Hemi Nikora was born in Hiruharama and was educated at Otaki Convent School, Horowhenua College and Hato Paora College. Nikora studied at Massey University and is currently studying Matauranga Māori at Te Wananga o Raukawa. He was a Māori All Black in 1963 and an All Black trialist. He wrote articles about rugby, has a passion for whakapapa and has done a lot of research on whakapapa. Nikora has worked in Māori Affairs in the Māori Land Court. Most of his writing now is about making people aware of who their ancestors are. Nikora would like to publish a book of photographs about people from Jerusalem.
Biographical sources
- Phone conversation August 1998.
Non-fiction
- "Unusual memorial unveiled at reunion." Tu Tangata 12 (June/July 1983): 30-31.
- Nikora writes of the unveiling of the stainless steel pyramid-shaped memorial to the deceased descendants of Maika and Harata Takarore during the Takarore family reunion at Raukawa Marae in Otaki in 1982/83.
- "Golden Oldies take the field." Tu Tangata 12 (June/July 1983): 36.
- Nikora gives notice of the Third International Golden Oldies Rugby Tournament to be held in Po Hakena Sydney in July 1983 which he surmises would be well-attended by ‘numerous Māori greats of past years.’
- "Connections." Otaki Historical Society: Historical Journal 11 (1988): 90-92.
- In his study of burials at Rangiatea, Nikora discusses the various Ngāti Raukawa sub-tribes that are currently located in and around Otaki and notes that another sub-tribe, Ngāti Turanga, situated some distance away from Otaki near Foxton, also has a number of people buried in Rangiatea. Nikora gives brief biographies of these tipuna.
- "An Otaki Family: a Māori Perspective." Otaki Historical Society: Historical Journal 12 (1989): 8.
- Nikora provides a short history of Maiha and Harata Takarore, ancestors of the wider Takarore family who have met together in four family reunions over recent years.
Poetry
- "Ancestors." Otaki Historical Society: Historical Journal 11 (1988): 92.
- The speaker addresses his deceased tipuna lying in untended graves, ‘[u]nknown forgotten and forlorn’, and he articulates his desire to seek their identity and remove the ‘moss and weeds’ from their graves.