Merata Kawharu is a New Zealand MÃÂori writer and academic. She has been a member of government boards and committees including the New Zealand Historic Places Trust and the MÃÂori Heritage Council, the New Zealand Geographic Board and advisor to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, the Ministry of MÃÂori Development, the Climate Change Commission and the Ministry for the Environment. Her doctoral research was on the concept of kaitiakitanga (or guardianship) within MÃÂori culture and law. She has led large science programmes on climate adaptation, food economies and entrepreneurship models, looking at how western science, technology and MÃÂori knowledge systems and science can be brought together with community leadership to address pressing environmental, social or economic challenges.
In January 2024, she was appointed Deputy Vice Chancellor MÃÂori at Lincoln University.
In 2025 Kawharu was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society Te ApÃÂrangi.
Affiliating to the NgÃÂti WhÃÂtua and NgÃÂpuhi iwi, she is the daughter of Sir Hugh Kawharu.
After a Rhodes Scholarship took her to Oxford University for a PhD in anthropology, Kawharu returned to the New Zealand to posts at the universities of Auckland and Otago and roles with the United Nations, UNESCO, NZ Historic Places Trust Board and MÃÂori Heritage Council. She is a principal investigator at NgÃÂ Pae o te MÃÂramatanga.
Kawharu is a member of the New Zealand Geographic Board.
In the 2012 New Year Honours, Kawharu was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to MÃÂori education.
In March 2025 Kawharu was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society Te ApÃÂrangi "for her contribution to developing indigenous entrepreneurship theory".