Keri Ngapera Kaa

Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Porou, Rongowhakaata

1942 -

Keri Kaa was born in Rangitukia near the East Cape, the tenth child of the Rev. Tipi and Hohi Kaa. She was educated at Rangitukia Māori School, Queen Victoria School, Auckland Girls’ Grammar School, and in 1961 was an American Field Service Scholar. Keri furthered her studies at Ardmore Teachers’ College where she was the first woman to hold the position of College President. She graduated from the college in 1963. Keri subsequently taught Māori in both primary and secondary schools and worked as a Māori Language and Tikanga teacher. From September 1979 to December 1998 Keri taught at Wellington College of Education/Te Whanau o Ako Pai ki Te Upoko o Te Ika and was Senior Lecturer in Māori Studies, chair of ASTE at the College of Education and member of the College Council.

Keri has been a tutor and cultural adviser to the New Zealand Drama School, was a founder and co-ordinator of Haeata Māori Women’s Artists Collective (now retired), was a member of the New Zealand Film Commission and was on the Short Film Fund for eight years. She is a former member of the Fullbright Board of the NZ/US Educational Foundation. After thirty-five years teaching in various institutions in Wellington, Keri returned back to her home on the East Coast. Prior to leaving Wellington, she co-directed Sing Whale: He Apakura Tohorā with Sunny Amey and Jan Bolwell for the 1998 International Festival and this was the final production in their trilogy of works for stage.

In June 1994 she gave an address and took part in a panel discussion at the Eighth International Congress “Social and Political Change” of the International Society of Performing Arts Administrators (ISPAA) which was held in Sydney. In 2000 she worked with a team of people to complete the final draft of the new Arts Curriculum based on Dance, Drama, Music and Visual Arts. Currently she is a ministerial appointee to the National Library Board (2000-2003), Te Waka Toi (2001-2005), UNESCO Commission (2002-), DANZ - Welfare and service agency for Dancers (2000-), Advisory Groups, Komiti Māori National Library (2000-), Te Ara Ministry of Culture and Heritage (2001-), Dictionary of NZ Biography on-line nine year project, and Tairawhiti Museum Gisborne representing Ngāti Porou interests (2002-).

Keri writes poetry, waiata, haka, patere, non-fiction articles, children’s writing, translations, and school journals for Learning Media. She also writes reviews for books, plays and productions. She has written work for Totika Publications and has produced writing for Te Reo Māori Kura Kaupapa. She is currently working on a series of new poems in English and has recently completed a children’s story in Māori and English. She has attended writing workshops at Tapu te Ranga Marae in Wellington, has worked on the Māori version of Paikea with Robyn Kahukiwa, and has completed research on Māori Performing Arts at a Masters level. She states “I write poetry mainly, really just for myself, for my own amusement, out of anger, or because something has moved me. I used to write the usual sort of tirades about broadcasting, education and social issues, but then I decided that the one thing that’s lacking in the tension of race relations is humour. So I started writing some comical stuff.”



Biographical sources

  • Correspondence from Keri Kaa on 7 Jan. 1998, 4 Oct. 2004 and 3 Apr. 2005.
  • Te Ao Hou (1963): 34.
  • Celebrating Women: New Zealand Women and Their Stories. Produced by Mediawomen of New Zealand. Whatamongo Bay, Queen Charlotte Sound, N.Z.: Cape Catley, 1984. 158-161.
  • International Society of Performing Arts Administrators Foundation Forum 18.2 Special edition (1994/5?): 25-32.

    Biography

  • "Keri Kaa." Celebrating Women: New Zealand Women and their Stories. Produced by Mediawomen of New Zealand. Whatamongo Bay, Queen Charlotte Sound, N.Z.: Cape Catley, 1984. 158-162.
  • This autobiographical account of the major influences in Kaa’s life 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.

    • Fiction

  • "A Letter to My Mother." Spiral 5 (1982): 7-8.
  • Kaa reflects on the nature of her relationship with her mother and recalls its frustrations and strengths.

    • Music

  • "Te Kauae Tangohia." Music by Grace Turu and Ngairo Heretaunga. 1992.
  • This tribute to Mahuika is part of Wahine Toa.

