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 and Rereata Makiha, administers Māori Maps. Paul (professor, principal researcher of Takarangi) is now chair of Te Potiki's board of directors. 

The other directors are Dr Christine Woods (associate 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 succeed by Rob Parsons.

An advisory board established by the late Sir Paul Reeves, former governor-general of New Zealand, guided the establishment of Te Potiki National Trust. Sir Mason Durie and then Sir Tumu te Heuheu led this advisory group until 2018; the board is now chaired by Judge Caren Fox with members Renata Tane, Hauiti Hakopa and Rereata Makiha. Ngapare Hopa, Sir Mason and Sir Tumu are co-patrons of the trust.

Hirini Tane, kaiwhakahaere (manager), oversees day-to-day running of Māori Maps. Website development and mapping is maintained by Orbica (originally built by Zest IT). Krzysztof Pfeiffer, an internationally renowned photographer, was responsible for photography of marae. 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
• 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.
• 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.