Expertise

Dr Hirini Kaa (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Kahungunu, Rongowhakaata) comes from a whānau with a remarkable tradition of scholarship, ministry, and public service. He is an historian, an ordained Anglican minister, a television presenter, and one of the most thoughtful and compelling public intellectuals in Aotearoa.

His book Te Hāhi Mihinare: The Māori Anglican Church, published by Bridget Williams Books in 2020, is a landmark work. It traces the birth, growth, and enduring life of the Māori Anglican Church from the arrival of English missionaries in 1814 through to the present day, exploring how iwi adapted, transformed, and ultimately made Christianity their own. It is a book that illuminates the broader history of how Māori have engaged with and reshaped colonial institutions, and it has been widely praised as essential reading for anyone seeking to understand Aotearoa’s past and present. His PhD thesis, He Ngākau Hou: Te Hāhi Mihinare and the Renegotiation of Mātauranga, c.1800–1992, laid the foundations for that work.

Hirini has also been a significant presence on screen, presenting, researching, and co-writing the seven-part historical documentary series The Prophets for Māori Television, which explored  Māori prophetic movements through an Anglican lens. He has worked across the  social services sector, for the Anglican Church, and for his iwi, and has led  transformative curriculum work at the University of Auckland, where his Ako Arts programme embedded mātauranga Māori and Pacific values across the Faculty of Arts. He is regularly sought out as a commentator across media on history, religion, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and the future shape of Aotearoa. He writes and speaks across the intersections of faith, history, colonisation, and identity. Based at the Māngere campus, we look forward to welcoming him to the team.