Ms. Tui Shortland
Director, Pacific Indigenous and Local Knowledge Centre of Distinction at Te Kāpehu Whetū, Aotearoa, New Zealand
Ms. Tui Shortland is the Director of Te Kopu, Pacific Indigenous and Local Knowledge Centre, advocating for the rights of indigenous peoples of the Pacific to promote and protect the integrity of Mother Earth and the appropriate use of traditional knowledge to inform global decisions. Te Kopu has traditional knowledge holders and expert members from indigenous peoples organisations from throughout the Pacific, including Maluku, Samoa, West Papua, Papua New Guinea, Hawaii, the Cook Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Fiji, Kiribati, Pohnpei, and the Solomon Islands. Ms. Shortland has led the initiation of coastal marine communities to develop their cultural monitoring frameworks to assess the health of their marine territories. Her marine specialties also include customary practices and research of marine mammals and migratory species.