Chanel Clarke

Editorial Board Member

Waitangi Treaty Grounds
 

Chanel Clarke is of Māori descent and has tribal affliations to Ngāpuhi, Te Rarawa, Ngāti Porou and Waikato-Tainui. She is currently Curator for Te Rau Aroha Museum on the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. Previous to this role, Chanel had a twenty year career as the first Curator Māori at Auckland Museum, as well as time spent as Ethnology Curator at the Waikato Museum of Art and History. Trained as a historian, her research interests are the social and cultural aspects of Māori dress and textiles in both customary and contemporary contexts. Her most recent curatorial project was a digital crowd sourced exhibition that focused on T-shirt culture in New Zealand. She is currently undertaking a Professional Doctorate with Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi. With an interest in cross-cultural encounters and indigenous comparative history, she is investigating the sartorial diplomacy employed by Māoi leaders in the 19th century on the global stage. She works at the interface of object-based dress history, indigenous museum curatorship and material culture and has published and taught in these areas.