Tahu Kukutai (Ngāti Tīpā, Ngati Mahanga, Ngāti Kinohaku, Te Aupouri) is Professor of demography at the National Institute of Demographic and Economic Analysis where she leads the research programme Te Para One E Tū Mai Nei: Māori and indigenous futures. Her current research focuses on iwi demography and data sovereignty. She is PI on a Marsden-funded project “Counting our tūpuna”, working alongside Ngāti Tiipa to develop their own whakapapa database and multimedia digital archive.
Tahu is a founding member of the Māori Data Sovereignty Network Te Mana Raraunga and the Global Indigenous Data Alliance (GIDA). She co-edited the landmark book Indigenous data sovereignty: toward an agenda, and is currently co-editing Indigenous data sovereignty and policy (Routledge) and the Handbook of Indigenous sociology (Oxford). Tahu is a member of the Census 2018 External Data Quality Panel, the Chief Science Advisor Forum and the Iwi (Tribal) Chairs Forum – Data Leadership Group.