Sir Pita Russell Sharples is a New Zealand Māori academic and politician, who was a co-leader of the Māori Party from 2004 to 2013, and a minister outside Cabinet in the National Party-led government from 2008 to 2014. He was the member of Parliament for the Tāmaki Makaurau electorate in Auckland from 2005 to 2014. He stepped down as co-leader role of the Māori Party in July 2013.
Margaret Elizabeth Austin is a former New Zealand politician. She was an MP from 1984 to 1996, representing first the Labour Party and then briefly United New Zealand.
Owen Marshall Jones, who writes under the pen name Owen Marshall, is a New Zealand short story writer and novelist. The third son of a Methodist minister younger brother of Allan Jones, and older brother of Rhys Jones, he came of age in Blenheim and Timaru, and graduated from the University of Canterbury with an MA in English in 1964. Marshall taught in a rural boys' high school for 25 years before becoming a full-time author.
Dame Malvina Lorraine Major is a New Zealand opera soprano.
Kaa Kataraina Kathleen Williams is a New Zealand television presenter on Māori Television on the show Manu Rere.
Ranginui Joseph Isaac Walker was an influential New Zealand academic, author, and activist of Māori and Lebanese descent. "I think he was the Māori commentator for a very long period," his biographer, Paul Spoonley, has said. Walker wrote about the struggles for Māori land rights and cultural identity and, says Spoonley, "confront[ed] Pakeha about their lack of understanding and prejudices to Māori" in his books and regular columns for the weekly New Zealand Listener and the monthly Metro magazine throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
Sir David Alexander Fagan is a New Zealand sheep shearer, who has won the New Zealand Golden Shears contest a record 16 times.
Dame Iritana Te Rangi Tāwhiwhirangi is a New Zealand advocate of Māori language education and the Kōhanga Reo movement.
Sir Harawira Tiri Gardiner was a New Zealand soldier, public servant, and writer. He was Māori, of Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Pikiao, Whakatōhea, and Te Whānau-ā-Apanui descent.
Sir Hector Busby, also known as Heke-nuku-mai-nga-iwi Puhipi and Hec Busby, was a New Zealand Māori navigator and traditional waka builder. He was recognised as a leading figure in the revival of traditional Polynesian navigation and ocean voyaging using wayfinding techniques.
Dame Kāterina Te Heikōkō Mataira was a New Zealand Māori language proponent, educator, intellectual, artist and writer. Her efforts to revive and revitalise the Māori language led to the growth of Kura Kaupapa Māori in New Zealand.
Te Aue Takotoroa Davis, also known as Daisy Davis, was a key figure in the Māori renaissance in the field of weaving. Born and raised near her ancestral marae Tokikapu in Waitomo, of Ngati Uekaha and Maniapoto descent, she received early grants from the Council for Maori and Pacific Arts and Department of Labour to fund her work.
Sir William Te Rangiua "Pou" Temara is a New Zealand academic. He is professor of Māori language and tikanga Māori (practices) at Waikato University and a cultural authority on whaikōrero (oratory), whakapapa (genealogy) and karakia. Prior to working at Waikato, he taught at Victoria University of Wellington, where he also studied, and at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi.
Graham Hingangaroa Smith is a New Zealand Māori academic and educationalist of Ngāti Porou, Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Apa and Ngāti Kahungunu descent. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi.
Michael John Albert Brown, commonly known as Mick Brown, was a New Zealand judge. In 1980, he became the first Māori to be appointed as a District Court judge, and he was later the first principal Youth Court judge.
Sir Richard Lewis Maxwell Faull is a New Zealand neuroscientist and academic who specialises in human neurodegenerative diseases. He is a professor of anatomy and director of the Centre for Brain Research at the University of Auckland.
Dame Areta Koopu is a New Zealand social worker and Māori activist. She was a member of the New Zealand Māori Council from 1987 to 1992, National President of the Māori Women's Welfare League from 1993 to 1996, and a Human Rights Commissioner from 1996 to 2001.
Anne Anituatua Delamere was a New Zealand public servant.
Sir Tīmoti Samuel Kāretu is a New Zealand academic of Māori language and performing arts. He served as the inaugural head of the Department of Māori at the University of Waikato, and rose to the rank of professor. He was the first Māori language commissioner, between 1987 and 1999, and then was executive director of Te Kohanga Reo National Trust from 1993 until 2003. In 2003, he was closely involved in the foundation of Te Panekiretanga o te Reo, the Institute of Excellence in Māori Language, and served as its executive director. He is fluent in Māori, English, French and German.
Sir Matiu Nohorua Te Rei is a New Zealand Māori leader from Ngāti Toa Rangatira. In the 2016 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to Māori.
