Inia Watene Te Wiata

Ngāti Raukawa

1915 - 1971

Inia Te Wiata was born in Otaki and was educated at Otaki School and Otaki Māori College. He was a member of the Waiata Māori Methodist Mission Choir and in 1947 was awarded a government bursary to study at the Trinity College of Music in London. In 1951 he began working for the Royal Opera Company and was the first Māori to sing at Covent Garden. As one of New Zealand’s foremost opera singers, he spent much of his operatic career based in London and travelled widely throughout Europe, America, Russia, Australia, the Middle East and South Africa. Te Wiata was also a gifted carver and worked on the Turongo meeting house at Turangawaewae. He also carved a 60-foot carved pouihi for New Zealand House in London. He was awarded the M.B.E. and died at the age of 56 in London. Te Wiata’s written work includes a non-fiction article published in Te Māori and hand-written notes made in preparation for Professor Stenhouse’s publication, Critical Issues in Polynesian Education in New Zealand. These notes were subsequently published in Beryl Te Wiata’s biography of Inia Te Wiata.

Biographical sources

  • Phone conversations and fax correspondence with Beryl Te Wiata on 30 July and 16 Sept. 1998.
  • Te Måori: The Official Journal of the New Zealand Māori Council 2.4 (1971): 25.

    Traditional

  • Ballad Recital. No details.
  • Chu Chin Chao.
  • Now available on CD also.
  • The King and I. No details.
  • Desert Song. No details.
  • Māori Songs with Guitar Accompaniment. No details.
  • Maui’s Farewell. No details.
  • West Indian Songs and Negro Spirituals. No details.
  • Inia Te Wiata on Stage. No details.
  • The Most Happy Fella. No details.
  • Showboat. No details.
  • Home Little Māori Home. No details.
  • Music for the Chapel Royal. No details.
  • The Māori Flute. No details.
  • Page, Frederick. "Musical Notes." Comment: A New Zealand Quarterly Review 23 (1965): 11.
  • Waiata Māori: a Festival of Māori Song. LP. Kiwi Pacific, 1966.
  • He composed all the arrangements for all the songs, trained the singers, conducted the chorus and sang with the chorus. For those who could not read music he devised a way of writing the music in diagram form for each individual in a way that they could understand the correct notes from the harmony.
  • "Notes And Observations Made By Inia Te Wiata, April 1971." Most Happy Fella: A Biography of Inia Te Wiata. Beryl Te Wiata. Wellington, N.Z.: A. H. & A. W. Reed, 1976. 293-297. Rpt. Hutchinson, 1982.
  • Te Wiata discusses his understanding of the concept of Māoritanga and of race relations in New Zealand. These were the preparatory notes written by Te Wiata in response to a request for a written contribution to Professor Stenhouse’s Critical Issues in Polynesian Education in New Zealand.
  • Parker, Bill. "Eulogy for Inia Te Wiata." New Zealand Listener 26 July 1971.
  • Selwyn, Don. "Ko Inia Te Wiata." Te Māori: The Official Journal of the New Zealand Māori Council 2.4 (July/Aug. 1971): 24-25.
  • In this tribute to Te Wiata, Selwyn recounts his time with Te Wiata during the rehearsals and performances of "Porgy and Bess", which toured Australia and New Zealand with a Māori cast.
  • Te Māori: The Official Journal of the New Zealand Māori Council 2.4 (July/Aug. 1971): 25.
  • This obituary is composed of extracts from other obituaries to Inia Te Wiata published in Rotorua’s Daily Post, The Press, Herald and Wairarapa Times-Age.
  • "Inia’s Description of Pouihi Concept." Te Māori: The Official Journal of the New Zealand Māori Council 2.6 (Dec./Jan. 1972): 11-13.
  • In this detailed description of Te Wiata’s carved pouihi located in New Zealand House, London, Te Wiata describes all the major carved figures, their background stories and the various tribal carving styles he employed in the pouihi.
  • "Carving Unveiled: Mr Duncan MacIntyre’s Address." Te Māori: The Official Journal of the New Zealand Māori Council 3.2 (1972?): 23.
  • Text of Duncan MacIntyre’s address at the unveiling of Te Wiata’s pouihi which includes words of tribute from Te Arikinui Te Atai-Rangi-Kaahu, Hine Potaka and Dr Pei Te Hurinui Jones.
  • Most Happy Fella: A Biography of Inia Te Wiata. Beryl Te Wiata. Wellington, N.Z.: A. H. & A. W. Reed, 1976. 37-40. Rpt. Hutchinson, 1982.
  • This biography of Inia Te Wiata contains a number of extracts of writing by Inia Te Wiata including extracts from two letters to Bob Hastie concerning Te Wiata’s life in London and his music studies.
  • Swabey, Barbara. "Rangiatea Cemetery: Grave 367." Historical Journal (Otaki Historical Society) 10 (1987): 80-81.
  • Moss, Len. "Dan Wilkinson and Inia Te Wiata." Historical Journal Otaki Historical Society) 13 (1990): 37.
  • Walker, Nikki. "Māori Biographies Compiled by George F Kiwi Howe 1960: ‘Famous Entertainers’." Te Iwi O Aotearoa 29 (1990): 11.
  • There is CD Basso Profundo. Columbia: Sony Music, 1993.
  • Happy Fella. Columbia: Sony Music, 1993.
  • Thomson, J. M. "Records." Music In New Zealand 26 (1994): 60-61.
  • Archie, Carol. "The Double Life of Inia Te Wiata." Mana: The Māori News Magazine For All New Zealanders 7 (1994/1995): 68-71.
  • A Popular Recital. 1997.
  • "Rikihana, Queenie. "Inia Te Wiata’s Rikihana Whanau Connection." Historical Journal (Otaki Historical Society) 24 (2002): 45-46.
  • Findlay, Katherine. "Double Happy." Mana: The Māori News Magazine For All New Zealanders 80 (2008): 76-77.
  • "Just Call Me ‘Happy’." Tu Mai: Offering An Indigenous New Zealand Perspective 93 (2007/2008): 28-29.