About Us

Māori Maps helps to connect Māori descendants with their marae, and enable visitors to make appropriate contact with these centres of culture - in particular, linking Māori youth with their ancestral identity.
Te Potiki National Trust, a charitable company, founded in 2007 by Dr Paul Tapsell, administers Māori Maps. Paul is a professor at Australian National University and Lincoln University (NZ) as well as a Principal of Takarangi. He remains the founding chair of Te Potiki's board of directors.

The other directors are Dr Christine Woods (professor, Faculty of Business & Economics at the University of Auckland), Dr Dee Sciascia (senior research officer, AUT University), Paul Voigt (business consultant, Nikau Pacific). Long serving kaihautū (executive director) Peter Dowling (publisher, Oratia Media) stepped down late 2022, and is succeeded by Rob Parsons.

Our Advisory Board was first chaired by the late Sir Paul Reeves, former governor-general of New Zealand, who guided the establishment of Te Potiki National Trust. Thereafter, Sir Mason Durie and then Sir Tumu te Heuheu led the Advisory Board until 2018 when Judge Caren Fox took over as Chair. Others members are Hauiti Hakopa, Rereata Makiha, Ngapare Hopa (Patron), Sir Mason (Patron), Sir Tumu (Patron) and until his recent passing, Renata Tane.

Since 2015 Hirini Tane, kaiwhakahaere (manager), has assist the Directors by overseeing day-to-day running of Māori Maps. Website development and mapping is maintained by MadeCurious (originally built by Zest IT, then Orbica). Krzysztof Pfeiffer, an internationally renowned photographer, was jointly responsible for the initial photography and curation of the 780 marae on Maorimaps.com. Original media and content generation of the original site was overseen by Michael Hennessy.

Using this site

Marae are the centres of Māori identity, marking the home ground and mana of hapū (kin groups) and whānau (families). A marae is both a physical and spiritual location, a collection of buildings and an anchoring to the land, a place where people meet and the community of related people itself.

Use Māori Maps to:

• Search marae by name, hapū, iwi, region
• Click through to view marae page containing a selection of photos, address and contact details, and key information
• Get directions to the marae
• [STILL TO COME] Toggle Māori Land Block layer in the top right box to access the Māori Land Online website (Māori Land Court), which applies to all remaining Māori land blocks.
• [STILL TO COME] Search whenua near a marae, click to find block names and details, and access hyperlinks to Māori Land Online

Please contact marae directly with any enquiries, including for accommodation; Māori Maps does not handle marae bookings, and any contact information we have is displayed on the site.