Taiarahia Tai Black

Ngāi Tūhoe, Te Whānau a Apanui, Te Arawa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāi Te Rangi



Taiarahia Black was born in Whakatane and educated at Ruatoki Primary School, Kawerau College, and St Stephen’s School. He studied at the University of Waikato and in 1981 started working as a junior lecturer in the Māori Studies Department at Massey University; he is currently a Senior Lecturer at the same institution. His qualifications include: "two lovely boys, a dad involved in Kōhanga Reo and Kaupapa Māori and he is happily married." He has written some 23 papers since 1982 some of which are for tribal viewing only and others which are for public viewing. He has also compiled audio visual work. His PhD is on traditional waiata of the Tuhoe people. Over the last ten years he has been publishing traditional songs of Tuhoe, filming people performing these waiata. He has written plays and poems in a classroom setting. Two papers were written in 1986 and 1987 for the London Ethnographic Film Conference and the Museum of Mankind Spring lecture series hosted by the Anthropological Institute and Raymond Firth. His written material comes from the collective wisdom of many people, and when he delivers his papers he brings those people with him.

Biographical sources

  • Interview with Tai Black, 31 Aug 1992.

    Non-fiction

  • "Citation for the Conferment of the Degree of Doctor of Literature (Honoris Causa), Massey University, May 1996: Clifford Hamilton Whiting." He Pukenga Kōrero: A Journal of Māori Studies 2.1 (Spr. 1996): 8-11.
  • Co-authored with Mason Durie.
  • "Toi Te Kupu." Clifford Hamilton Whiting.” He Pukenga Kōrero: A Journal of Māori Studies 2.1 (Spr. 1996): 26-33.
  • Co-authors S. A. McKinley, T. E. Black, I. S. Christensen, and P. Richardson.
  • "Whaihua Tatau." He Pukenga Kørero: A Journal of Måori Studies 2.1 (Spr. 1996): 34-42.
  • Co-authors E. D. Fitzgerald, M. H. Durie, T. E. Black, A. E. Durie, I. S. Christensen, and J. T Taiapa.
  • "He Poroporoaki." He Pukenga Kōrero: A Journal of Māori Studies 2.1 (1996): n.pag.
  • "Kei Tua Ko Te Papa E Arohatia Nei: Where It Shadows From My View The Land That I Love." Annual Journal – NZ Society for Music Therapy. 2001: 9-15.
  • "E toru ngā tauira mo te hononga ki te Māori ki te Pākehā mo te umanga taha ture." Victoria University of Wellington law review 39.3 (2008): 487-495
  • Co-authors Carwyn Jones.
  • Puna o te ora : kaumātua rauemi. Ed. Taiarahia Black. Wellington, N.Z. : Te Rau Matatini, 2011.
  • Conversations on mātauranga Māori. Ed. Professor Taiarahia Black, Daryn Bean, Waireka Collings and Whitney Nuku. Wellington, N.Z.: NZQA, 2012.
  • "Te koko ki Ōhiwa = The surge at Ōhiwa." Professor Taiarahia Black. Enhancing mātauranga Māori and global indigenous knowledge. Ed. Carol Buchanan, Whitney Nuku and Ben Ngaia. Wellington, N.Z.: NZQA, 2014.
  • "nā Pikihuia Te Ngahuru." Toitū̄ te whare. Ed. Agnes McFarland and Taiarahia Black. Te Wellington. N.Z.: NZCER Press : NZARE Māori Caucus : Te Wāhanga, 2015.
  • "That's my Nan!" Pū kāea, (Jun 2016): 19-22.
  • Other

  • Book of proceedings : Hui Mana Tohu Mātauranga Conference, Waiwhetu marae, 24 June 2009. Ed. Waireka Collings [et. al.]. Wellington, N.Z. : New Zealand Qualifications Authority, 2010
  • Book of proceedings : Hui Mana Tohu Mātauranga Conference, Waiwhetu marae, 24 June 2009. Comp. Ed.Waireka Collings [et. al.]. Wellington, N.Z: New Zealand Qualifications Authority. 2010.
  • Reviews

  • Rev. of He Whiriwhiringa, ed. Bruce Biggs. He Pukenga Kōrero: A Journal of Māori Studies 3.1 (Sum. 1997): 54-56.
  • Rev. of Rangiātea, by Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa and Te Roopu Whakahaere o Rangiātea. He Pukenga Kōrero: A Journal of Māori Studies 3.2 (Aut. 1998): 71-72.
  • Rev. of He Tipua: The Life And Times of Sir ā pirana Ngata, by Ranginui Walker. He Pukenga Kōrero: A Journal of Māori Studies 6.2 (Aut. 2001): 40.
  • Theses

  • "Kāore Te Aroha - : Te Hua o Te Wānanga." Doctor of Philsophy thesis in Māori Studies. Massey U, Palmerston North, Mar. 2000.