Aotearoa is the contemporary Māori-language name for New Zealand. The name was originally used by Māori in reference to only the North Island,the name of the whole country being Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu. In the pre-European era,Māori did not have one name for the country as a whole.
Archives New Zealand is New Zealand's national archive and the official guardian of its public archives. As the government's recordkeeping authority,it administers the Public Records Act 2005 and promotes good information management throughout government.
The National Library of New Zealand is New Zealand's legal deposit library charged with the obligation to "enrich the cultural and economic life of New Zealand and its interchanges with other nations". Under the Act,the library's duties include collection,preserving and protecting the collections of the National Library,significant history documents,and collaborating with other libraries in New Zealand and abroad.
William Wakatere Jackson is a New Zealand politician and former broadcaster and Urban Māori chief executive. He was an Alliance MP from 1999 to 2002,and in 2017 was elected as a Labour MP.
The Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa (Creative New Zealand) is the national arts development agency of the New Zealand government established in 1963. It invests in artists and arts organisations,offering capability building programmes and developing markets and audiences for New Zealand arts domestically and internationally.
The New Zealand Library Association Inc.,operating as LIANZA,is the professional organisation for library and information workers in New Zealand,and also promotes library and information education and professional development within New Zealand.
Dame Mary Anne Salmond is a New Zealand anthropologist,environmentalist and writer. She was New Zealander of the Year in 2013. In 2020,she was appointed to the Order of New Zealand,the highest honour in New Zealand's royal honours system.
Robert Sullivan is a Māori poet,academic and editor. His published poetry collections include Jazz Waiata (1990),Star Waka (1999) and Shout Ha! to the Sky (2010). His books are postmodern,explore social and racial issues,and explore aspects of Māori culture and history.
Paul Séamus Reynolds was a New Zealand internet advocate in the cultural sector. He was an early advocate of IT systems and the Internet in the cultural sector in New Zealand.
Katie Wolfe is New Zealand actor and film and stage director. She was in the New Zealand television series Marlin Bay in the 1990s,Shortland Street in the late 1990s and Mercy Peak for two years. Her screen directing work has won several awards including Redemption at the ImagineNative Film + Media Arts Festival and This Is Her at the Prague International Short Film Festival. Her current creative work is writing and directing a stage play called The Haka Party Incident. Programmed by festivals through New Zealand across 2020 - 2023
Margaret Shirley Mutu is a Ngāti Kahu leader,author and academic from Karikari,New Zealand and works at the University of Auckland,New Zealand. She is Māori and her iwi (tribes) are Ngāti Kahu,Te Rarawa and Ngāti Whātua.
Gavin John Bishop is an author and illustrator,from Invercargill,New Zealand. He is known for illustrating books from prominent New Zealand authors,including Joy Cowley and Margaret Mahy. Bishop's first published picture book was Mrs McGinty and the Bizarre Plant,published in 1981 by Oxford University Press.
Whiti Hereaka is a New Zealand playwright,novelist and screenwriter and a barrister and solicitor. She has held a number of writing residencies and appeared at literary festivals in New Zealand and overseas,and several of her books and plays have been shortlisted for or won awards. In 2022 her book Kurangaituku won the prize for fiction at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards and Bugs won an Honour Award in the 2014 New Zealand Post Awards for Children and Young Adults. She lives in Wellington,New Zealand.
Juliette MacIver is a New Zealand children’s picture book writer. Her work has been widely reviewed and shortlisted for a number of awards,and her book That’s Not a Hippopotamus! won the picture book category of the 2017 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. She has four children and lives near Wellington,New Zealand.
The LIANZA Young People's Non-Fiction Award was established in 1986 by the Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA). It aimed to encourage the production of the best non-fiction writing for young New Zealanders. The award was renamed the LIANZA Elsie Locke Non-Fiction Award in 2002,and that award became the Elsie Locke Non-Fiction Award in 2016.
The Elsie Locke Non-Fiction Award was first awarded in 2002 by the Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA). It aimed to encourage the production of the best non-fiction writing for young New Zealanders. The award was previously known as the LIANZA Young People's Non-Fiction Award,before being renamed in honour of Elsie Locke. The LIANZA Elsie Locke Non-Fiction Award became the Elsie Locke Non-Fiction Award when the LIANZA Awards merged with the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults in 2016.
Sir Joseph Victor Williams is a judge and the first Māori person appointed to the Supreme Court of New Zealand.
Rangiānehu Mātāmua is a New Zealand indigenous studies and Māori cultural astronomy academic and is Professor of Mātauranga Māori at Massey University. He is Māori,of Tūhoe descent. He is the first Māori to win a Prime Minister's Science Prize,is a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi,and is the chief advisor to the New Zealand Government on the public holiday Matariki. He was named New Zealander of the Year in the 2023 Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year awards.
Reihana Parata is a New Zealand Māori tohunga raranga from the Ngāi Tahu iwi. For 11 years Parata was matron at the Te Waipounamu Māori Girls' College in Christchurch.
Rachel Margaret Esson is the National Librarian Te Pouhuaki of New Zealand. Before moving into that role in 2020,she served in several positions at the Victoria University of Wellington library and the National Library of New Zealand,including Director of Content Services. Esson also served as the president of LIANZA,New Zealand's national library association,from 2019 to 2020.
