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, co-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, the Apollo Book of the Year 2025, and two awards from the Art Association of Australia and New Zealand: Best Book, and Best Writing by Maori and Pasifika writer.

Ellis is Māori and affiliates with the iwi Ngapuhi from the Bay of Islands, Northland and Ngāti Porou from the East Cape.^[1] She is the daughter of artists Robert Ellis and Elizabeth Ellis, and twin sister of district court judge Hana Ellis. She is married with three children.

Ellis has two undergraduate degrees from the University of Auckland, Law and Art History (1988-1992) and was admitted to the Bar later in 1993. She practiced law in central Auckland for a short time, and began a masters, completing a Master of Arts in Art History from the University of Auckland in 1996. Her thesis entitled Hoe Whakairo, 1769-1850 focused on Māori carved and painted paddles. She wrote her PhD in Art History from 1997 - 2012, initially enrolled in Maori Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, then moving to Art History at the same institution, finally completing her studies at the University of Auckland in 2011. Her doctoral thesis A Whakapapa of Tradition: Iwirakau Carving 1830 to 1930 was published as a book in 2016 by Auckland University Press.^[1][2] The book was selected as one of the 180 most significant works of Māori-authored non-fiction.^[3]

Ellis started teaching a new postgraduate Museums and Cultural Heritage course at the University of Auckland in 2013.^[4]

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.^[4] Ellis is a trail blazer as in 2019 she was the only Māori art historian teaching in a New Zealand university.^[4]

Her book with Deidre Brown and Jonathan Mane-Wheoki,Toi te Mana: An Indigenous History of Maori Art, (2024) creates a framework that draws upon the journey of Māori god Tāne to gain 'the three baskets of knowledge.'^[5]

She has received three Marsden Grants from the Royal Society Te Apārangi.^[6]

• Toi Te Mana: An Indigenous History of Maori Art, (2024, Auckland University Press and Chicago University Press) co-authored with Deidre Brown and [[Jonathan Mane-Wheoki] with ]^[5]
• Does Maori Art HIstory Matter? (2014, Department of Art History, Victoria University of Wellington, 2014) co-authored with Deidre Brown and [[Jonathan Mane-Wheoki]
• Te Puna: Maori Art from Te Tai Tokerau, Northland (2007, Raupo Publishing) co-edited with Deidre Brown
• Te Ata: Maori Art from the East Coast (2002, Reed Publishing) co-edited with Witi Ihimaera
• A Whakapapa of Tradition: One Hundred Years of Ngāti Porou Carving 1830-1930 (2016, Auckland University Press) with photography by Natalie Robertson

• 2022-4 Whakawhanaungatanga: Connecting taonga across people, places and time, co-curator with Dougal Austin, Awhina Tamarapa and Justine Treadwell, Linden Museum, Stuttgart.
• 2004 Talking About (Rangi Kipa) Objectspace, Auckland^[5]
• 2001 Pūrangiaho: Seeing Clearly, co-curator with Kahutoi Te Kanawa and Ngahiraka Mason, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki^[5]
• 1999 Patai. Pa Tai. Questions, Tides, Collisions (Gordon Walters), co-curator with Damian Skinner, Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington^[5]

• 2025 'The complex roles of adornment in te ao Maori,' Ockham Public Lecture Series, Objectspace, Auckland.
• 2024 'Blinging up the body: Maori and adornment,' Julie King Memorial Lecture, Christchurch Art Gallery, Christchurch
• 2023 'Taonga parāoa, taonga Pasifika, taonga Māori: Tracing the ancestors through Māori art history,' Templeton Coloquim of Art History, UC Davis
• 2022 'Whakapapa, whenua, whakairo: An introduction to te ao Maori and the arts,' Linden Museum, Stuttgart
• 2022 'Nga taonga o Wharawhara: The world of Māori body adornment, and Art History,' Inaugural Toitū Waipapa, Toitū Mātauranga symspoium, University of Auckland
• 2022 'Centering Māori art histories' with Gina Matchutt, Inaugural Art HIstory Summit, Victoria University of Wellington
• 2016 'The role of Māori in Museum Studies,' ANU
• 2016 'Art crime: Engaging students through the shady side of art history,' New Zealand Art HIstory Teachers Association Symposium, Auckland.
• 2014 'Toitū Te Moko: Maintaining the integrity of the moko in the 19th century,' Lindauer Symposium, Bode Museum, Berlin.

• 2025 Ko 'Toi Te Mana' e ngunguru nei: Maori art as history - Native American and Indigenous Studies Association Conference [Oklahoma City]* 2013 Kia ora te whānau! Going global with Māori Art History - Native American Art Studies Association Conference, Denver.
• 2024 Making space for Indigenous voices, histories and futures - roundtable with Erin Vink and Lisa Hilli - Art Association of Australia and New Zealand [Canberra]* 2016 Plenary: Why I don’t come to conferences like these - Art Association of Australia and New Zealand, Canberra
• 2023 He whakapapa o ngā rākai parāoa: A biography of whalebone adornments - Art Association of Australia and New Zealand [Gold Coast]
• 2022 Me he manu rere: The use of birds in and as adornment by Maori in the 19th century - Art Association of Australia and New Zealand [Melbourne]
• 2019 Teaching Museums Studies in Aotearoa New Zealand - Museums Aotearoa Conference, Wellington^[6]
• 2019 Indigenising provenance research - Pacific Arts Association International Conference [Basel, Switzerland]* 2016 What is Māori Art History?  - Art Association of Australia and New Zealand, Canberra
• 2018 He maunga teitei: Teaching Māori Art as a Baseline for Art History in Aotearoa Today - New Zealand Art History Teachers Association, Auckland
• 2017 Roundtable: What’s a Māori to do? Teaching and Innovating Māori History in the Turbulent Present with Aroha Harris and Hirini Kaa - New Zealand Historical Association Conference, Christchurch

• 2025 'Best Book,' and 'Best writing by Maori and Pasifika,' Art Association of Australia and New Zealand, Melbourne
• 2025 'Best Book,' Apollo Awards, London
• 2025 Illustrated non-fiction award, Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, with Deidre Brown and Jonathan Mane-Wheoki, for Toi Te Mana: An Indigenous History of Māori Art (2025)^[7]
• 2021 Faculty of Arts He Tōtara Whakamarumaru: Mātauranga Māori Excellence Award. Team award for Ngarino Ellis, Renee Hau, Kate Harris, Tāniora Maxwell and Eliza Macdonald for work on Ngā Taonga o Wharawhara
• 2020 Early Career Research Excellence Award for Humanities, Royal Society Te Apārangi
• 2019 National Tertiary Teaching Award - Kaupapa Māori category Ako Aotearoa^[4]
• 2018 Sustained Excellence in Teaching Award, University of Auckland
• 2018 Faculty of Arts Early Career Research Award, University of Auckland
• 2017 Ngā Kupu Ora Awards: Celebrating Māori Books and Journalism – Art Category