Margaret Kawharu

Margaret is an experienced strategic liaison professional with strong leadership and relationship- building skills. Her roles have been mainly in facilitation, co-ordination and negotiation, with a strong focus on cross-cultural understanding and advocacy for indigenous self-determination. For the last thirty years, she has been dedicated to progressing Treaty of Waitangi claims to post-settlement.

A conceptual and strategic thinker, with excellent writing and photographic skills, Margaret is keen on listening and learning from other people and co-creating innovative pathways forward. She has served as a trustee on the Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara post-settlement governance board and has been a director on its commercial subsidiary since 2013.

A career highlight has been to establish the commercial activities of the Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara settlement alongside a focused, principled and collegial team of fellow directors and executives. These include financial investments, property and land development, forestry, licensing the use of iwi-owned land to third parties, and the development of joint ventures. Equally significant is the way the commercial arm has employed whānau, protected wāhi tapu and endangered species, steadily added value to the tribal estate, diversified its portfolio, so it is now poised to establish an energy farm, which will go a considerable way to enabling the governing board to invest in whānau and hapū.

Margaret will liaise with staff at the Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies during her Adjunct appointment to assist emerging researchers in community-oriented projects.