Dr Dorothy Urlich Cloher (Ngāpuhi, 1930–2011) was formerly head of the James Henare Research Centre at the University of Auckland. Alongside The Tribes of Muriwhenua she wrote Hongi Hika: Warrior Chief (Penguin, 2003), published widely in specialist journals and produced a number of high profile reports into Māori issues including sustainable economic development and childhood education.

Dr Merimeri Penfold (Ngāti Kuri, 1920–2014) spent 20 years teaching in schools and then in 1964 she became the first lecturer in te reo Māori at a New Zealand university, teaching at the University of Auckland for the next 30 years. She was an inaugural member and dominion vice president of the Māori Women’s Welfare League and served on the Maori Education Foundation, the Broadcasting Commission, the Human Rights Commission and numerous other organisations. An acknowledged expert on Maori language and culture, she was part of the editorial team for the seventh edition of Williams’ Dictionary of the Maori Language. Prior to The Tribes of Muriwhenua she co-authored Women in the Arts in New Zealand (1986), edited the Māori sections of The Book of New Zealand Women (1991), and published her translation of Shakespearean sonnets, Ngā Waiata Aroha a Hekepia/Love Sonnets by Shakespeare: Nine Sonnets (2000). In 2000, Penfold was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Literature by the University of Auckland, in 2001 she was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori, and in 2008 she was awarded Te Tohu Aroha mō Ngoi Kumeroa Pewhairangi for her contribution to te reo Māori in the 2008 Ngā Taonga Toi a Te Waka Toi from Creative New Zealand.