsroom, North and South and Radio New Zealand.
Anna has extensive experience in audience engagement, content strategy, social media, fundraising and community building. She got her start working at the business end of the arts and culture sector in the early 2000s during the emergence of “creative industries” policy, when she lectured in arts marketing at the University of Waikato. She worked for Auckland Theatre Company for five years as a development manager and, after accidentally starting the company’s Twitter and Facebook accounts, went on to head up social and content marketing at BNZ, becoming part of the first wave of social media experts in Aotearoa.
At The Spinoff, she has spearheaded multiple successful campaigns to drive and grow audience revenue and is responsible for audience strategy. She oversees a team that looks after audience engagement and content strategy, data and insights, member acquisition and retention, design, front-end development, product development, UX, and events.
Beyond her journalism and audience work, Anna is active in New Zealand's arts and culture sector. She is deputy chair of the board of Auckland Writers Festival and served as convenor of judges for the general non-fiction category at the 2023 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.
She is fascinated by the rise of content creators, the shifting sands of authority and trust, podcasting, movements in the cultural zeitgeist, and the forceful power of generative AI. She prefers to confront change head-on, informed and pragmatic. She cannot resist writing about television.
Stace Robertson
Stace (he/him, they/them) is Lead Accessibility Advisor | Kaiārahi a Toi Ōritetanga at Arts Access Aotearoa Putanga Toi ki Aotearoa. In his role, Stace advises the arts sector on accessibility policies, advocates for increased access, and supports equitable and sustainable accessibility practices. He also leads the Taha Hotu Deaf and Disabled Artist’s Initiative.
A Pākehā person of Scottish, Irish, English and French ancestry, Stace lives in Pae Tū Mōkai Featherston on Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa and Rangitāne whenua. Stace is a proud disabled person with strong connections in disability communities. Their previous mahi has focused on supporting access and equity in a variety of settings including, intersectional advocacy, community development and governance roles.
Stace is a practising artist working in painting and ceramics and their work explores ideas relating to identity, representation and community. Stace holds a BMA (Hons) in painting and sculpture from Wintec and is a pottery tutor at his local pottery club where he teaches introductory wheel throwing and glazing.
Tanya Ruka (Ngāti Pakau, Ngāpuhi)
Tanya is a Lecturer in Mātauranga Māori in Design at Te Herenga Waka–Victoria University of Wellington. As a research-led contemporary arts practitioner and curator, she investigates how Indigenous knowledge systems can transform digital consciousness and material culture.
Her interdisciplinary research embraces whakapapa-informed, place-based approaches—from exploring harakeke-based non-woven materials to Indigenous AI futuring—that centre mātauranga Māori and support Indigenous futures. Inspired by her tūpuna’s rongoā knowledge, Tanya leads sustained collaborations with tribal communities, engineers, scientists, growers, filmmakers, and artists to generate kindred design and ecological practices.
As Executive Director of Native Land Digital, she advocates for Indigenous data sovereignty through a global platform that supports tribal communities to assert narrative control, cultural stewardship, and self-determination. Her work includes implementing technologies in ways that not only serve Indigenous communities but also shape the platform and mapping itself as an Indigenous space where digital tools are reimagined through Indigenous-led design, governance, and technological innovation.
Claire Murdoch
Claire is Senior Manager, Arts Development at Creative New Zealand. Prior to this, she was Head of Publishing at Penguin Random House New Zealand, where she directed Aotearoa’s leading audiobook and ebook publishing programme and served as President of the Publishers Associations of New Zealand (PANZ), including oversight of its Copyright and AI portfolios.
She has held senior roles and led digital transformation and strategy projects at variously Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, and RNZ Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa where she was Head of Product and Audience in their Digital team, and, funded by the Public Media Alliance, undertook research in the US in 2016 into emerging tech in media, including voice AI.
Claire is a film school dropout and graduate of Te Herenga Waka Victoria University with a BA Hons. in English Literature and Film & Theatre who wrote her honours thesis on David Lynch's Lost Highway.
She is happy at the very busy intersection of creativity and commerce, digital and analogue, product and audience, business and government.
Gabrielle-Sisifo Makisi (Sa Te’o, Sa Atoa and Sa Petaia of Tanugamanono and Siumu, Samoa, Govan, Glasgow, Scotland and Ngati Maniapoto - Rakaunui marae, Kawhia)
Gabrielle-Sisifo QSM (Gabby) has worked in the education sector in schools and at the Ministry of Education. She worked in secondary schools as a classroom teacher and in management roles for 19 years. Gabby has been at the Ministry of Education for the past 14 years and is currently Pacific manager - Akonga and Community.
She’s been involved in the creative arts all her life, particularly in Pacific performance, poetry and writing. She has a long history of service as Event director of the TuTagata secondary Schools Polyfest.
Gabby is CEO of Vinepa Trust, a Pacific community provider, and Deputy Chair of the Pasifika Festivals executive – and she’s currently a Doctoral student.
Kereama Taepa (Te Arawa, Te Ātiawa)
Kereama Taepa studied for his Bachelor of Māori Visual Arts at Massey University in Palmerston North, and continued on to gain his Masters degree. Taepa’s involvement in the arts have been broad and varied, participating in various national and international arts residencies, symposiums, workshops and hui.
He has exhibited his art nationally and internationally and has works in collections across New Zealand and abroad. He has recently unveiled ‘Tohorā’ on the Kāpiti Coast, 2020 as well as 'Pōhutukawa’ on the Tauranga Waterfront, 2018, amongst numerous public works across Aotearoa. He is a Supreme Award winner of the Rotorua Art Awards 2017, the Molly Morpeth 2D Art Award in 2008 and received the Runner Up Award at the National Art Awards 2018.
