Leonie Pihama

Guest writer

Associate Professor Leonie Pihama (Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Māhanga, Ngā Māhanga a Tairi) is director of Te Kotahi Research Institute at the University of Waikato, and director of Māori and Indigenous Analysis Ltd, a Kaupapa Māori research company. She has worked as an associate professor in education at the University of Auckland teaching in the fields of policy analysis, Māori women's issues, and the politics of representation of indigenous peoples. Leonie is a leading kaupapa Māori educator and researcher and has been working in the intersecting fields of education, health, whānau wellbeing and Maori immersion education for a number of decades.

Merata Mita editing Patu! in 1983. (Photo: Gil Hanly)

A son celebrates his mother in Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen

Professor Leonie Pihama on the unique values and perspective filmmaker Merata Mita brought to the screen, and how it changed how we see ourselves.

By Leonie Pihama | 12th May, 2019

An increasingly rare sight. (Photo: PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images)

We are not your brand: Why Air New Zealand’s tā moko ban must end

How dare our national airline continue to brand itself with Indigenous symbols while rejecting employees who wear those same symbols on their bodies, writes Leonie Pihama.

By Leonie Pihama | 21st March, 2019

Image: vivan Hutchinson

Why did the Crown support the Waitara Lands Bill when hapū weren’t all on board?

The Waitara Lands Bill passed it's third reading in December – settling one of Aotearoa's longest-running land disputes – despite only one of two hapū giving their support.

By Leonie Pihama | 11th January, 2019

Associate Professor Leonie Pihama (Image: supplied)

Summer reissue: Moko kauae is the right of all Māori women. It is not a right for anyone else.

Pākehā life coach Sally Anderson came under fire this year for receiving moko kauae, as did the tā moko artist that gave it to her. Leonie Pihama looked at the difference between rights and privilege when it comes to wāhine Māori and moko kauae.

By Leonie Pihama | 27th December, 2018

Associate Professor Leonie Pihama (Image: supplied)

Moko kauae is the right of all Māori women. It is not a right for anyone else.

Pākehā life coach Sally Anderson has come under fire this week for receiving moko kauae. Leonie Pihama looks at the difference between rights and privilege when it come to wāhine Māori and moko kauae.

By Leonie Pihama | 24th May, 2018