Te Puoho Katene

Ngāti Toa

1927 -



Te Puoho Katene was born in Wellington and was educated at Porirua Primary School and Wellington Technical College. He studied painting at the Canterbury College School of Fine Arts in the 1950s. He began a music degree at Victoria University and graduated with a B.A. in 1990. While he was at Victoria he made a study of Western music and art and also studied indigenous music around the world. Katene has been actively involved in choral work and has directed the New Zealand Māori Chorale. He has served on many local, regional and national music committees and was on the community board for the International Society of Music Education. He was on the Board of the New Zealand Drama School and is currently their Drama School Kaumatua. He is a member of the Choral Association National Committee for Music and is on the Board of the New Zealand Music Centre which has its offices in Wellington. He is the tumuaki of Ngāti Toa iwi and chairs the kaumatua council of Ngāti Toa. He is a kaumatua of Takapuwahia Marae in Porirua. He was awarded the QSM for his work in music, and was presented with the 1990 Commemorative Medal.

Biographical sources

  • Phone conversation with Te Puoho Katene, 24 July 1998.

    Non-fiction

  • "A World of Motion, Music and Imagination." Tu Tangata 33 (1986/87): 30.
  • As judge of the choral section of the Polynesian Festival in 1986, Katene gives a background to Māori choral singing which he states ‘has been encouraged though [Māori] historical association with the Church.’
  • "Oparure’s Opening 29 March ‘86: A Personal Account na Te Puoho Katene." Tu Tangata 35 (1987): 24.
  • A personalised account of a visit to Oparure for the dawn opening of the Oparure meeting house.
  • "Nga Waiata Manawa: Songs of the Heart." Annual Journal of the New Zealand Society for Music Therapy Inc. Ed. Dr Anne O’Rourke. (1991): 13-20.
  • This is an address to the Annual Conference of the New Zealand Society for Music Therapy in July 1991. Katene presents a comprehensive account of traditional Māori society, its religious beliefs, genealogy, economic base, war-making, and the various occurrences that stimulated composition of waiata.
  • "The Māori World of Music." The Oxford History of New Zealand Music. John Mansfield Thomson. Auckland, N.Z.: Oxford UP, 1991. 1-6.
  • Katene discusses traditional and contemporary Māori music noting the scope of traditional waiata, the use of the kōauau and the impact of Western music styles.
  • Reviews

  • Rev. of Pounamu, Pounamu, by Witi Ihimaera. Te Ao Hou 74 (1973): 60-62.
  • Rev. of Tangi, by Witi Ihimaera. Te Ao Hou 75 (1974): 60.
  • Rev. of Sons for the Return Home, by Albert Wendt. Te Ao Hou 75 (1974): 62-63.
  • “Ko Wai Ka Hua: Black Katz Salute the 28th (NZ) Måori Battalion.” Te Iwi o Aotearoa 17 (1989): 13. A review of the cassette recording “Ko wai ka hua” by Black Katz.
  • A review of the cassette recording "Ko wai ka hua" by Black Katz.
  • “Black Katz: New Album.” Te Iwi o Aotearoa 41 (1991): 16. Katene reviews the Black Katz 1990 album “Te Tiriti o Waitangi Tangata Whenua”.
  • Katene reviews the Black Katz 1990 album "Te Tiriti o Waitangi Tangata Whenua".