Pā Max Mariu was born at Taumarunui and was educated at St Joseph’s Convent School, Waihi, Lake Taupo and Hato Paora College in Feilding. He attended St Mary’s Seminary at Greenmeadows, Napier, was ordained in 1977 as a Marist priest. He became the first Māori Roman Catholic Bishop in 1988. After holding various positions in the Catholic Church, his last position was the Auxiliary Bishop of Hamilton’s Catholic Diocese. In 2000 he became a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori and the Community. He composed waiata.
Biographical sources
- Correspondence from Mariu, 19 Nov. 1992 and 4 Feb. 1998.
- "Māori Bishop Blesses Mural." Te Iwi o Aotearoa 14 (1988): 1.
Non-fiction
- "Seminarians Learn Māori." Te Ao Hou 76 (1975): 60.
- Mariu writes of a three-week Māori course conducted by Father I. Gupwell of the Society of Mary for students from the Marist Fathers’ Seminary in Napier. The purpose of the course was to teach the fundamentals of the Māori language and pronunciation, and provide insights into Māori thinking.
Traditional
- "Te Hokinga Mai./ Te Hokinga Mai: The Return." Te Taite Cooper and Pā Max Takuira Mariu, S.M. Written in Māori with English translation by Pā Max Takuira Mariu. The Penguin Book of Contemporary New Zealand Poetry/ Ngā Kupu Tōtohu o Aotearoa. Ed. Miriama Evans, Harvey McQueen and Ian Wedde. Auckland, N.Z.: Penguin Books, 1989. 100-101.
- The speaker mourns the departure of the Te Māori taonga and greets their return by calling the taonga to ‘Stand tall!’ Te Taite Cooper wrote the music and Pa Mariu wrote the Māori lyrics and translation.
- "Ko Taku Titiro/I Gaze Out." Māori lyrics and English translation by Pā Max Mariu. The Penguin Book of Contemporary New Zealand Poetry/ Ngå Kupu Tøtohu o Aotearoa. Ed. Miriama Evans, Harvey McQueen and Ian Wedde. Auckland, N.Z.: Penguin Books, 1989. 339-340.
- In this waiata, written on the occasion of the centennial of Ngāti Tuwharetoa’s gifting of Tongariro National Park to the nation, the speaker names the tribal boundaries, rivers and mountains, and is ‘revived in the spring of Ketetahi’ as he stands by ‘Tongariro the plume of Te Arawa’.
Other
- "Māori Bishop Blesses Mural." Te Iwi o Aotearoa 14 (Oct. 1988): 1.
- Te Heuheu, Gerard. Extract of interview. Kōrero Whanau: Whanau Kōrero. 2005. No further details. Rpt in "Bishop Takuira Max Mariu." Mana 69 (Apr.-May 2006): 6-8.
- "Bishop Takuira Max Mariu." Mana 69 (Apr.-May 2006): 6-8.