For the last decade, Taepa has sought to establish himself as Aotearoa’s most leading contemporary Māori digital artist. His work explores themes of digital culture and its impact on Māori culture - and how Māori can use technology to further serve the generations of the future. His work utilizes emergent technologies such as projection, 3D printing, Augmented Reality and Virtual reality to connect narratives of the past, present and future. This has resulted in his work being the first digital artwork to be acquired by the Parliamentary Collection in 2023 and an Augmented Reality installation across Paris and London in 2025.
Lynell Tuffery Huria (Ngāti Ruanui, Ngāruahinerangi, Ngaa Rauru Kiitahi)
For over 30 years, Lynell is a commercial lawyer and has specialised in all aspects of trade mark protection, management and enforcement for sole traders, start-ups, whānau, hapū, and iwi organisations in New Zealand, and multinational companies across the globe.
Lynell is regarded as one of New Zealand’s leading experts on indigenous intellectual property (IP) law in New Zealand and the Pacific. Lynell has also developed a broad commercial practice advising on entity establishment, trust law, and a wide range of commercial transactions.
She is a Past Chair of the Indigenous Rights Committee for the International Trademark Association.
In 2018, she was a member of the organising team for the first Ngā Taonga Tuku Iho conference.
Lynell has also written advice for Māori on the Plant Variety Rights Act review and is co-author of the paper entitled Māori Interests and Geographical Indicators – Strategic Intellectual Property Management enabling Māori whānau development.
Lynell is also an experienced board member, having served in a number of governance positions.
Lynell and her husband also own a foundation construction business in Te Whanganui-a-Tara and have three sons and three mokopuna.
Rāhera Turner
Rāhera Turner is a dynamic leader in the Deaf arts sector, dedicated to empowering Turi (Deaf) Māori and Deaf communities across Aotearoa. She is the NZSL Creative Consultant for the Arts and has been a key member of Equal Voices Arts, an award-winning Deaf and hearing theatre company, where she ensures that all creative uses of NZSL are proudly Deaf-led.
Rāhera provides Deaf Awareness training and NZSL consultation across Aotearoa New Zealand’s arts sector, fostering authentic representation and accessibility. She serves on the Creative New Zealand Manga Tipua Deaf and disabled-led advisory group and maintains a strong partnership with Arts Access Aotearoa, championing access and equity for Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and disabled communities. She is deeply involved in Service Co-Design for Turi (Deaf) Māori and is currently leading a Turi Māori performance development project to strengthen Deaf Māori storytelling, language, and cultural expression through the arts.
In addition, Rāhera is the Chair of Rōpū Kaitiaki, the Māori Deaf Advisory Group to the NZSL Board, and works as a Research Assistant with the Deaf Studies Research Unit at Victoria University of Wellington. Her work spans arts, education, and research, driven by her commitment to celebrating Turi Māori identity and empowering future generations to lead with pride and confidence.
Karen Walker
Arts Council member, Karen Walker is an internationally celebrated New Zealand designer and entrepreneur. Since establishing her eponymous label in 1989, Karen has earned international recognition for her work. Her designs have been showcased on global stages, including 20 seasons at New York Fashion Week, and eight seasons at London Fashion Week, and through collaborations with brands such as Disney, Uniqlo, and Sephora, as well as locally with Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.
Karen brings over three decades of experience with brand development, business strategy, innovation and creative leadership. Beyond her design practice, Karen is deeply engaged with the arts, with a long history of collaboration and initiatives that elevate New Zealand’s creative industries. In 2018, she represented New Zealand at The Commonwealth Fashion Exchange through her collaboration with the Kūki ‘Āirani Creative Māmās.
Karen is consistently ranked in Business of Fashion’s BoF 500, highlighting her as one of the most influential figures in the global fashion industry.
Karl Wixon (Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe, Ngāi Tahu, Moriori, Ngāti Toa Rangatira)
Karl is a strategic creative working at the intersection of commerce, culture and creativity, designing futures and making shift happen. Karl was born in Bluff, raised Heretaunga and is a resident of Tāmaki Makaurau.
Karl is the Kaiārahi and Managing Director of ARAHIA Pathfinders. Karl was a founder and recent Co-chair of Ngā Aho Māori design network, a past President of Designers Institute of New Zealand where he established the Ngā Aho Awards (now Toitanga) and current board member of Toi Mai Workforce Development Council.
Originally trained in Industrial Design, his experience spans education, strategy, cultural heritage, cultural and intellectual property, identity, brand, story, exhibition, architectural, interior, experience, service design, design thinking and he is currently writing a book on Māori design methodology based on kōrero tīmatanga.
In the early 2000s Karl was co-developer of the Maunga Kura Toi Degree, alongside Jacob Scott, for Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and later served on their governing Council. Jacob and Karl also initiated the Awatoru project under the mana the Wānanga to explore ‘Māori Economic Transformation by Design’ leading a number of pilot projects undertaking exploratory work on Māori fisheries export development in China, Māori Tourism and agribusiness.
That kaupapa set the trajectory for much of Karl's subsequent mahi developing brands, stories and market strategy for Māori export collectives, as well as working with globally focussed government agencies on how Māori are presented to the world, including Tourism NZ, Education NZ and the NZ Story programme where Karl has acted as Kaiārahi Māori since 2012, as well as holding roles on the NZ Story Board and Māori Advisory Board. He played a lead role in the recently launched ‘Māori Partnership Story’ presenting pakihi Māori to the world, a mihi to market.
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