Ngarino Ellis
Ngarino Ellis (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Porou) is a Professor in Art History at Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland. Her latest book Toi Te Mana: An Indigenous History of Māori Art (2024), co-written with Deidre Brown and Jonathan Mane-Wheoki, won the Bookhub Award for Illustrated Non-fiction at the 2025 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Her monograph A Whakapapa of Tradition: 100 Years of Ngāti Porou Carving, 1830–1930 (Auckland University Press, 2016) won several awards including the Judith Binney Best First Book at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards and Best Māori Art Book at the Ngā Kupu Ora Awards: Celebrating Māori Books and Journalism, 2017. She co-edited Te Puna: Māori Art from Te Tai Tokerau / Northland (Reed, 2007) with Deidre Brown, and Te Ata: Māori Art from the East Coast, New Zealand (Reed, 2002) with Witi Ihimaera. Ngarino has also collaborated as a curator, including Whakawhanaungatanga: Connecting People and Taonga (Linden Museum, Stuttgart, 2022–24) with Dougal Austin, Awhina Tamarapa and Justine Treadwell, and Pūrangiaho: Seeing Clearly (Auckland Art Gallery, 2001) with Ngahiraka Mason and Kahutoi Te Kanawa.
2026 festival sessions
A history of Māori Art
Ngarino Ellis in conversation with Dr Peter Meihana
11.30am-12.30pm, Saturday 25 July, Whitehaven Theatre Marlborough, $25
Hear about the art, stories, and creative history of Aotearoa New Zealand with leading Māori art historian Ngarino Ellis. Ngarino discusses her work including Toi Te Mana: An Indigenous History of Māori Art, the landmark book she co-wrote with Deidre Brown and the late Jonathan Mane-Wheoki. Twelve years in the making, the book spans 800 years of Māori artistic expression and won the Illustrated Non-Fiction Award at the 2025 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Ngarino shares insights from years of research and collaboration, offering an accessible way to better understand the creativity, history, and connection to place that shape toi Māori across Aotearoa.
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