Conal McCarthy is Director of the Museum & Heritage Studies programme at the Stout Research Centre, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. In his professional museum career he has worked in collections, exhibitions, education, interpretation, governance and curatorial roles. He has published widely on museum history, theory and practice, including the booksExhibiting MÄori(2007),Museums and Maori(2011), andMuseum Practice(2015), volume 2 ofThe International Handbooks of Museum Studies(Wiley Blackwell). In 2018 he published the history of Te Papa, and in 2019Curatopia: Museums and the future ofresearch (co-edited with Philipp Schorch, Manchester University Press).

Michelle Horwood is a Teaching Fellow in Museum and Heritage Studies programme at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. She has an academic background in anthropology, archaeology and museum studies, and has worked at NgÄ Taonga Sound & Vision, Aotearoa New Zealand&s national audio visiual archive, as well as Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga and Whanganui Rgional Museum. Her doctoral research, focusing upon building relationships between indigenous communities and museums, was published in the Routledge Museums in Focus series in 2019,Sharing Authority in the Museum: Distributed Objects, Reassembled Relationships.

Awhina Tamarapa (NgÄti Kahungunu, NgÄti Ruanui and NgÄti Pikiao), an experienced museum curator, researcher, consultant and writer, is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Stout Research Centre at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. She has a PhD in Museum and Heritage Studies examining taonga kÄkahu (cloaks and other textiles) in museum collections and the ongoing maintenance and revitalisation of weaving in the community. She has curated major exhibitions at Te Papa, and edited accompanying catalogues. In 2018 she was awarded the Mina McKenzie award by Museums Aotearoa.

Kolokesa UafÄ MÄhina-Tuai, MNZM is a cultural champion and mediator, curator and writer. She is of Tongan heritage with ancestral links to SÄmoa and Fiji. Kolokesa was curator of Moana Oceania cultures at Te Papa (2004-2008) and TÄmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum (2013-2017). She currently works with Toluma‘anave Barbara Makuati-Afitu, of Samoan heritage, for Lagi-Maama Academy and Consultancy,  an educational and cultural organisation they co-founded in 2018. In 2022 Kolokesa was awarded the honour of Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit "For services to cultures and the arts."