Whatarangi Winiata has been a champion of Māori self-determination for most of his life, who even as a young child supposed he could be a doctor or lawyer at a time when Māori were not encouraged to pursue tertiary education.

In 1957 he graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce from Victoria University, and followed that with an MBA and PhD completed at the University of Michigan. He married Francie Aratema (Ngāti Whakaue, Ngāti Awa) in 1961, and they had four children who were born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, Vancouver, British Columbia and Canada. By 1975 the family had returned home to New Zealand, and amidst the general climate of Māori political activism, embarked on a project of restoration and revival of their marae - Ngātokowaru in Levin. Themes of self-determination, economic independence and cultural revitalization were formulated by Whatarangi into a 25 year tribal developmental plan known as "Whakatupuranga Rua Mano: Generation 2000." The purpose being to advance iwi and hapū economically, socially and educationally culminating in the establishment of Te Wānanga-o-Raukawa in 1981.

Whatarangi served as Tūmuaki for Te Wānanga-o-Raukawa from 1994-2007. His advocacy for Māori political representation was translated into a bi-cultural model of constitutional reform, adopted by the Anglican Church of New Zealand in its administrative arrangements. Whatarangi has been appointed to many boards and organizations and has been instrumental in progressing a number of key Treaty of Waitangi claims against the New Zealand Government including the Fisheries Claim, Radio Spectrum, Broadcasting and others. Whatarangi continues to progress aspirations of Māori political self-determination as the President of the Māori Party.

Karaitiana Taiuru has been a pioneer and a champion of Māori Software and Internet developments and advancements for the past 14 years.
Karaitiana led the successful creation of the world's first indigenous domain name .maori.nz and is presently leading an international effort to create indigenous representation in international domain names. He also moderates the only tribal domain .iwi.nz.

He spent several years developing innovative language revitalisation technologies for Ngāi Tahu where the tribe gained international and national recognition for the achievements. Prior to Ngāi Tahu, Karaitiana lobbied for macron standards and was responsible for the some of earliest Māori language keyboards and editing tools many of which are still in use today.
He has represented Māori and New Zealand on many ICT governance boards including Māori Internet Society, The worlds Internet governing body ICANN, and the United Nations.

More complete details and online biography about Mr Karaitiana Taiuru can be accessed from http://www.taiuru.maori.nz where his blog and full biography can be accessed.

Mason Durie is a member of the Rangitane, Ngāti Kauwhata, and Ngāti Raukawa tribes. He has a medical background as a specialist psychiatrist.

From 1986-1988 he was a Commissioner on the Royal Commission on Social Policy and was appointed to the chair in Māori Studies at Massey University in 1988. He is currently Professor of Māori Research and Development and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Māori) at Massey University. He chairs Te Kahui Amokura, the Māori Standing Committee of NZVCC and leads the Guardians Group of Secondary Futures. In addition he is on the governing body of Te Wānanga o Raukawa, a tribal tertiary education institution based at Ōtaki.

Dr. Loriene Roy is Professor in the School of Information, The University of Texas at Austin. She is Anishinabe, enrolled on the White Earth Reservation, a member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. She was elected to serve as the 2007-2008 President of the American Library Association.

You can find Loriene's full bio on her personal website.