    • Non-fiction

  • "The American Field Service: Exchange Scholarships to Foster International Friendship." Te Ao Hou 53 (1965): 53.
  • Kaa provides a description of the American Field Service and lists Māori students who have visited the United States as field scholars between the years of 1956- 63.
  • "Robyn Kahukiwa: Ngāti Porou." Interview by Keri Kaa. Seven Māori Artists. Wellington, N.Z.: V. R. Ward, Government Printer, 1986. 34-37.
  • Kahukiwa discusses her early interest in art and her development as an artist juggling family and teaching responsibilities with her emerging search for her Māori roots.
  • Seven Māori Artists. Interviews by Darcy Nicholas and Keri Kaa. Wellington, N.Z.: V. R. Ward, Government Printer, 1986.
  • Nicholas interviews Cliff Whiting, Sandy Adsett, Fred Graham, Rangi Hetet, and Erenora Puketapu-Hetet concerning their work as Māori artists. Nicholas includes a chapter on his own artwork. Keri Kaa interviews Robyn Kahukiwa. The book concludes with a collection of colour photographs of representative artwork of the artists and a glossary.
  • "Haeata 1983-." Women Together: A History of Women’s Organisations in New Zealand: Nga Ropu Wahine o te Motu. Ed. Anne Else. Wellington, N.Z.: Co-published by Daphne Brasell, and Historical Branch, Department of Internal Affairs, 1993. 46-48.
  • Kaa provides a history of the Māori women artists’ collective, Haeata, which had its origins in 1983 when a group of Māori women met with Wendy Harrex to discuss the compilation of a Herstory Diary focusing on Māori women. Kaa writes that ‘Haeata has always seen itself as a collective which nurtures the talents of new and young Māori women artists.’

    • Other

  • Paikera. With Robyn Kahukiwa. No details.
  • Te Tautoko 4: Pōpō 1. Nā Keri Kaa ngā kōrero. Nā Robert Ellis ngā whakaahua. Wellington, N.Z.: School Publications Branch, Department of Education, nd.
  • Te Tautoko 6: Pōpō 2. Nā Keri Kaa ngā kōrero. Nā Robert Ellis ngā whakaahua. Wellington, N.Z.: School Publications Branch, Department of Education, nd.
  • Te Kuia Me Te Pungawerewere. By Patricia Grace. Trans. Syd Melbourne and Keri Kaa. Auckland, N.Z.: Penguin; Wellington, N.Z.: Kidsarus 2, 1981.
  • Taniwha. By Robyn Kahukiwa. Trans. Keri Kaa. Auckland, N.Z.: Puffin, 1986.

  • Papers/Presentations

  • "The Emergence of the Indigenous." In "Global Change and Exchange: Social and Political Change. International Society of Performing Arts Administrators Eighth International Congress Sydney Opera House 21-24 June 1994." International Society of Performing Arts Administrators Foundation Forum 18.2 (special edition) (1994/5?): 25-32.
  • Selected highlights from a panel discussion held on 22 June 1994 at the Eighth International Congress of the International Society of Performing Arts Administrators. The topic of the congress was "the emergence of the indigenous". Kaa questions the use of "emergence" in the panel discussion title. She goes on to describe the learning environment of her childhood and the complexity of issues involved in indigenous theatre and particularly in the production of Wahine Toa.

    • Performing Arts

  • Wahine Toa: A Celebration of Māori Women. By Keri Kaa, Jan Bolwell and Sunny Amey. Music by Helen Fisher. 1992.
  • Wahine Toa is a dance-drama, which draws upon the stories of the goddesses of Māori mythology as portrayed in Robyn Kahukiwa and Patricia Grace’s Wahine Toa. The dance-drama was collectively written and produced by Jan Bolwell, who was the choreographer, Sunny Amey, who directed the actors, and Kaa who supervised the traditional Māori areas and wrote two haka - "Ukaipo" and "Te Mana Wahine", a children’s chant for the ‘Mahuika’ scene entitled "Tākaro Ringaringa", a tribute to Mahuika called "Te Kauae Tangohia" and a lament sung in the final scene entitled "Te Mamae tino-nui." Wahine Toa was first performed at Taki Rua Depot Theatre, Wellington in September 1992, and was recorded live in its return season at Taki Rua in December 1992.
  • Takitoru: Weaving Traditions in Music and Dance. Dir. Keri Kaa, Jan Bolwell and Sunny Amey. 1995.
  • A collectively written dance-drama by Kaa, Jan Bolwell and Sunny Amey, which focuses on Celtic and Māori myths. It was performed from 24-31 May 1995 at the Lower Hutt Little Theatre, and at Downstage Theatre in June 1995.
  • Sing Whale: He Apakura Tohorā. Devised by Keri Kaa, Jan Bolwell and Sunny Amey.
  • This lament for a whale was performed at the International Festival in Wellington in March 1998. It is the final production in the trilogy of works for stage devised by Kaa, Bolwell and Amey.

