Ngahuia is from Te Urewera in Aotearoa. Through her father she descends from Ngāti Manawa, Ngāti Ruapani ki Waikaremoana, Ngāi Tuhoe, Te Arawa and Ngāti Kahungunu. Through her mother she connects with the ritual feminine traditions of Ireland.

Ngahuia is an award-winning scholar, author, artist and public speaker committed to reactivating Indigenous women’s sacred knowledge and ritual practice. Her research, described as ‘groundbreaking’, ‘revolutionary’ and ‘incendiary’ by critics, has been instrumental in reviving ‘lost’ Māori menstruation rites of passage and women’s ceremonies that were deliberately erased through patriarchal colonial processes. Ngahuia has worked with Indigenous Peoples around the world in reclaiming matrilineal knowledge through scholarship, theatre work, activism and art.

Ngahuia’s work is guided by mana motuhake, tino rangatiratanga and the resurgence of the divine feminine to restore the sacred laws of balance.