Consortium Representatives

Our Consortium representatives have a broad range of experience in the cultural and heritage, government and commercial sectors. As project board members they offer us essential guidance and support.

Consortium Representatives

Paul Millar

Professor Paul Millar is the Head of the University of Canterbury's School of Humanities. He researches and teaches in the areas of New Zealand Literature and Literary Biography, and has published extensively on the poetry of James K. Baxter. His most recent book is the co-authored study The Snake-Haired Muse: James K. Baxter and Classical Mythology (VUP, 2011), and his acclaimed literary biography No Fretful Sleeper: A Life of Bill Pearson (AUP, 2010) was a finalist in the New Zealand Post Book Awards. Millar has twice judged the New Zealand Book Awards, and in 2000 he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to teach and research at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Millar's long association with digital humanities projects dates back to 2001 when he co-founded the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre (www.nzetc.org).

Neill Atkinson

Neill Atkinson is Chief Historian at the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, Wellington. After studying at Auckland University, he worked on the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography project before joining the Ministry's History Group in 2002. Neill's historical interests focus on the social history of transport, the interwar period, New Zealand politics and government, and the labour movement. He is the author of six books and in recent years has taken a leading role in new media projects, notably the Ministry's NZHistory.net.nz and 28MaoriBattalion.org.nz websites. From 2007 to 2010 he was President of the Professional Historians' Association of New Zealand/Aotearoa (PHANZA).

Mike Shatford

Mike Shatford is the General Manager Communications and Engagement for the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority. He was a serving military infantry officer for 21 years holding a variety of military leadership roles in New Zealand and overseas. He is a graduate of the Australian Defence Force Academy and Royal Military College, Duntroon in Canberra Australia. Prior to taking up his appointment with CERA he was General Manager Communications with the Ministry of Social Development based in Wellington and before then was Director of Public Relations for the New Zealand Defence Force.

Carolyn Robertson

Carolyn Robertson is Libraries and Information Manager, Christchurch City Libraries. She has held this position since January 2005. Prior to her career in public libraries, Carolyn worked in tertiary and special libraries, including 10 years as Information Services Librarian at the University of Canterbury and 3 years as Chief Librarian of the Canterbury Medical Library.

Carolyn recently completed her term as President of LIANZA (The Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa) and is now serving her last year on the Executive Council as Immediate Past President. She is also a registered member of LIANZA and was awarded an Associateship in 2001. Carolyn is a member of the following national bodies:

  • Te Puna Strategic Advisory Committee (TPSAC) representing large public libraries
  • Association of Public Library Managers (APLM)
  • Strategic Advisory Forum to the National Librarian (term completed June 2011)
  • IFLA Metropolitan Libraries Section - Strategic Planning Committee (from August 2011)

Dr Claudia Orange DNZM OBE

Claudia Orange is Collections and Research Group Director at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. She leads the museum's research and is responsible for the curatorial and collection management functions in the main collections areas - Art (including photography), History, Pacific Cultures, Matauranga Maori and Natural Environment.

Claudia previously held the position of Te Papa's Director of History and Pacific Cultures for five years. Prior to coming to Te Papa she was General Editor of the multi-volume government project Dictionary of New Zealand Biography (1990 - 2003), adding images and moving the content on-line in 2002. As inaugural staff from 1985, her special responsibility focused on biographies on women and Maori, the latter being translated and published in five Maori-language volumes as Nga Tangata Taumata Rau. As Chief Historian at the Department of Internal Affairs (1997-2000), she lead a team that researched and produced histories of government departments. She has published widely in New Zealand history, on race relations and on the Treaty of Waitangi.

Te Maire Tau

Associate Professor Te Maire Tau is Director of the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre at the University of Canterbury. Te Maire's research interests include the philosophy of knowledge, oral traditions, myth, indigenous development and history. He has a number of book and article publications in these areas.

Early in his career Te Maire played an important role in the Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu Claim as a leading historical researcher. He then went on to represent Ngai Tūāhuriri as a Director on the tribal council. He is also a former Director of Te Tapuae o Rehua, a partnership organisation established to forge better educational outcomes for Māori.

Chris Adam

Chris has been Archives New Zealand's Regional Archivist in Christchurch since the office was established in 1984. He has been actively involved in the development of electronic finding aids since the late 1980s and helped develop the organisation's first electronic records policy in the early 1990s. From 2010 to 2012 he represented Archives on the board of the National Digital Forum.

Frank Stark

Frank has been the Chief Executive of the New Zealand Film Archive Ngā Kaitiaki O Ngā Taonga Whitiāhua since 1993. Prior to that, he worked as a producer, cultural consultant, curator and screenwriter. He established the Creative Film and Video Fund for the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council after working as a feature writer, columnist and arts editor for the New Zealand Listener. In 1980 he founded 100m2, New Zealand's first arts space.

Sarah Murray

Sarah Murray is Curator Human History and Curatorial Manager at Canterbury Museum, Christchurch and Adjunct Fellow in History at the University of Canterbury. She has been heavily involved in the Museum’s earthquake collecting and interpretation, acting as principal curator for Quake City, Canterbury Quakes and Beyond the Cordon: New Zealand Police Photographers. She also developed the content for the Red Bus Red Zone and Rebuild tours. Over her nine years at Canterbury Museum, Sarah has delivered over twenty exhibitions including such favourites as Fred and Myrtle’s Paua Shell House and Rise: Street Art. Her publications have focused on the history of New Zealand during the First World War, sport and identity while her current research project relates to collecting and exhibiting the Canterbury earthquakes.