Rangitinia Wilson grew up in Mangamuka, Northland, the daughter of Kerei and Pareaute Ōtene, and was educated at Kawakawa District High School. She began a piupiu making business in her home in 1973 and later began tutoring at the Auckland Technical Institute’s Education Department pre-employment programme for school leavers. She was a member of the Māori Women’s Welfare League and was an executive member of the National Council of Women’s North Shore Branch. She became a Justice of the Peace in 1982.
As an expert seamstress she won the Supreme Māori Women's Welfare League Fashion Award with two winning entries, and later went on to become head of wardrobe for Merata Mita's film Mauri. She married Dr Arnold Manaaki Wilson - New Zealand Foundation Icon artist, and they had three children, and many grandchildren, great grandchildren and great great grandchildren. For many years she was Chairperson of Awataha Marae.
Biographical sources
- "Rangitinia Wilson." Celebrating Women: New Zealand Women and Their Stories. Ed. Christine Cole Catley. Prod. Mediawomen of New Zealand. Whatamongo Bay, Queen Charlotte Sound, N.Z.: Cape Catley, 1984. 166-169.
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Other
- "Rangitinia Wilson." Celebrating Women: New Zealand Women and Their Stories. Ed. Christine Cole Catley. Prod. Mediawomen of New Zealand. Whatamongo Bay, Queen Charlotte Sound, N.Z.: Cape Catley, 1984. 166-169.
- This autobiographical account is taken from a series of biographies and interviews of 50 women from over 600 nominations for the Mediawomen’s Awards conferred on Suffrage Day, 19 September 1982. Wilson discusses her early introduction into dressmaking, her winning the 1982 Te Kopu supreme fashion award, and her work at the Birkdale College Whare Wananga in Auckland.