Gail Tipa

Gail Tewaru Tipa (born 1959) is a New Zealand resource management planner, and has worked in the environmental sector for thirty years. In 2021 Tipa was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori and environmental management.

Career

Tipa is Māori, and affiliates to Kāi Tahu. She trained as a teacher initially, and then worked for the Electricity Corporation of New Zealand, and then opened an environmental research and management consultancy. Tipa worked on the Kāi Tahu claim and settlement in the 1990s and has been involved in Kāi Tahu governance. Tipa is particularly concerned with freshwater and fisheries management. Tipa has developed new tools to improve the participation of Māori in freshwater management, including the Cultural Health Index and the Cultural Flow Assessment method.

Selected publications