Margaret Kawharu, MNZM

Margaret Kawharu of Ngati Whatua/Mahurehure has worked extensively on the research, negotiation and settlement phases of Treaty of Waitangi claims for the past twenty years. She served on the Ngati Whatua Ōrakei Trust board for nine years, and for four years on the Ngati Whatua o Ōrakei Reserves board, a co-governance entity over what was formerly known as Bastion Point. She currently chairs Te Poari o Kaipatiki ki Kaipara, another co-governance board over the Parakai Recreation Reserve, is Deputy Chair of Nga Maunga Whakahii o Kaipara Development Trust and an inaugural member of Kaipara Commercial Development Ltd - all post settlement entities for Ngati Whatua o Kaipara since 2013.

Margaret was the Senior Māori Advisor at Massey University Auckland from 2014-18, and co-edited ‘The Treaty on the Ground: Where we are headed and why it matters’ published by Massey University Press in 2017. She is now a Ph.D candidate at the Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies at Victoria University Wellington. Margaret was awarded a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2012 for services to Māori.

Emeritus Professor Erik Olssen, ONZM, FRSNZ & FNZA

Erik Olssen taught at the University of Otago for 34 years, twenty of them as Professor, specialising in  US and NZ History. He has been a Trustee since 1986 and has served for shorter periods on several other public bodies, including the Special Committee for the Turnbull and the Advisory Committee for the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography.  He has published extensively  on New Zealand history, including a biography of John A. Lee (1977),  A History of Otago (1984), and The Red Feds (1988). He also oversaw a major social-history research project which has resulted in many publications, most notably Building the New World (1994) and (co-authoring) An Accidental Utopia? Social Mobility and the foundations of an egalitarian society (2011).

Professor Kerry Taylor

Kerry Taylor is Head of the School of Humanities and the foundation Director of the W.H. Oliver Humanities Research Centre at Massey University. He is an historian with a research specialisation in the history of protest and dissent in Aotearoa/New Zealand. His publications include Culture and the Labour Movement ( 1992, edited with John Martin); On the Left: essays on socialism in New Zealand (2002, edited with Pat Moloney; Te Hao Nui: Object Stories form Te Manawa (2011, edited with Fiona McKergow); The Treaty on the Ground (2017, edited with Rachel Bell, Margaret Kawharu etal).

He is a on the editorial board of the journal Labour History, and a former associate editor of the New Zealand Journal of History. He is a member of the Board of Massey University Press. He is a former Chair of the Labour Movement Advisory panel for the DNZB and the Te Manawa Museum Society. He is currently a member of the Executive Board of the Australasian Consortium of Humanities Research Centres and of the New Zealand Contemporary China Research Centre.

Neil Plimmer, MNZM

Neil Plimmer is a history graduate of Victoria University of Wellington with a career in government including 20 years and four overseas postings with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and 11 years as Chief Executive of the New Zealand Tourism Department. He has been active in many organisations in these fields, including appointments as President of the Pacific Asia Tourism Association and Chairman of the Pacific Cooperation Foundation.

His wide experience in the governance of trusts and foundations includes numerous bodies relating to the arts and literature. He was President of the New Zealand Book Council in the mid-1990s, Chairman of the Wellington Sculpture Trust 2001-2013, and is currently on the Board of the Arts Foundation of New Zealand. He was awarded MNZM in 2014 for services to the arts.