Norman Te Whata III was born in Otaua and was educated at a number of different schools around the country including Nga Wha Native School, Te Kamo School, Kaikohe School, and Northcote College. He has worked as a freezing worker at Westfield and was a Home Guard during the Second World War. He has had a long-term involvement with the arts, particularly sculpture. He did chip carving as a boy with his step father, made clay models, and made water colour prints for the Auckland Museum at the age of ten. In the 1960s he lived in Christchurch and was a member of the art association The Group. He was mentored by Paul Pascoe and exhibited his sculpture nationally and internationally. The imprisoned art is his theme. He started up the 6A half-way houses in Christchurch and was involved with the Christchurch City Mission’s Open Door and the first refuge for women. He writes performance poetry accompanied by the guitar.
Biographical sources
- Phone conversation with Te Whata on 2 Mar. and 11 Aug. 1998.
- Te Ao Mårama: Contemporary Måori Writing. Comp. and ed. Witi Ihimaera. Contributing ed: Haare Williams, Irihapeti Ramsden and D. S. Long. Vol. 3: Te Puåwaitanga o Te Kørero: The Flowering. Auckland, N.Z.: Reed, 1993. 40.
Other
- "Black and Tan." Te Ao Mārama: Contemporary Māori Writing. Comp. and ed. Witi Ihimaera. Contributing ed. Haare Williams, Irihapeti Ramsden and D. S. Long. Vol. 3: Te Puāwaitanga O Te Kōrero: The Flowering. Auckland, N.Z.: Reed, 1993. 41-42.
- This poem focuses on the plight of the Polynesian street kids drifting to the city and being harshly treated by the police.
Other
- "Robin Kora - Front Line Newsreader." Te Iwi o Aotearoa 1 (Oct. 1987): 10.
- Te Whata writes a tribute to television newsreader Robin Kora.
- "Tenei Ao/This Dawn." [first line] In ‘Te Tangi O Te Whenua: Whakairo Māori.’ Art New Zealand 35 (Winter 1985?): 36-37.
- An invocation to ‘be strong/grab hold / grip firmly’ the dawn of a new era.
- "This Street." Te Ao Mārama: Contemporary Māori Writing. Comp. and ed. Witi Ihimaera. Contributing ed. Haare Williams, Irihapeti Ramsden and D. S. Long. Vol. 3: Te Puāwaitanga O Te Kōrero: The Flowering. Auckland, N.Z.: Reed, 1993. 40-41.
- Te Whata portrays the aimless meandering patter of a street kid whose existence is one of pacing the street and ‘walking great holes’ in his/her feet. This performance poem, which Te Whata accompanies with the guitar, is reminiscent of a song with its repeated lines.