Arapata Hakiwai

Arapata Tamati Hakiwai is a New Zealand museum curator of Māori collections. He is a principal investigator with Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, a Māori research centre at University of Auckland.

He is the current Kaihautū, or Māori leader, of Te Papa, and was the museum's acting chief executive before the appointment of Rick Ellis.

In 2014 Hakiwai completed a PhD at Victoria University of Wellington with a thesis on the politics of Māori tribal identity.

Career Hakiwai was a teacher at Wellington High School before starting work in the museum sector in 1989.

While at Te Papa he has been involved in the repatriation of a number of Maori (human remains) from overseas institutions, and has also led a project involving the "digital repatriation" of (cultural treasures).

Hakiwai is the co-author of the 2021 volume Hei Taonga Mā Ngā Uri Whakatipu / Treasures for the Rising Generation: The Dominion Museum Ethnological Expeditions 1919–1923.

Personal life Hakiwai is of Ngāti Kahungunu, Rongowhakaata, Ngāti Porou and Ngāi Tahu descent.