Te Ringa Mangu Netana Mihaka was born at Te Ahuahu, the son of Te Aroha and Hone Mihaka, and was educated at Te Ahuahu Māori School and Northland College. He worked as a labourer and joined the Army. He played one of the leading roles in the 1975 land march. He is a senior partner in the publishing company Te Ringa Mangu Ltd.
Biographical sources
- Phone conversation with Dun Mihaka, 11 July 2004.
- New Zealand Who’s Who Aotearoa. Ed. Alister Taylor. Vol. One. Auckland, N.Z.: New Zealand Who’s Who Aotearoa Limited, 1992: 198.
- Te Ao Mārama: Regaining Aotearoa: Māori Writers Speak Out. Comp. and ed. Witi Ihimaera. Contributing ed. Haare Williams, Irihapeti Ramsden and D. S. Long. Vol. 2: He Whakaatanga O Te Ao: The Reality. Auckland, N.Z.: Reed, 1993. 236.
Non-fiction
- "Te Hono ki Waitangi (The Waitangi Connection)." Republican: A magazine of left-wing analysis and discussion 46 (July 1983): 16-17.
- Mihaka observes that when protesters challenge the status quo they meet the full weight of ‘the State’s police, its courts, and if necessary (as at Bastion Point, 1978) its military’. He also comments on the impact of his whakapohane towards Charles and Diana during their Royal Visit.
- Introduction. Te Hono Ki Riipia - The Libyan Connection. Introd. Dun Mihaka. Ed. Marama Laurenson. Wellington, N.Z.: Te Ringa Mangu, 1989. 3-13.
- Mihaka writes of the kaupapa of Te Hono Ki Riipia and discusses the contact between New Zealand and Libya, and the interventionist role of the United States. Mihaka comments on the controversial Māori study tours to Libya, provides a critique of the Māori nationalist movement in its various forms, and expresses sentiments of support for the ‘general study of the Libyan people’
- Whakapohane: I Na Tuohu Koe Me Mea Hei Maunga Tei Tei. Porirua, N.Z.: Ruatara Publications, 1984. Re-issued as Whakapohane 1990. By Dun Mihaka and Diane Prince. Ed. Marama Laurenson. Wellington, N.Z.: Te Ringa Mangu, 1989.
- Co-authors Te Ringa Mihaka and Diane Prince.
- "Ki Te Whei-Ao - Ki Te Ao-Marama..." Ed. Marama Laurenson. Wellington, N.Z.: Te Ringa Mangu, 1989. 2nd ed.1989.
- The first part of this book is entitled "Ki Te Whei-Ao..." and is composed of six chapters in which Mihaka gives an autobiographical account of different tangihanga he has attended and his break with the ‘traditional spirits and gods’ and other Māori traditions. In the thirteen chapters of "Ki Te Ao-Marama..." Mihaka outlines his belief in the materialist world devoid of spiritual origins. Quoting from Marxist philosophy Mihaka asserts that ‘all kaupapa or philosophies’ are either materialist or idealist and he discusses the six modes of production outlined by Marx. Mihaka examines some aspects of Māoridom from a Marxist viewpoint and quotes largely from Mao Tse Tung, Lenin, Marx and Engels
- Te Hono Ki Riipia - The Libyan Connection. Introd. Dun Mihaka. Ed. Marama Laurenson. Wellington, N.Z.: Te Ringa Mangu, 1989.
- Te Hono Ki Riipia contains eight addresses presented by Muammar Al Qaddafi in Tripoli in the early 1980s at a series of meetings which Mihaka states were held for the purpose of ‘establishing a World Mathaba to form a united effort to resist imperialism - and in particular American imperialism.’
- "Iwi Authorities Divisive..." Te Iwi o Aotearoa 38 (Nov 1990): 18.
- A short article composed of various quotations by Mihaka concerning the Runanga-a-Iwi Act which Mihaka asserts is ‘the most destructive piece of legislation in the history of Māoridom....[and] precipitates the feuding nature of Māoridom and gives legal sanctity to that.’
- "New World View Required." "Ki Te Whei-Ao - Ki Te Ao-Marama: Out of the World of Darkness into the World of Light." Ed. Marama Laurenson. Wellington, N.Z.: Te Ringa Mangu, 1989. No further details. Rpt in Te Ao Mārama: Regaining Aotearoa: Māori Writers Speak Out. Comp. and ed. Witi Ihimaera. Contributing ed. Haare Williams, Irihapeti Ramsden and D. S. Long. Vol. 2: He Whakaatanga O Te Ao: The Reality. Auckland, N.Z.: Reed, 1993. 236-237.
- In this article Mihaka urges Māori not to look backwards into the past but to see themselves as ‘an integral part’ of the South Pacific and the wider world community. He advocates the adoption of ‘a rational, commonsense approach to the whole of life with the same spirit of inquiry that characterised the Renaissance’ and adds that ‘[t]he key to rational thinking is that everything must justify its existence before the throne of reason or be dispensed with.’
Other
- "Maaori Votes Don’t Count." Te Iwi o Aotearoa 42 (Mar 1991): 12.
- "Nothing sacred in Mihaka book." The Evening Post 16 May 1989: 33.
- Comment on Mihaka’s Ki Te Whei-Ao, Ki Te Ao-Marama which was launched on June 2 1989.
- "Whakapohane - the end of the tale." Tu Tangata 21 (Dec 1984/Jan 1985): 22.
- A short background to Mihaka’s book Whakapohane and Tim Shadbolt’s introduction to the book.
- 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. 21.
Reviews
Whakapohane.
- Nathan, Jenny. "Whakapohane." Race Gender Class 2 (1985): 67.