Te Herekiekie Haerehuka Herewini
Kaiwhakahaere Kaupapa Pūtere Kōiwi
– Manager Repatriation
Te Herekiekie Haerehuka Herewini is of Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Whakaue, Ngāti Apa, Ngā Rauru Kītahi, Whanganui, Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Mahuta, and Ngāti Porou descent. He was raised on Ratana Pā before his whānau (family) moved to Wellington in the 1970s.
Before becoming Manager Repatriation, Te Herekiekie worked in several senior positions, including:
- Senior Adviser at the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology
- Research Manager with the Health Research Council of New Zealand
- National Manager at the New Zealand AIDS Foundation.
Te Herekiekie has a Master of Arts (Honours) in Māori Studies from the University of Auckland.
Te Arikirangi Mamaku
Kaitohutohu Kōiwi Tangata
– Repatriation Programme Coordinator
Te Arikirangi Mamaku is of Ngāti Awa, Tūhoe, Ngāti Makino, Ngā Puhi, and Te Arawa descent. He was born and raised in the small Bay of Plenty township of Te Teko.
Te Arikirangi has a strong background in Māori language and protocols as well as kapa haka (cultural performing arts). He is also interested in the visual arts, history, and foreign languages.
From 2000 to 2003, Te Arikirangi was a dancer for the Kahurangi Māori Dance Company, touring North America. When he returned to Wellington, he worked for a period with Toi Māori Aotearoa – Māori Arts New Zealand.
Before taking on his current role, Te Arikirangi worked for Shell New Zealand as a trainer, subject-matter expert, and customer-service professional.
Amber Kiri Aranui
Pou Rangahau Rautaki Kōiwi
– Repatriation Researcher
Amber Kiri Aranui is of Waikato, Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, and Ngāti Kahungunu descent. She was born and raised in the Hutt Valley, Wellington.
Before joining the Repatriation Team, Amber was part of the Heritage Team at Opus International Consultants. There, she carried out archaeological research and reports throughout the lower North Island and South Island.
Amber has also carried out archaeological assessments and research for the Department of Conservation. She has been part of large-scale excavations in the Wellington, Taranaki, and Bay of Plenty areas.
Amber graduated with a Master of Arts in Archaeology from the University of Auckland. Her 5 years of archaeological experience since then have resulted in strong relationships with several iwi (tribal groups) and hapū (sub-tribes).
Amber has a passion for research, especially about Māori history and the use of fibre in New Zealand and the wider Pacific. She brings this experience and passion to the Repatriation Team.
Louisa Joblin
Kaitūao - Intern
Louisa Joblin is a student at Victoria University of Wellington, where she has completed a BA in History of Art, Italian Language, and European Studies.
In 2012 she will complete honours in Italian and History of Art, along with an LLB. Louisa’s part-time internship with the Karanga Aotearoa Repatriation Programme involves researching köiwi tangata and Toi moko in Italy.
This research work will be the subject of Louisa’s honours thesis, exploring the process of repatriating köiwi tangata from Italy (including a focus on the translation of both English language texts and Māori language concepts into Italian), along with the history behind the presence of Māori remains in Italy.
Louisa hopes to complete a Masters of Art in 2013, expanding on her honours thesis to further explore the artistic, historical and cultural background to the exhibiting and collection of köiwi tangata and Toi moko in Italy.
PREVIOUS TEAM MEMBERS
Coralie O'hara
Kaitūao - Intern (May - December 2011)
Coralie O’Hara is a student at the University of Victoria Wellington, where she is doing her Master of Museum and Heritage Studies. As part of her course, she is doing an internship with the Karanga Aotearoa Repatriation Programme part-time until the end of 2011. During this internship she is focusing on researching the trade of koiwi tangata and international policies on the repatriation of human remains.
Originally from Auckland, Coralie completed her BA (Hons) in anthropology with First Class Honours at the University of Auckland. It was during this degree that she became interested in repatriation because it combines ethics with social and biological anthropology in a specific museum context. The process of repatriation in New Zealand will be the subject of her Master’s dissertation.
Ruben van Mansum
Kaitūao - Intern (April - June 2011)
Ruben van Mansum is a Dutch-born New Zealander, completing an 8-week internship with the Karanga Aoteoroa Repatriation Programme and Te Papa's Art CuratorialCollection Team as part of his Post Graduate Diploma in Curatorship at the University of Canterbury.
He grew up in Nelson and attained a B.A. at the University of Canterbury in 2006. He then spent two years teaching English in Japan on the JET Programme before going to the University of Leiden (The Netherlands) for an M.A in Art History, specialising in early Taishō-era (1912-1926) Western-style Japanese oil painting.
