| Arapata Tamati Hakiwai | |
| Alma Mater: | Victoria University of Wellington |
| Thesis Title: | Te Toi Whakairo O Ngāti Kahungunu: The Carving Traditions of Ngāti Kahungunu |
| Thesis Url: | http://restrictedarchive.vuw.ac.nz.helicon.vuw.ac.nz/handle/123456789/1831 |
| Thesis Year: | 2003 |
Arapata Tamati Hakiwai is a New Zealand museum curator of Māori collections. He is a principal investigator with Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, a Māori research centre at University of Auckland.[1]
He is the current Kaihautū, or Māori leader, of Te Papa, and was the museum's acting chief executive before the appointment of Rick Ellis.[2] [3]
In 2014 Hakiwai completed a PhD at Victoria University of Wellington with a thesis on the politics of Māori tribal identity.[4]
Hakiwai was a teacher at Wellington High School before starting work in the museum sector in 1989.[5]
While at Te Papa he has been involved in the repatriation of a number of Maori Maori: kōiwi tangata (human remains) from overseas institutions, and has also led a project involving the "digital repatriation" of Maori: taonga (cultural treasures).[3] [5]
Hakiwai is of Ngāti Kahungunu, Rongowhakaata, Ngāti Porou and Ngāi Tahu descent.