Jade Kake was born on Bundjalung Country, and received her training in architecture at the University of Queensland and UNITEC Institute of Technology in Auckland. Of Māori and Dutch descent, her tribal affiliations are Ngāpuhi, Te Whakatōhea and Te Arawa. She leads a small team at Matakohe Architecture and Urbanism, a Whangārei-based design studio which she founded in mid-2018. Matakohe works with Māori organisations to progress their multi-residential, community and commercial projects, and with mana whenua (local tribal) groups to express their values, aspirations and narratives in the design of civic, commercial and education projects within their rohe (tribal area). In 2018, she hosted and produced the Indigenous Urbanism podcast. She has written for a variety of housing and architecture magazines and contributed chapters to several books on architecture and urbanism. She is a part-time lecturer at Huri Te Ao School of Future Environments at AUT, and a student of te reo Māori (the Māori language).