Through his study of Japanese art and culture, Ruben is particularly interested in the field of World Art Theory, of decentralising the Western bias in art history and the implications of this in constructing a cultural identity. Through working in the Repatriation Programme he hopes to gain a deeper understanding of how identity can be shaped by cultural objects from a Māori perspective.
Sarah Fruendt
Kaitūao - Intern ( April - July 2011)
Sarah is a German graduate student of the University of Bonn where she received her Master’s degree in Social Anthropology, Criminal Law and Comparative Literature in February 2011.
During an internship with the Uebersee-Museum in Bremen, Germany, she came across the controversial topic of human remains in museum collections. As a consequence she wrote her final thesis on human remains in Bremen focussing on their provenance and identification but also on their possible future in light of international repatriation movements. To learn more about Mäori and the New Zealand perspective as well as the practical aspects of repatriation she is now doing an internship with Karanga Aotearoa.
In the future she would like to write her PhD on a related topic and help to influence the German museum world towards a more general awareness of other perspectives and the concepts, ideas and wishes that the source communities of their collections might have about the handling of objects and museum representations in general.
Nicola Kiri Smith
Pou Rangahau Rautaki Kōiwi
– Repatriation Researcher (October 2008 - March 2011)
Nicola Kiri Smith is of Taranaki, Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Mahuta, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, and Ngāti Pikiao descent. She was raised in Opunake and lived in Hamilton for several years. She moved to Wellington in November 2007.
Nicola attended the University of Waikato, gaining a Bachelor of Social Sciences (First Class Honours) majoring in sociology and anthropology. Nicola also holds a National Certificate in Māori Culture and New Zealand History, and a National Certificate in Computing. She is a past recipient of a Summer Research Scholarship from the Child Accident Prevention Foundation of New Zealand.
Before joining Te Papa, Nicola worked at the University of Waikato, the Waikato-Maniapoto Māori Land Court, and the Waitangi Tribunal. Her interests include Māori land law, whakapapa (genealogy), Māori history, cultural ownership, and social-science research methodologies.
Julia Ferloni
Kaitūao - Intern (February - March 2011)
Julia Ferloni is a French curator from INP (French National Institute for Heritage), which trains French curators and conservators. She is qualified in Museum Studies, History, History of Arts (majoring in Pacific Arts) and Social Anthropology.
Julia undertook a four week internship with the Pacific Cultures Collections’ team, the Mātauranga Māori Collection Team, as well as Karanga Aotearoa. While at Te Papa she worked on an exhibition of Oceanic (including Mäori) artefacts for Rouen’s Natural History Museum (Normandy, France) with the assistance and guidance of the three Te Papa teams listed above. The museum also possesses an ancient collection of Pasifika and Māori objects, with some collected as early as 1839.
Rouen’s Natural History Museum will be the first French institution to repatriate a Toi Moko.
Laura Kraak
Kaitūao - Intern (July - August 2010)
Laura Kraak is a Dutch student from University College Utrecht. She is undertaking a Liberal Arts and Science Bachelor programme, with a major in the humanities (museum studies, (art) history) and a minor in anthropology. Next year she intends to do a Masters degree in Cultural Heritage/Museum Studies.
Laura undertook a five-week internship with the Karanga Aotearoa Repatriation Programme. During this internship Laura carried out inventory research relating to correspondence with Dutch museums and institutions, while also reviewing a paper on the trade of toi moko in the Bay of Islands.
Laura is especially interested in the concept of repatriation in general, whether it is about human remains, artefacts, photographs, or intangible heritage. The ways source communities deal with repatriation, and the different views on repatriation between European and settler societies, will be the topic of her Bachelor thesis.
Alice Christophe
Kaitūao - Intern (July - August 2010)
Alice Christophe is a French student from the École du Louvre where she is studying History of Arts, majoring in Pacific Arts. She completed her diploma at the École du Louvre, and is starting her Masters of Museology in September 2010, with specific reference to the history of collections and cultural management policies.
Alice undertook a six-week internship at Te Papa, with a focus on its bicultural policy. She is particularly interested in Pacific Arts and Te Papa’s innovative bicultural approaches and models, and is comparing these with European models. She hopes that exchanges and discussions between museums around the world will help to develop a new type of museum, one which respects all peoples and incorporates communities’ voices.
Simon Jean
Kaitūao - Intern (April - June 2009)
Simon Clement Julien Jean Pigne is a French student from Rouen University currently undertaking a Master’s degree in heritage, specialising in Māori culture and the repatriation of human remains from France. Simon is the first student from Rouen to study Māori culture. He completed a history degree from the university in 2008.
The main purpose of this internship was to build relationships between Te Papa and French cultural institutions, while also providing an opportunity for Simon to learn more about Māori culture. Simon sought to advance discussions and negotiations around the Toi moko (preserved tattooed māori head) held at the Natural History Museum in Rouen, France.