Professor Michael Walker is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and the Royal Institute of Navigation in London. He is best known for his research on the existence, capacities and use of the magnetic sense in navigation over long distances. Recently, he has developed research investigating the mechanisms of the lunar and tidal rhythms in marine organisms.

Professor Helen Moewaka Barnes is based out of Massey University and is currently Director of Whāriki and Co-director of the SHORE and Whariki Research Centre. She has worked on research in many areas; more recently relationships between the health of people and the health of environments, sexual coercion, alcohol and youth well-being and identity.

Papaarangi is Tumuaki and Head of Department of Maori Health at the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, New Zealand.  She holds science and medical degrees from the University of Auckland and is a specialist in public health medicine. She has tribal affiliations to Te Rarawa in the Far North of Aotearoa and her research interests include analysing disparities between indigenous and non-indigenous citizens as a means of monitoring government commitment to indigenous rights.

Professor Tapsell is a graduate of the University of Auckland (MA - Social Anthropology) and University of Oxford (DPhil - Museum Ethnography) and has had a distinguished career working within both the Museum community and also academia. He was Tumuaki/Director Māori of Tamaki Paenga Hira/Auckland Museum from 2000-2008, and was appointed as a Professor of Māori Studies in 2009 when he joined the University of Otago in Dunedin.

Maria Bargh (Te Arawa, Ngāti Awa) has a PhD in Political Science and International Relations from the Australian National University. She is a Senior Lecturer in Māori Studies at Victoria University and editor of Māori and Parliament (Huia Publishers, 2010) and Resistance: an Indigenous Response to Neoliberalism(Huia Publishers, 2007).

Matiu's PhD research is on the factors that influence the development of proficiency in te reo Māori amongst adult learners. He also researches and has published on Māori Academic development.

Khylee is from the iwi of Te Roroa/Ngapuhi and Ngati Porou. She teaches Criminal Law, Advanced Criminal Law and Youth Justice. Her research interests lie within those fields; in particular Māori and the criminal justice system, tikanga Māori and the law, restorative justice and alternative dispute resolution, Māori women and the law, indigenous peoples and the law.

Dr Pauline Harris is the Chairperson of the SMART board and a postdoctoral researcher at Victoria University. Her research involves searching for extra-solar planets.

Linda Waimarie Nikora is co-director of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga and a Professor of Indigenous Studies at Te Wānanga o Waipapa, the University of Auckland. She was previously Professor of Psychology and Director of the Maori & Psychology Research Unit at the University of Waikato. Her specialities are in in community psychology, applied social psychology, ethnopsychology and Maori development.