Elizabeth was born in Kawakawa, daughter of Emere Kaa and Walter Mountain, kaumatua of Te Rawhiti Marae in the Bay of Islands. She was educated at Kawakawa Primary School and Bay of Islands College. She attended Elam School of Fine Arts and graduated with a Diploma in Fine arts majoring in painting and sculpture in 1965. Elizabeth trained as a secondary art teacher at Auckland College of Education and taught at a number of secondary schools. In 1985 Elizabeth joined the Department of Education until 1989 when she was appointed to the Education Review Office. She was a member of the Council of Creative New Zealand for twelve years and chaired Te Waka Toi for nine years and the Pacific Arts Council for ten years. Elizabeth has been a member of the executive board of the Pacific Arts Council and a member of the Auckland Art Gallery Enterprise Board. She is chair of Harewa – the Māori Arts Board of the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. She is secretary of the Te Rawhiti Māori Committee, is a civil marriage celebrant and a Justice of the Peace. In 2003 she was awarded a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
Biographical sources
- Correspondence and phone conversation with Elizabeth Ellis, 6, 16 and 19 August 1998.
- "First Woman Chair for Te Waka Toi." Kia Hiwa Ra Nov. (1997): 4.
- "The Arts Foundation." http://www.thearts.co.nz/people.php 20 May 2011.
Non-fiction
- "A Māori Health Nurse: The Health Work of Emere Makere Waiwaha Kaa Mountain." Standing in the Sunshine: A History of New Zealand Women Since They Won the Vote. Principal author and principal researcher - text and illustrations Sandra Coney. Editorial advisers - Charlotte Macdonald, Anne Else, Dame Joan Metge, Tania Rei, Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, Angela Ballara, Merimeri Penfold, Rosemarie Smith. Auckland, N.Z.: Viking; Auckland, N.Z.: Penguin, 1993. 102-103.
- Co-authors Elizabeth Mountain Ellis and Helen Mountain Harte.
The authors provide a biographical account of the nursing career of Ngāti Porou Emere Makere Waiwaha Kaa Mountain.
- "Te Kauae o nga Wahine Māori: The Tattooing of Māori Women." Standing in the Sunshine: A History of New Zealand Women Since They Won the Vote. Principal author and principal researcher - text and illustrations Sandra Coney. Editorial advisers - Charlotte Macdonald, Anne Else, Dame Joan Metge, Tania Rei, Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, Angela Ballara, Merimeri Penfold, Rosemarie Smith. Auckland, N.Z.: Viking; Auckland, N.Z.: Penguin, 1993. 264-265.
- A history and description of the practice of moko and particularly te kauwae or kauae - the chin tattooing of Māori women.
Reviews
- "REVIEWS : Fun with flax." Mountain. Journal of the Polynesian Society 97.2 (Jun 1988): 212-213.
Other
- "First Woman Chair for Te Waka Toi." Kia Hiwa Ra Nov. (1997): 4.