Arapera (Ana) Molenaar was born in Nuhaka and was educated at Nuhaka Primary School and Wairoa High School. After leaving high school, Ana worked as a nurse aide at Sherwood Hospital in Napier, as a postie and mail room clerk in the Wellington Post Office, and as a supervisor at Hukarere Girls’ High School. She has subsequently worked as a bus driver and taxi driver and was employed by IHC for five years. In the 1970s Ana joined a writers’ group in Havelock and began to publish short stories and articles. A few of her articles have been published in the Daily Telegraph . Ana is a singer and has sung with Harry Brown’s band in Napier. She is a member of the Napier Country Music Club and has a weekly one-hour programme on country music on Radio Kidnappers Station. She has performed in repertory in Napier. In 1997 Ana studied multi-media and computer studies at Eastern Institute of Technology in Taradale. She is currently a supervisor at Lincoln Grange in Napier
Biographical sources
- Phone conversation with Ana Molenaar, August 3, 1998.
Fiction
- "The Morepork." Te Ao Hou 73 (1973): 15-16.
- Ana writes of a childhood reminiscence concerning a morepork.
- "Whaaki." Te Ao Hou 74 (1973): 19-21.
- Arapera describes the traditional practices employed by Whaaki in making gaffs for eeling and planting kumara by the phases of the moon.
Non-fiction
- "Smith Family Reunion." Te Ao Hou 73 (1973): 42-44.
- Ana provides an account of a family reunion held during Easter 1973 of 700 descendants of Johann Hacken Schmidt (John Jackson Smith) and Tauarai Paraparakurekure at Nuhaka.