In 1937 Waiora Port was enrolled at Ahipara Native School and in 1940 moved with her family to Auckland where she attended Napier Street School and Auckland Girls’ Grammar School. She later went to Teachers’ College and became a Primary School Teacher.
Biographical sources
- Port, Waiora. "Assimilation: Mission Accomplished." Te Pua 2.1 & 2 (1993): 8-9.
Non-fiction
- "Assimilation: Mission Accomplished." Te Pua 2.1 & 2 (1993): 8-9.
- Port recounts her experience as a Māori pupil in three New Zealand schools in the late 1930s and early 1940s noting the absence of Māori subject matter in the curriculum, the lack of Māori teachers, and the low expectations placed on Māori students. The heritage of this education left Port feeling ‘a failure at school and rather dumb.’