Dr Diana Kopua & Mark Kopua

Dr Diana Kopua

Diana began her journey in health in 1990, training first as a nurse before completing her specialist training in psychiatry in 2014. She is a Fellow of the Royal Australia and New Zealand College of Psychiatry and, that same year, became the first Ngāti Porou psychiatrist in Tairāwhiti.

In 2010, Diana was awarded the prestigious Ngarimu VC Manakura Award, which honours those who embody the values of the 28th Māori Battalion: strength of character, ambition, courage, and original thought. She has carried these values throughout her career. In the mid-1990s, Diana developed Mahi a Atua, a kaupapa Māori approach that draws on ancestral narratives and pūrākau as a framework for healing, challenging racism, and restoring balance within health services and wider society. Mahi a Atua has since been taken up across multiple sectors including health, education, justice, the arts, and social services, offering a transformative way of working grounded in Māori knowledge and practice.

Diana continues to pioneer Indigenous-led approaches across Aotearoa, ensuring Māori voices, values, and knowledge systems remain central to the future of health and wellbeing.

Mark Kopua

Mark was raised in Mangatuna by his old people and is regarded by his East Coast tribes as a historian and guardian of ancestral knowledge. A master carver, he has dedicated more than four decades to the art of whakairo, completing seven ancestral meeting houses. He has also been at the forefront of modern moko, training a generation of artists while continuing his own practice as a moko artist and design consultant.

Mark’s work extends nationally and internationally. He has played a unique role in the repatriation of moko ihorei(tattooed heads) and in provenance research for traditional Māori carvings. He has served on the board of Toi Māori, the national Māori art advocacy organisation, and for decades has judged kapa haka at both the Tamararo regional competition and Te Matatini, the national festival. He served as tohunga for Te Kūwatawata, a groundbreaking Māori-designed mainstream mental health service, and with his wife, Dr Diana Kopua, Mark established Te Kurahuna, a whare wānanga where practitioners learn Indigenous knowledge in a unique and authentic way. His lifelong commitment to carving, moko, cultural leadership, and healing continues to shape the wellbeing of Māori communities and beyond.