Piatarihi Beatrice (Bea) Tui Yates

Bea was born in Rotorua and was educated at Whangamarino Primary School, Okere Falls from 1944-52, and Rotorua High School from While at high school, she was prefect, house captain and Māori Club leader. After high school she attended Auckland Teachers’ Training College from 1958-59 where she was Women’s President of the Māori Club in 1959 and gained a Teachers’ College Diploma (N.Z.T.T.C) in 1960. In 1961 she was awarded a Training College Certificate. Her first teaching position was at Rotokawa School in 1960 where she spent the next twenty years teaching. She was the first itinerant teacher in the Māori language and worked in this position for three years, visiting ten schools a week. She was principal of Te Whare Wananga Rotorua Cultural Centre School of Learning from She has worked for ten years at Rotorua Lakes High School Māori Language Linking Scheme, incorporating one intermediate and seven primary schools plus all the third forms at Lakes High School. She started writing in 1975. She wrote the song "One Day a Taniwha Went Swimming in the Moana"; she put this song into booklet form. She wrote the first Māori reader book published in 1983; "a further five readers are held by the Education Department". "I started [writing] because I wanted to get Pakeha kids enthused. Bringing Māori words and isolating them. My main aim was not really to write for Māori kids but for both. I began to write Māori resources when I was an itinerant; I was the resource and I began to compile resources. I went to the Tauranga Literature Association to lecture and shared from the heart and told them why I started to write. From then on my stories were seen. Mrs Price, the headmaster’s wife at Lakes High School, got me to send stories to Learning Media and they were accepted. I started writing for Moana Press and Tapu sold well". She has completed papers at Teachers’ Outpost at Waikato and Massey and has a bilingual Language Diploma and Higher Diploma in Teaching (1991) from the University of Waikato. In 1997 she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree. She visits many schools speaking at school book weeks all around the Rotorua area; she also goes to guilds and clubs to talk about books and Māori language. She has been a member of many cultural groups, including the New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Cultural Group for six years. She has been a Māori warden for seven years. She is a Cultural Ambassador for New Zealand and has made thirteen visits overseas in this position. She recently went to Japan to encourage people to come to New Zealand with Air New Zealand. She is a member of the Rotorua Operatic Society. For five years she was a Te Takinga Marae Trustee and was a Punawhakareia Trustee for two years. For four years she was a Haumingi Trustee and for two years a Takeke Women’s Health League member. She is still writing and is still promoting writing. She wrote articles for Kiwi Kids in Tauranga in 1991. She has been awarded the Queen’s Service Medal (1993), Zonta Award (1995), Paul Harris Fellowship Rotary Award (1997) and the N.Z. Toastmasters Community Award (1998).

Biographical sources

• Correspondence and interview with Bea Yates on 30 August 1992 and 24 August 1998.