Te Pehi Parata was born in Waikanae and was educated at Waikanae Primary School and Hato Paora College in Fielding. Parata worked for the Gear Meat Company in Petone and worked for Māori Affairs in the Levin and Porirua Offices. In later years he was Secretary of the Otaki Porirua Trust Board, a three iwi organisation, and worked in administration for the two farms and Te Wananga o Raukawa. He served on Māori health boards in Wellington and was chair of the Whakarongotai Marae in Waikanae. He was the founder of Wharekohu Fisheries in Waikanae and wrote several reports on customary fishing rights for local iwi in the 1980s. He was one of the three founders of the Gold Coast Rugby League Club in 1973.
Biographical sources
- Phone conversation with Tutere Parata, 19 July 1998.
- Parata, Pehi and Atihana Johns. "Land: Getting It Together." Te Kaea: The Māori Magazine 3 (1980): 7.
Non-fiction
- "Seafood." Te Ao Hou 75 (1974): 3.
- Parata writes of a fishing excursion for paua, kina, crabs and crayfish and notes sadly that paua, kina and crayfish are becoming harder to find.
- "Land: Getting It Together." Pehi Parata and Atihana Johns. Te Kaea: The Māori Magazine 3 (1980): 7-8.
- Co-authored with Atihana Johns.
Other
- Te Ao Hou 75 (1974): 2.
- Parata protests at the imposition of regulations controlling the amount of shellfish taken from New Zealand coastlines. He contends that Māori have always ‘believed in preservation’ and that the current regulations permit commercial fishermen to take vast amounts of shellfish while others may only take small amounts.