Tara G McAllister is a New Zealand freshwater ecology academic and is associated with Te Pūnaha Matatini at the University of Auckland.
[1] She is a Māori of Te Aitanga ā Māhaki, Ngāti Porou, and European descent.
[9][10][11][12][13] When a group of seven professors at the University of Auckland published a letter stating that mātauranga Māori (the traditional knowledge of the Maori people) was not science,[14] McAllister said "we did not navigate to Aotearoa on myths and legends.
"[15] The Tertiary Education Union,[16] Royal Society Te Apārangi[17] and New Zealand Association of Scientists[18] and their own vice-chancellor[19][20] were also critical of the letter.
[23] In November of the same year McAllister was awarded the Royal Society Te Apārangi Te Kōpūnui Māori Research Award "for research into the underrepresentation and undervaluing of Māori academics".