Jacinta Ruru (Raukawa, Ngāti Ranginui) MNZM, FRSNZ is a Distinguished Professor of Law and holds an inaugural Sesquicentennial Distinguished Chair at the University of Otago. She researches how state legal systems should reconcile with their Indigenous peoples, their laws and knowledges, and specifically considers how law and policy can be more Te Tiriti o Waitangi compliant to better enable Māori to contribute towards caring for, owning, managing and governing lands and waters. Her work has advanced options including legal personality of the environment, creating a bijural legal education, valuing mātauranga in research and Indigenous story sovereignty. Her work includes co-authoring Discovering Indigenous Lands: The Doctrine of Discovery in the English Colonies (Oxford University Press, 2010), co-editing Ngā Kete Mātauranga. Māori Scholars at the Research Interface (Otago University Press, 2021), leading a national project Inspiring National Indigenous Legal Education for Aotearoa New Zealand’s LLB and co-leading Te Takarangi A National Programme Celebrating Māori Non-Fiction Books. She has research collaborations around the world.

Jacinta completed her PhD in Canada and is the recipient of several significant awards for her research, supervision and teaching. In 2016, she won the Aotearoa New Zealand Prime Minister’s Supreme Award for Excellence in Tertiary Teaching and in 2017 was one of the first two Māori woman to be appointed fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi. She is the immediate past co-director of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence and past recipient of Fulbright New Zealand awards. She currently holds governance positions with Te Papa Tongarewa, Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and the Blue Oyster Gallery.