Dr Pouroto Ngaropo, MNZM, JP, Ariki Taiōpuru of Te Tāwera-Hapū-o-Ngāti Awa-ki-Te Awa-o-te-Atua is a prominent Māori cultural leader, historian, educator, and governance expert who has dedicated his life to promoting te ao Māori not only to his own Ngāti Awa people in the Whakatāne region but to communities throughout Aotearoa New Zealand.
For more than three decades, he has worked across education, local government, health, broadcasting, and iwi and hapū affairs to advance Māori aspirations and build stronger relationships between Māori and public institutions. He is well known as a kaumātua, a tohunga and a strategist with a career that reflects a consistent commitment to ensuring Māori language, culture, and leadership remain central to contemporary New Zealand society.
Pouroto has been integral to re-establishing his own hapū Te Tāwera back on confiscated land and building Iramoko Marae at Manawahē as a tūrangawaewae for his people. These attributes make him one of this country’s most significant cultural leaders and 21st century innovators.
To some he is an enigma, to others he is controversial. This biography tells the story of Pouroto Ngaropo and his journey to live out traditional Māori leadership in a modern world.