Marino Blank

Marino Blank is a descendant of Ngāti Porou and Ngāti Kahungunu. Her mother Arapera was Māori, her father Swiss German. She was born in Taumarunui, spending her early childhood in Panguru in the Hokianga harbor. "My mother was a poet, my father a photographer. I was brought up in a tradition that valued prose and creativity."

Biographical sources

• Puna Wai Korero: An Anthology of Maori Poetry in English.Whaitiri, Reina & Sullivan, Robert (ed). Auckland University Press, 2014