Maui Pomare was born in Lower Hutt, the son of Rakaherea Woodbine and Madge Helen Pomare, and was educated at Wanganui Collegiate School. He continued his studies at Massey University where he graduated with a Diploma in Sheep Farming in 1964. In 1969 Pomare married Marie Louise Hiraani Logal and had two children. Pomare becames a lecturer in agriculture at the Central Institute of Technology in the Hutt Valley. He worked at the Technical Correspondence Institute and later at the Open Polytechnic. He was an agronomist and visiting lecturer on Māori taonga at Massey University. From 1971-83 he chaired the Raukawa Trustees. In 1980 Pomare was awarded a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship and researched Māori artefacts held in overseas private collections and museums, specifically those dating from before the period of European contact. He was a Justice of the Peace and in 1984 received the OBE for services to Māori history and artefact research. Pomare wrote the introduction to the Catalogue of the Māori Exhibition, Te Ao Māori, at the Irish National Museum in Dublin in 1990. He also wrote the history and showed the pieces of taonga relevant to a Treaty Claim by Ngāti Mutunga. Pomare was on the advisory committee for Māori buildings in the Historic Places Trust. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and Agriculture and was a Wenergrin Foundation Scholar. He received the 1990 Commemorative Medal for services to the Museum of New Zealand. He was a member of many company directorships including Māori International Ltd, Radio FM90 Ltd, and TV3 News. He was a member of the Project Development Board for the Museum of New Zealand. He was a trustee of the National Art Gallery, National Museum and National War Memorial. He chaired the National Museum Council. He was a member of the Wellington Fish and Game Council and the Agricultural Strategy Council. He chaired the Wakatu Incorporation, QEII Trust, Land Use Advisory Council, and the New Zealand Institute of Agricultural Science Wellington Branch. He was president of the New Zealand Society of Farm Management. He was a foundation trustee of WWFNZ, a former member of the NZ Historic Places Trust Council, and was national president of the Royal Federation of NZ Justices.
Biographical sources
- Phone conversation and correspondence with the Pomare family, 6 Aug. 1998.
- New Zealand Who’s Who Aotearoa. Ed. Alister Taylor. Vol. 1. Auckland, N.Z.: New Zealand Who’s Who Aotearoa, 1992. 231.
- New Zealand’s Who’s Who Aotearoa. Ed. Alister Taylor. 1994 ed. Auckland, N.Z.: New Zealand Who’s Who Aotearoa, 1994. 525.
- "The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust." Tu Tangata 1 (1981): 33.
- "Maui’s mission devoted to uncovering taonga." Tu Tangata 22 (1985): 14.
Non-fiction
- "The National Museum." AGMANZ Journal 15.4 (Dec 1984): 22.
- As a trustee of the National Art Gallery, National Museum and National War Memorial, Pomare writes of the significance of the National Museum in containing the ‘largest and most important single collection of Māori artefacts in the world.’
- "Marine Disposal Of Wastewater: Māori View Opposed To Marine Disposal Of Sewage." New Zealand Engineering 43.6 (1988): 11.
- Introduction. Te Ao Māori: the Māori World. Stella Cherry. Introd. Maui Pomare. Dublin, Ire.: National Museum of Ireland, 1990. 7-8.
- Pomare writes of the origins and mythology of the Māori and discusses Māori taonga taken to Ireland by James Patten during Captain Cook’s voyages. This was an exhibition in 1990 of Māori taonga housed in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin.
Other
- "The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust." Tu Tangata 1 (Aug./Sept. 1981): 33.
- A brief coverage of Pomare’s 1980 study trip to examine Māori artefacts in museums and private collections as a recipient of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship.
- "Maui’s mission devoted to uncovering taonga." Tu Tangata 22 (Feb/Mar 1985): 14.
- A discussion of Pomare’s work in researching and discovering Māori artefacts located overseas. Pomare states that he has ‘accounted for about 10,000 separate pieces of artefacts in Europe and North America alone.’ Pomare does not advocate the wholesale return of all Māori artefacts back to New Zealand but only those with ‘tribal significance, personal connection or of other major importance’. He also comments on the issue of the appropriate setting for housing artefacts - marae or museum.