THE EXHIBITION TEAM

Concept leader	Dr. Rodney Wilson
Project manager	Graham Soughtton
In-house Curators	Prof. Roger Neich	Fuli Pereira
Expert Advisors	Sir Tom Davis	Cook Islands
	Prof. Ben Finney*	University of Hawaii
	Prof. Kerry Howe*	Massey University
	Prof. Michiko Intoh	National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka
	Prof. Geoff Irwin*	University of Auckland
	Prof. Peter Jackson	University of Canterbury
	Dr. Sam Lowe*	Martha’s Vineyard
	Dr. Peter Matthews*	National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka
	Dr. Rawiri Taonui*	University of Canterbury
	* exhibition curators and book authors
Exhibition Production Manager	Max Riksen

BIOGRAPHIES

Rodney Wilson, Director, Auckland Museum

Dr Rodney Wilson has been Director of the Auckland War Memorial Museum for 12 years and before that was the first Director of the New Zealand National Maritime Museum. He has also been Director of the National Gallery of Victoria Melbourne, the Auckland City Art Gallery and the Robert McDougall Art Gallery Christchurch. He is a past Trustee of the Len Lye Foundation, and past Governor of “Dromkeen” Children’s Literature Centre Melbourne. A passionate champion of Pacific history and culture, he was instrumental in the conception and development of the Vaka Moana exhibition.

Roger Neich, Curator of Ethnology

Roger Neich is Curator of Ethnology at Auckland Museum and Professor of Anthropology at the University of Auckland. He has undertaken extensive field work in New Zealand and the Pacific, focusing on ethnic arts and material culture. Professor Neich has curated a number of exhibitions for Auckland Museum and is an internationally recognised authority on Pacific culture. His publications include Material Culture of Western Samoa (1985), Painted Histories: Early Maori Figurative Painting (1993) and Carved Histories: Rotorua Ngati Tarawhai Woodcarving (2002).

Fuli Pereira, Curator of the Pacific Collection

Fuli Pereira has a strong interest in both the heritage arts of the Pacific and the fine arts as practiced in New Zealand by contemporary Pacific artists. One result of Fuli Pereira’s interest has been an involvement with Creative New Zealand and the Sesquicentennial Oral History Board. Her publications include Speaking in Colour (1997), Pacific Art Niu Sila: The Pacific Dimension of Contemporary New Zealand Art (2002) with Sean Mallon, and with Roger Neich, Pacific Jewellery and Adornment (2004).

Biographies for external curators are available on request.