Discover

About the team

Meet our kaimahi

Dr Kahutoi Te Kanawa
CURATOR, POU ARAHI

Co-Director

Dr Kahutoi Te Kanawa

Kahu is a New Zealand Māori teacher, curator, weaver and textile artist. She has worked as a senior lecturer at the University of Otago and was a member of the Taumata Māreikura (expert weavers’ group) on Te Awe Phase 2. In 2020 she was appointed Associate Curator, Māori at the Auckland Museum and in 2021 promoted to the role of Curator Pou Ārahi. As Curator Pou Ārahi, Kahu is charged with caring for, providing access to and researching the Māori collections. These collections are amongst the most significant in the world. Kahu has co-curated Te Aho Mutunga Kore which travelled to the U.S.A in 2005-2007, and Enga uri Whakatipu a collection of over 30 cloaks and weaving artefacts of privately owned cloaks and artefacts of her family at the Waikato Museum in 2015- 2016. 

Fuli Pereira
CURATOR, PACIFIC

Co-Director

Fuli Pereira

Curator Pacific Fuli Pereira’s museum career began at Auckland Museum 28 years ago, starting as an intern, progressing to associate curator Ethnology, and now as the curator of the Pacific collections. During her time at Auckland Museum she led the ground-breaking Pacific Collection Access Project 2016-2019, which has been defined by an absolute shift in the consideration of consultation and involvement with descendant communities of makers and owners of collections in the care of the Museum. As the curator of the Pacific collections Fuli is charged with caring for, providing access to and carrying out research on the Pacific collection at Auckland Museum. The collections are among the most significant Pacific collections internationally. They contain an incredibly diverse range of taonga from over 600 bark-cloth pieces to full-size vaka (canoes). 

Chantal Knowles
HEAD OF HUMAN HISTORY

Co-Director

Chantal Knowles

Chantal Knowles has over 25 years’ experience working with cultural collections in museums in Oxford, Edinburgh, Brisbane and Auckland. Throughout her career she has developed community-centred projects including a 5-year knowledge repatriation project with the Tlicho of Canada’s Northwest Territories. She has a proven track record of fundraising for research and access projects ranging from the Pacific Collections Review in Scotland (2013-2015) to launching the Repatriation Fund at Queensland Museum (2015) and being a lead partner in securing over AU$44 million for a seven-year Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage from the Australian Research Council. This funding sought to provide pathways for increasing Indigenous engagement with science and increasing opportunities for female and Indigenous scholars in senior academic posts. 

Jasmine Tuia

Community Navigator

Jasmine Tuiā

Kia ora tātou, 

Ko Vaea te maunga 

Ko vai api te awa 

Nō Hamoa ahau 

Ko Lemalu ma LeMamea tōku whānau 

Ko Jasmine Tuiā tōku ingoa 

Jasmine Tuiā is the Community Navigator for Te Aho Mutunga Kore. Jasmine comes from an arts background as a siapo maker and facilitator with great interest in fibre and textiles, and practical knowledge of siapo and its decorative components. Utilizing Sāmoan storytelling techniques of fāgogo (fables), Jasmine’s art practice aims to share the importance of collective processes, community building, and advocacy of cultural materials and tala/stories. 

Jasmine’s role entails collaborative work with our Māori and Pacific communities and museum staff to build on existing community capacity with our collections and informing sustainable engagement with tangible and intangible taonga/measina/koloa. Following closely under our communities’ lead, the community navigator role assists in creating accessible avenues to realise their individual projects both within, and outside of the Museum. Jasmine sees the Te Aho Mutunga Kore Centre as a fale fono, or meeting house, and her role fits in as a facilitator of these meeting spaces; to continue to provide safe spaces for our communities to reflect, learn and share when engaging and visiting their taonga within the Museum. 

Justine Treadwell

Associate Project Manager

Justine Treadwell

Justine Treadwell (Pākehā/Scottish whakapapa) is the Associate Project Manager for Te Aho Mutunga Kore. She has a deep personal and academic background in textile art, and has pursued postgraduate studies in early mahi whatu (Māori weaving), focusing on 18th century Māori cloaks in Europe and the United Kingdom. This research has included creative practice components, with woven recreations of technical elements and original pieces. Her other focus in both study and mahi is community engagement with taonga. Both of these passions are fulfilled in Te Aho Mutunga Kore, where Justine’s role is to facilitate access to taonga according to communities’ needs and wishes. Previous to Te Aho Mutunga Kore, Justine worked on Te Awe Phase Two, a project which enriched the care for the Māori textile collection to ready it for kaupapa like Te Aho Mutunga Kore. Contributing to this mahi gave Justine a strong sense of possibility for the future of taonga access, on a global as well as local scale. It’s a privilege for Justine to serve communities and care for taonga through projects like these, and she is excited to have rejoined the next generation of this kaupapa.