Dr Pounamu Jade William Emery Aikman (Ngati Apakura, Ngati Maniapoto, Ngati Wairere, Ngati Awa, Ngai Te Rangi, Ngati Uenukukopako, Ngati Tarawhai) is an independent scholar working at the intersections of Indigenous sovereignties, epistemologies and criminal justice. He completed his PhD at The Australian National University in 2019, and was a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard University in 2022. He is the author of Terra in Our Mist: A Tuhoe Narrative of Indigenous Sovereignty and Settler-State Violence, published by ANU Press in June 2026, and co-leader of the 2025-28 Marsden-funded project Tiaki Tane, examining causes of youth offending among young Maori men. He was the 2025 Emerging Maori Writer in Residence at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington.