Team Leader, Memorials & Taonga, Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage

My job is to manage a team that looks after a range of legislation (the Protected Objects Act 1975 and the Flags, Emblems and Names Protection Act) and funding schemes (the Regional Culture and Heritage Fund, Heritage EQUIP and the Commemorating Waitangi Day Fund). I joined the Ministry in 2008 as a historian and over the years have written, resourced and edited content on the suite of websites the Ministry's Research and Publishing Group has responsibility for, in particular the nzhistory.net.nz site. I also co-authored a book on New Zealand’s First World War Heritage with my colleague Tim Shoebridge (published by Exisle Publishing in April 2015).

I completed my Masters of Museum and Heritage Studies at Victoria University of Wellington in 2005. Prior to joining the History Group I worked at the New Zealand Historic Places Trust (now Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga) registering historic places and areas in the Central Region. I have also worked within the policy team at the National Library of New Zealand on the New Zealand Digital Content Strategy.