He was a Minister of the Ringatu Church; he was a "prominent Bay of Plenty social worker, [and] member of Mapou Marae Committee."
Biographical sources
- Te Ao Hurihuri: Aspects of Māoritanga. Ed. Michael Smith. Auckland, N.Z.: Reed, 1992. 5.
Traditional
- "A Church Called Ringatu." Tihe Mauriora: Aspects of Māoritanga. Ed. Michael King [Wellington, N.Z.]: Methuen, 1978. 60-66. Rpt. in Te Ao Hurihuri: Aspects of Māoritanga. Ed. Michael Smith. Auckland, N.Z.: Reed, 1992. 138-143.
- Tarei writes of his introduction into the Ringatu Church as a child after witnessing his father’s dramatic conversion to the Ringatu faith. Tarei dispels some of the misconceptions written about Ringatu founder Te Kooti and asserts that the Ringatu Church had nothing to do with Hauhauism. A biography of Te Kooti’s life is given noting the prophetic words of Toiroa Ikariki, Te Kooti’s spiritual revelations during his captivity in the Chathams, and his years of preaching and founding the Ringatu Church after his escape from the Chathams in 1868. Tarei concludes with an outline of the Ringatu Church year, the format of the Twelfth services, and how Ringatu panui, hymns and prayers which Te Kooti drew from the Bible and ‘rearranged...to give them consistent themes’, are memorised, spoken in classic Māori and, in the case of the hymns, are sung to traditional Māori tunes.