Ahilapalapa Rands (Kanaka Maoli/Indigenous Hawaiian, iTaukei/Indigenous Fijian, Pākehā/ Settler European) is an independent curator, writer and artist She holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts from Auckland University of Technology and a Diploma in Te Reo Māori from Te Wananga o Raukawa in Ōtaki, Aotearoa. Rands is a founding member of New Zealand based art collective D.A.N.C.E. art club alongside Vaimaila Urale, Tuafale Tanoa’i aka Linda T, and Chris Fitzgerald and London based In*ter*is*land Collective alongside Lyall Hakaraia, Jo Walsh and Jessica Palalagi.

Rands is driven to create and imagine alternative ways of creative practice. Her multidisciplinary style focuses on disrupting dominant social narratives and worldviews by prioritising non-hegemonic subjects and subjectivities. This is particularly informed by issues relevant to Indigeneity and investigating ways that settler colonisation has and continues to inform narratives and power dynamics in the Pacific. In support of these concerns, Rands has delivered lectures and presented papers on the subject of alternative exhibition practices and artistic practice as well as on decolonizing movements and art institutions.