Ngarino Ellis

Ngarino Ellis is a New Zealand academic and author. She is one of only a few in her field of Māori art history and an educator. She is a professor at the University of Auckland. Her first book published in 2016 is titled A Whakapapa of Tradition: One Hundred Years of Ngāti Porou Carving 1830-1930 with photography by Natalie Robertson. It won the Judith Binney Best First Book at the Ockham Book Awards in 2016. Her latest book, Toi Te Mana. An Indigenous History of Maori Art, written with Deidre Brown and Jonathan Mane-Wheoki, won the Illustrated Non-Fiction Award for the Ockhams, New Zealand's national book awards in 2025.

Background and academic career

Ellis is Māori and affiliates with the iwi Ngapuhi from the Bay of Islands, Northland and Ngāti Porou from the East Cape.

Ellis started teaching a new postgraduate Museums and Cultural Heritage course at the University of Auckland in 2013.

She has won several awards for teaching including an award at the 2019 New Zealand’s Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards where Ako Aotearoa recognised her as a role model in her teaching for her Kaupapa Māori (Māori cultural) approaches and influencing both staff and students alike.

She has received three Marsden Grants from the Royal Society Te Apārangi.

Selected works

Published works and research

A Whakapapa of Tradition: One Hundred Years of Ngāti Porou Carving 1830-1930 (2016), with photography by Natalie Robertson Nga Taonga o Wharawhara: The World of Maori Body Adornment (2020-3) Te Puna: Maori Art from Te Tai Tokerau, Northland Toi Te Mana: An Indigenous History of Maori Art,'' (2024) co-authored with Deidre Brown and Jonathan Mane-Wheoki