    • Poetry

  • "Barefoot Boy: a Ballad for Ben Couch." Spiral 5 (1982): 8-10.
  • The poet reminds Ben Couch of their simple, humble beginnings growing up in a rural community that contrasts with Couch’s later life as a Member of Parliament.
  • "Te Ata - The Morning." Spiral 5 (1982). 10.
  • As the poet awakes and hears the noises of the new day, she recalls waking in her home area at Rangitukia.
  • "Television." Wahine Kaituhi: Women Writers of Aotearoa (New Zealand) Wellington, N.Z.: Spiral, 1985. n.pag.
  • The speaker reflects on an invitation to appear on television and suspects she will be the token Māori woman.

    • Reviews

  • “Patricia Grace: Aspects of Her Stories in Waiariki and The Dream Sleepers.” Spiral 5 (1982): 3-6. From a lecture in the series “Images of Women” given in the Women Studies Department at Victoria University of Wellington in 1982.
  • From a lecture in the series "Images of Women" given in the Women Studies Department at Victoria University of Wellington in 1982.
  • "Māori Sovereignty." Rev. of Māori Sovereignty by Donna Awatere. Broadsheet 126 (1985): 20-21.
  • "E Nga Whaea." Rev. of Nga Morehu - The Survivors by Judith Binney and Gillian Chaplin. NZ Listener 30 May 1987: 59-60.
  • "Waiata Aid Learning." Dominion 1 June 1991: 9.
  • "Collection Fills Gap for Te Reo Māori Students." Rev. of Te Matawai Tuatahi. Dominion Sunday Times 4 Aug. 1991: 22.
  • Stage & Radio Record 4 (1991). Kaa reviews Michael James Manaia, by John Broughton, and Daddy’s Girl, by Rena Owen.
  • Kaa reviews Michael James Manaia, by John Broughton, and Daddy’s Girl, by Rena Owen.

    • Traditional

  • "Ukaipo." No details.
  • A haka written for Wahine Toa
  • "Te Mana Wahine." No details.
  • A haka of celebration written for the second run of Wahine Toa.
  • "Haka Pohiri - Te Whenua Hou." No details.
  • Written for Takitoru.
  • "Haka Ipu/Gourd Dance." No details.
  • In this haka written for Takitoru, Kaa writes of Hinepu-te-hue, daughter of Tanemahuta and Hinerauamoa, who ‘settled the fights between the warring gods and captured Tawhiri’s winds in her gourd using the sounds to calm crying children.’
  • "Tākaro Ringaringa." No details.
  • A children’s chant for the ‘Mahuika’ scene in Wahine Toa. Kaa writes that in this chant the ‘dancers leapt around doing slap-beats and greeting each other by pressing R thumb to R thumb and so on until they’d used up all their digit names.’
  • "Te Mamae Tino-Nui." Keri Kaa. 1992.
  • This short lament about Hine-nui-te-Po is sung in the final scene of Wahine Toa.
  • "Patere Takitoru." 1995. No details.
  • Written and performed with a new dance for the second run of Takitoru in Downstage. It was composed by Keri Kaa after discussion with Tungia Baker and Rea Ropiha. Kaa writes that she interviewed the two weavers extensively before writing this patere. In the patere a kuia instructs a young person in the processes of gathering harakeke and preparing for raranga.
  • "Karanga: Ceremonial Call." Mataora: The Living Face: Contemporary Māori Art. General ed. Sandy Adsett and Cliff Whiting. Ed. Witi Ihimaera. Wellington, N.Z.: David Bateman/Te Waka Toi/Creative New Zealand, 1997. 8.
  • In this karanga written in Māori and English, Kaa acknowledges this publication as a ‘gift for the world’: it is representative of the ‘flourishing of the dreams’ of the Māori.

    Other

  • Coney, Sandra. "The Girls Who Should Have Made Good." Listener 22 Oct. 1988: 42-49, 54.
  • "Keri Kaa and Amster Reedy Head Students’ Association." Te Ao Hou 45 (1963): 34.
  • McLeod, Marion. "Performance: Putting It Together." Listener & TV Times 12 Sept. 1992: 44-45.
  • About the production of Wahine Toa: Women of Māori Myth.
  • Wahine Kaituhi: Women Writers of Aotearoa (New Zealand) Wellington, N.Z.: Spiral, 1985. n.pag.
  • Erai, Michelle, Fuli, Everdina, Irwin, Kathie and Wilcox, Lenaire. Māori Women: An Annotated Bibliography. [Wellington, N.Z.]: Michelle Erai, Everdina Fuli, Kathie Irwin and Lenaire Wilcox, 1991. 15.

  • Reviews

    Seven Māori Artists
  • Pohatu, Godfrey. Te Karanga: Canterbury Māori Studies Association. 2.1 (1986): 38-39.
  • Wahine Toa
  • McLeod, Marion. "Putting It Together." Listener & TV Times 12 Sept. 1992: 44-45.