Kaikapo Rangihaeata

Kaikapo Rangihaeata was born in Patea and was educated at Whenuakura Primary School, Kakaramea Primary School, Patea High School, Mana College, and Hawera High School. He worked on the waterfront in Wellington for seven years, in Mt Maunganui for two years and in New Plymouth for one year. While he was working in Mt Maunganui he began wood carving. He returned home to Patea for fifteen years because of ill health in his family and an unconscious pull to learn his taha Māori. In 1983 he was an administrator, planner and supervisor at Rangitaawhi Marea Enterprise Trust and in 1984 he taught at Patea High School. In 1985 Rangihaeata was a woodcarving tutor at New Plymouth Polytech and in that year he attended a one-week introductory journalism course at Wellington and began extra-mural studies at Massey University. In 1986 Rangihaeata was a researcher for Te Korimako Māori Health in Wanganui and from 1989 he spent three years at Palmerston North Training College. In 1994 he was an adult educator at Tangaroa College East Tamaki and a teacher at Hillary College in Otara. He graduated with a B.Ed in 1995 and completed an adult teaching certificate and other modules at Manukau Polytech in Auckland. Rangihaeata has worked as a woodcarving tutor at Whaiora Marae Trust in Otara and in 1996 began a Masters in Education at Auckland University. He is currently completing his final M.Ed papers on literacy and international issues in indigenous culture; he is specifically looking at the Lubicon Cree Indians in Alberta. In 1997 he completed a Certificate in Social and Community Work at Manukau Institute of Technology and in 1998 he began tutoring wood carving at Aronui Technical Training Centre. He has written non-fiction articles.

Biographical sources

• Phone conversation and correspondence with Kaikapo Rangihaeata, 15 July and 11 Aug. 1998.