Mark W. Allen is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He has a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California Los Angeles, His research interests include the archaeology of warfare, complex pre-state societies, and hunter-gatherers. He has conducted fieldwork in Kentucky, Illinois, California, the Great Basin, Guatemala, Fiji, New Zealand, Hawai’i, and New Mexico. His previous employment includes teaching stints at UCLA and Pomona College, and he served as the archaeologist at the United States Army’s National Training Center at Fort Irwin in the Mojave Desert. He has co-edited The Archaeology of Warfare: Prehistories of Raiding and Conquest (Arkush and Allen 2006, University Press of Florida); Burnt Corn Pueblo: Conflict and Conflagration in the Galisteo Basin, A.D. 1250-1325 (Snead and Allen 2010, Anthropological Papers of the University of Arizona); and Violence and Warfare Among Hunter Gatherers which garnered a Choice Book Award (Allen and Jones, 2014, Left Coast Press). He is also the author of Living on the Edge: The Archaeology of Two Western Mojave Desert Landscapes (2013, Maturango Museum Press). Allen served as President of the Society for California Archaeology from 2008-2009, and as editor of the society’s peer review journal California Archaeology from 2019 to 2021. He also received the society’s Baumhoff Award for Special Achievement in 2018.Ngahiwi Tomoana is of Ngāti Hawea, Ngāti Hori, and Samoan descent. He served as Chair of Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated for 26 years, the longest tenure of any iwi chair in Aotearoa. He has held numerous positions in the Hawke’s Bay region over his distinguished career of public service, including: Chair of Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga (1980-1996), Deputy Commissioner and Deputy Chair of the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board, Executive Board Member for the New Zealand China Council, Forum Member of the New Zealand Police Commissioner’s Māori Focus Forum, Chair of the Māori Economic Development Advisory Board, Board Member for the Pacific Cooperation Foundation, and leading a Māori-China engagement strategy as part of the New Zealand Minister of Māori Affairs Māori Economic Taskforce. He also has been a global leader in the movement to develop indigenous trade links through the Americas, the Middle East, Asia, and the Pacific. In 2021 he convened Te Aratini, a festival of tribal ideas, as part of the first ever involvement of indigenous peoples in the international economic expo held in Dubai. Ngahiwi has a strong background in the seafood industry. He has taken a lead in promoting Māori aquaculture for the wider Māori community and his iwi and organized the first Māori Fisheries Conference held in Napier in 2006. He has previously been a Director of Te Ohu Kaimoana Trust and Deputy Chair of the Wai Māori Trust, a division of Te Ohu Kaimoana. Ngahiwi played a significant role through the Treaty Tribes Coalition in the discussions over the development of the fisheries allocation method. Ngahiwi is passionate about the rights of Māori and other indigenous peoples to their estates and fisheries and represents indigenous peoples’ views at various forums including the International Whaling Commission and World Indigenous Business Forums.Stella August is pursuing a Master of Archaeological Practice degree from the University of Otago, with the objective of protecting cultural sites from damage or destruction. She also has a BSc and MSc in Marine Science from the University of Waikato. Her research investigates the environmental factors that influence the upstream migration of glass eels into the Tukituki River, a significant awa (river) to many Māori of Hawkes Bay. Her research has been supported by her iwi, the tribe Ngāti Kahungunu under the leadership of the Chairman, Ngahiwi Tomoana. He recognized the importance of having Māori specialists such as marine and freshwater biologists, geneticists and environmental planners. As a research assistant at the University of Waikato, Stella conducted field surveys and laboratory experiments on fauna and sediment from the marine environment. While at the Ministry of Fisheries, a liaison role between the three sectors in the fishing industry aided fisheries management, facilitated awareness and education and improved consultation. Stella is the primary author of one article: August, S.M. and Hicks, B.J., 2008. Water temperature and upstream migration of glass eels in New Zealand: implications of climate change. Environmental Biology of Fishes, 81(2), pp. 195-205. Wikitoria Moore recently completed a Master of Archaeological Practice degree from the University of Otago. She also has a Master in Social Sciences (majoring in Geography) from the University of Waikato in New Zealand, and her research focused on Māori bodily rituals and the impacts of colonization on those bodily rituals, revealing a ‘non-western’ perspective on exclusion. Wikitoria worked at the University of Waikato as a research assistant and focused on gathering information for hapū/ iwi Treaty of Waitangi claims. She has also done work on Hawke's Bay ancestral lands and has been a Kairakau Lands Trust (KLT) Trustee for the last 15 years. Despite many adversities, the Trust was able to farm its land in 2021, after more than 150 years of continual leasing. Wikitoria also worked for Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga, a Māori organization in Hastings focusing on Māori health and well-being. Wikitoria has one publication to date based on her master's research: August, W., 2005. Māori women: Bodies, spaces, sacredness and mana. New Zealand Geographer, 61(2), pp.117-123.
