I am from Hauraki where I whakapapa to Ngāti Maru, Ngāti Whanaunga and Ngāti Tamaterā. I bring extensive personal and professional experience of HIV to my work. I have worked as an HIV researcher, an HIV community prevention coordinator, and as a government health policy analyst. As a founding member of the International Indigenous Working Group on HIV and AIDS and with more than 30 years' experience of the HIV pandemic, I am patently aware of the disproportionate impact of HIV on Māori and other indigenous populations around the world.