Tamati-Quennell began her career in journalism, training at the Wellington Polytechnic School of Journalism and graduating in 1983. She worked as a journalist for the
Levin Chronicle (now the
Horowhenua-Kapiti Chronicle), and the
Evening Post in
Wellington, before running a training programme for those interested in journalism through the Wellington Unemployed Workers' Union in Wellington. As a young reporter, Tamati-Quennell previewed
Te Māori, Te Hokinga Mai, which was formative in her development as a curator. She also worked as a Māori weaver, learning mahi raranga under
Diane Prince at the
Wellington Arts Centre and
Erenora Puketapu-Hetet at
Waiwhetū Marae. Other roles before working as an art curator, include working in film, on a first series of Māori drama programmes created for television in the late 1980s -
Tipu E Rea - and on Barry Barclay's feature film
Te Rua. Tamati-Quennell began her curatorial career as an intern at the
National Art Gallery (now
Te Papa Tongarewa) in 1990. Between 2002 and 2004, Tamati-Quennell took leave to work at the Ngai Tahu Development Corporation as the Ngāi Tahu arts facilitator and curated the exhibition
Te Puawai o Ngai Tahu for the opening of the
Christchurch Art Gallery in 2003. In 2004, she returned to Te Papa and continued her career as curator of modern and contemporary Māori and indigenous art, and was invited by the 18 Ngāi Tahu papatipu rūnaka to curate
Mo Tatou, the Ngai Tahu Whanui exhibition at Te Papa, the first major survey of Ngāi Tahu art both customary and contemporary. Between 2021 and 2022, Tamati-Quennell worked at the
Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth. During her time there, she curated two exhibitions:
There is no before in 2021, with indigenous Australian artist, D. Harding; and
Swallowing Geography in 2022, with artists Ana Iti, Kate Newby, Matt Pine and
Shona Rapira Davies. Tamati-Quennell has curated numerous exhibitions over her career, the most recent at Te Papa;
Hinaki, contemplation of a form (2023–2024), and
Hiahia, Whenua, Landscape and Desire (2022–2024). In 2023, Tamati-Quennell was selected to be one of five curators to curate the 16th
Sharjah Biennial, titled
to carry, which runs from 6 February to 15 June 2025 in Sharjah in the
United Arab Emirates. In 2024, at the invitation of the president of the Sharjah Art Foundation, Hoor Al Qasimi, she curated with Qasimi,
Emily Karaka: Ka Awatea: A New Dawn, a major survey show of senior Māori painter Emily Karaka for the Sharjah Art Foundation in Sharjah. Beginning in 2024, Tamati-Quennell began studying for a PhD in fine arts at
Monash University in Melbourne, under the supervision of Brian Martin and Jessica Neath. ==Honours and awards==