About

Tihei mauri ora!

E ngā iwi, e ngā mana, e ngā kaipānui rā, tēnā rā koutou katoa.

I’m Dr. Isaac McIvor — a public and community archaeologist, lecturer, and researcher based in Ōtepoti Dunedin, Aotearoa New Zealand.

I work in the Archaeology Programme at the University of Otago, where my research sits at the interface of Mātauranga Māori and archaeological science. My work explores how whakapapa, oral traditions, and hapū knowledge systems can be woven together with landscape archaeology, radiocarbon dating, and chronological network analysis to build richer, more holistic understandings of Māori pasts.

Beyond the lab and the lecture theatre, I am passionate about community-led heritage management — particularly how hapū and kaitiaki can assert kaitiakitanga over their ancestral sites in the face of coastal erosion and climate change-induced heritage loss. Much of this work is grounded in ongoing partnerships with communities throughout Aotearoa.

I am also the incoming Engagement Community of Inquiry Lead at Te Pūnaha Matatini (TPM), Aotearoa New Zealand’s Centre of Research Excellence for complex systems. In this role, I work with the amazing leadership team in build genuine, meaningful engagement with the people their work is meant to serve — communities, tāngata whenua, schools, policymakers, and local councils. We are all about bridging the gap between research excellence and real-world impact, which is exactly what this platform is also about.

The Past Before Us was born from a conviction that New Zealand’s extraordinary archaeological story deserves a wider audience through engaging, evidenced and accurate content. Whether you are a student, a teacher, a policymaker, a journalist, or simply someone who has always been curious about what lies beneath the surface of this land — this platform is for you.

The past is not behind us. It is woven into the landscape before us — i ngā wā o mua.