Hinemoa Elder

Elder started her career in the media as an actress and television personality. After her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, Elder enrolled at the University of Auckland to study medicine. She graduated in 1999 and went on to specialise in child and adolescent psychiatry. From 2007 to 2011 she worked as a youth forensic psychiatrist in the Waikato, Auckland and Northland regions and completed post-graduate studies in forensic psychology. Her doctoral thesis, completed at Massey University in 2012, focused on the development of tikanga approaches for Māori children who experienced traumatic brain injury.[4][5] In 2015 she was a participant in a neurological research think tank at the University of Deusto, Spain, which aimed to strengthen international collaborative research partnerships in the field.[6]

Elder has served on a number of reference groups for the Ministry of Health including the expert advisory group of Blueprint II, which established the framework for New Zealand mental health service funding. She is a deputy member of the New Zealand Mental Health Review Tribunal and a specialist assessor under the Intellectual Disability Compulsory Care and Rehabilitation Act 2003. Elder is also a research associate of the Person Centred Research Centre, the National Institute for Stroke and Applied Neurosciences and is a trustee and director of Emerge Aotearoa, a non-governmental organisation.[4]

Elder grew up in England with her Māori mother and New Zealand european father, returning to New Zealand when she was eleven.[11] She is of English descent, and from Ngāti Kurī, Te Rarawa, Te Aupōuri and Ngāpuhi iwi.[6][4]

Elder is the former partner of the late broadcaster Paul Holmes and had a son, Reuben, with him. Holmes was step-father to Elder's daughter from a previous relationship, Millie Elder-Holmes.[12]