Ella Henry

Ella Yvette Henry (born 1954) is a New Zealand Māori academic, affiliated with Ngātikahu ki Whangaroa, Ngāti Kuri, and Te Rārawa iwi. In June 2022 she was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for services to Māori, education and media. As of 2022 she is a full professor in the business school at Auckland University of Technology, specialising in Māori media.

Academic career Henry was born in 1954 in Kaitaia. She was expelled from school at the age of 15, but when she got to university she found out "[she] wasn't as stupid as [she] thought [she] was". Henry has a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Philosophy from the University of Auckland. In 2012 she completed a PhD titled Te Wairua Auaha: emancipatory Māori entrepreneurship in screen production at Auckland University of Technology, supervised by Pare Keiha and Charles Crothers.

In 1990 she was president of the Auckland University Students' Association. An active member of the NewLabour Party, she was the party's education spokesperson and stood in the seat of at the 1990 general election.

From 2002 to 2004, Henry was Head of Puukenga School of Māori Education at Unitec Institute of Technology, before moving to the Auckland University of Technology, where she is Director of Māori Advancement. She was promoted to full professor in 2022.

Henry has a background in the screen industry, having been a writer, actor, commentator and presenter. Between 2004 and 2007 she was the host of the Whakaata Māori show called Ask your Aunties, and played the occasional character of Auntie Kuini on Shortland Street. She helped to establish Nga Aho Whakaari (the Association of Māori in Screen Production), and was then appointed as chair. Henry has been a Treaty negotiator for Ngātikahu ki Whangaroa iwi and chaired the Post-Settlement Governance Entity until 2019.

Selected works