June Tangaere was born in Taranaki and was brought up in the Wanganui District. She attended Turakina Girls’ College and went on to train as a teacher at Auckland Teachers’ College. Tangaere has taught at Ratana, Taihape and Tikitiki and many schools in the Wellington district. After moving to Christchurch in 1987, Tangaere lectured in the Māori Studies Department at the College of Education and also taught at Sumner School and Mairehau College. She and husband, Cassidy Tangaere, became Māori Advisers for the Southern Regional Office of the Department of Education which covered the whole of the South Island. After the restructuring of the Ministry of Education, she and her husband returned to work in Wellington. Tangaere is currently Liaison Officer with the Wellington District Office of the Ministry of Education. She began writing when she was an itinerant teacher in Māori to help teachers in the classroom and to motivate Māori children to learn. There was a dearth of material printed in Māori, so a group of itinerant Māori teachers started writing in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. Tangaere has written other stories which have not been published but are widely used in Kohanga Reo. She has done a few writing courses with Judith Holloway and Patricia Grace at Polytech.
Biographical sources
- Phone interview with June Tangaere in August 1992.
Children's literature
- Wae Wae Hikoi. Nga pikitia Peter Velvin [Illus. Peter Velvin]. Whanganui-a-Tara [Wellington], N.Z.: [Māori and Island Education Division, Dept. of Education], 1984.
- Māori language text for children with a glossary in Māori and English at the conclusion.
- Wahanui. Whanganui-a-Tara [Wellington], N.Z.: [Māori and Island Education Division, Dept. of Education], 1984.
- Māori language text for children with a short glossary in Māori and English at the conclusion.
- Nga Potae Papai. Whanganui-a-Tara [Wellington], N.Z.: [Māori and Island Education Division, Dept. of Education], 1984.
- Māori language text for children.
- ‘Uaakaka, uaakaka’: He Waiata. na nga Tamariki o Whangara. Whanganui-a-Tara [Wellington], N.Z.: [Māori and Island Education Division, Dept. of Education], 1984.
- Waiata for children in Māori.
- Nga Kai Moana. Nga pikitia Dale Joblin [Illus. Dale Joblin]. Whanganui-a-Tara, [Wellington], N.Z.: [Māori and Island Education Division, Dept. of Education], 1984.
- Also published in Samoan in 1993, and available in Tokelauan and Niuean.
Music
- Waiata Māori for Schools. [Wellington, N.Z.]: Wellington Education Board, 1977. Rpt. 1987. Rpt. Wellington, N.Z.: Learning Media, Ministry of Education, 1991.
- Co-compiled by W. Kaa, K. Jenkins, and J. Kaa.
Non-fiction
- Erai, Michelle, Fuli, Everdina, Irwin, Kathie and Wilcox, Lenaire. Māori Women: An Annotated Bibliography. [Wellington, N.Z.]: Michelle Erai, Everdina Fuli, Kathie Irwin and Lenaire Wilcox, 1991. 32.
Other
- Manu Tuku Tuku. Nga pikitia Peter Velvin [Illus. Peter Velvin]. Whanganui-a-Tara [Wellington], N.Z.: [Māori and Island Education Division, Dept. of Education], 1985.
- Māori language text for children with a glossary in Māori and English at the conclusion.