Rora Paki-Titi

Rora Paki-Titi was born at Ridgelands near Feilding, the daughter of Sydney Hynes and Makareta Pepene Pohārama. She was educated at a small country school near Makino where she was the only Māori girl. She taught herself Māori and took music lessons for five years. Rora wanted to become a teacher but her father, a well-educated man from Dublin, dissuaded her because he considered it degrading for his daughters to obtain employment. Instead of teaching, Rora milked cows, made homemade butter, sold mushrooms and continued music lessons. Her mother was from South Westland and raised her children with a strong Biblical background. Rora married Mahuri Paki-Titi in 1935 and had ten children. Rora and Mahuri farmed a small holding among the hills of Oparure near Te Kuiti and Rora helped establish a kindergarten in Oparure.

Rora began writing as a young girl: one of her half-sisters urged her to pursue writing because she wrote such beautiful letters. In 1920 she wrote for the New Zealand Exporter using a number of pseudonyms including “Abraham”. She signed some of her short stories “Rora” because she maintained “there are thousands of Paki’s”. Rora has written many stories and poetry that have been published in the Wharekura series, Te Ao Hou, and Contemporary Māori Writing. Her work has also been published in Sweden and by the New Zealand Literary Society of Japan. In 1998 her book, Rangimarie: Recollections of Her Life published by Huia Publishers was launched at Oparure Marae. At the age of 90, Rora sang one of her own waiata onto the Oparure Kura Fund Raising CD.

Rora was a foundation member of the Māori Women’s Welfare League and researched the effects of Women’s Suffrage on Māori women. For two years Rora had a weekly Māori news slot for the Māori Women’s Welfare League on Radio Waitomo entitled “Here Comes Rora”. In 1991 she was awarded the MBE for services to her community.

Biographical sources

• Phone call and correspondence from Rora Paki-Titi, 25 and 30 March 1998.
• Interview with Rora Paki-Titi at Nga Puna Waihanga Hui, Omaka Marae, 1992. Correspondence with Rora Evans 19 July 2005.
• Correspondence from Ngahau Cunningham, 27 July and 23 December 2004.
• Paki-Titi, Rora. Rangimarie. Recollections of Her Life. Wellington, N.Z.: Huia Publishers, 1998.
• "Notes on Contributors." Contemporary Māori Writing. Ed. Margaret Orbell. Wellington, N.Z.: Reed, 1970. 147-150.
• New Zealand Who’s Who Aotearoa. Ed. Alister Taylor. Vol. 1. Auckland, N.Z.: New Zealand Who’s Who Aotearoa, 1992: 222.