Paora/Paul Tapsell is a local tribal member of the Arawa people of the Bay of Plenty. He was raised on the ancestral gardens of his grandparents, named Te Whatitiripataihi (the spine tingling thunderclap signaling time for autumn/fall harvest). This garden is part of a wider volcanic plateau forest-scape named Mamaku and has been part of Paul’s ancestry for over 16 generations.
He has been a senior lecturer in Museums and Cultural Heritage at University of Auckland; Dean, Professor and Chair of Māori Studies at University of Otago; and the Director and Professor of the new Indigenous Studies Program at University of Melbourne. Recently Paul became Principal at Takarangi Research, leading five New Zealand–Australian socially responsible research projects covering climate change and urban impact on Indigenous production and consumption systems, twenty-first century reestablishment of food and water sovereignty by tribal marae, and the return of ancestral remains and associated archives to home communities. His latest research interest focuses on the reimagining of pre-colonial Pacific exploration, settlement and trade from a pre-Indigenous perspective.
Outside of his professional life, he has found time to balance fatherhood, sports, voluntary and tribal duties, as well as establishing Maorimaps.com, digitally relinking thousands of disconnected Māori to their tribal home communities.