She is Māori, of Te Kapotai (Ngāpuhi) and Ngapuhi-nui-tonu descent, and is currently a full professor at Massey University.

After a 2008 PhD thesis titled Arguing for the spirit in the language of the mind: a Māori practitioner's view of research and science, Moewaka Barnes joined Massey University staff, becoming a full professor in 2013.

[6] Moewaka Barnes is part of the New Zealand Arrestee Drug Use Monitoring project, which surveys arrestees in the criminal justice system to compile statistics on drug use.

[7] Moewaka Barnes' work looks at health from a kaupapa Māori perspective.

In March 2021, Helen Moewaka Barnes was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi, recognising her "significant international impact in the field of Indigenous peoples' health and wellbeing".