Erana Reedy was born in Te Puia Springs and was educated at Manutahi Primary School, Hiruharama Primary School, St Joseph’s Māori Girls’ College and Lytton High School. She continued her studies at Waikato University and left in 1986 to take a position as a reporter for TVNZ’s Te Karere. While with Te Karere, Reedy attended Auckland Technical Institute and was awarded a Certificate of Television Journalism in 1986. She also received a Certificate of Journalism from Waiariki Polytechnic in 1987. She left Te Karere in 1989 and from 1990-91 worked as a bilingual radio journalist for Mana Māori Media. In 1991 Reedy returned to Ruatoria and from 1994-96 was Kaiwhakarite Kaupapa for Te Puni Kokiri’s Gisborne Office. Based in Ruatoria, the position involved the facilitation of local services. Reedy graduated with a B.A. in Māori and Education and a Certificate of Bilingual Studies from Waikato University in 1995. In the following year she worked briefly as a policy analyst for Te Runanga o Ngāti Porou, assisting with the development of Human Resource Management (HRM) policies. From 1996-97 she was Corporate Services Manager at Te Runanga o Ngāti Porou, managing finance, administration, HRM system and services to the Board. In June 1997 Reedy left the Runanga to become an independent consultant and since then has worked on a range of projects which have included the updating of the database of Māori Disability Service Providers and some initial research for the Ngāti Porou Intellectual Property Rights Claim to the Waitangi Tribunal. She has also worked on the production of a 50-minute television documentary on Ngāti Porou Customary Fishing. She has written non-fiction articles for the Rotorua Daily Post, and press releases for Runanga o Ngāti Porou for the Gisborne Herald and other national newspapers. She has written articles on the Te Runanga o Ngāti Porou Review for Te Puni Kokiri’s Kokiri Paetae and an article about the Te Runanga o Ngāti Porou Customary Fisheries Video for Te Ohu Kaimoana’s newsletter, Te Tini a Tangaroa. Reedy is currently producing the Te Runanga o Ngāti Porou’s bi-monthly newsletter, Nati Link, and is also working on the Whaia te iti Kahurangi, Strengthening East Coast Schools Project. She has always actively participated in her children’s education, playing a supportive role in Whakarua Kohanga Reo, and working as a Trustee of Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Waiu o Ngāti Porou. Reedy is Secretary of the Ruatoria Junior Advisory Rugby Board, and Te Aowera/Te Aitanga a Mate Hapu Development Unit. She is looking at producing Māori language programmes for Radio Ngāti Porou and hopes to conduct a research project about the Waiapu River.
Biographical sources
- Correspondence and phone conversation with Erana Reedy, 11 Feb. and 13 Sept. 1998.
Fiction
- "Life at Waitaiki." Erana Reedy. Illus. Gus Hunter. School Journal 4.3 (1993): 14-20. Rpt. in Te Ao Mārama: Contemporary Māori Writing for Children. Comp. and ed. Witi Ihimaera. Contributing ed. Haare Williams, Irihapeti Ramsden and D. S. Long. Vol. 4: Te Ara o Te Hau: The Path of the Wind. Auckland, N.Z.: Reed, 1994. 49-52.
- Erana Reedy’s Aunty Mana recounts her childhood years growing up on a dairy farm in the 1940s in Waitaiki on the East Coast.
- "Te Ana o Te Rau." Nā David Burke Ngā Pikitia [Illus. David Burke]. Te Tautoko 27. Wellington, N.Z.: Learning Media, 1996. 14-17.
- Erana Reedy states that this is ‘fictional story about Te Rina who goes to the beach and while sleeping dreams about entering a cave full of every seafood imaginable and in the middle of the cave finds a huge kina. The kina is crying and when she breaks it a young man appears. Te Rau, had been imprisoned in the kina by Tangaroa, God of the Sea, for being greedy while collecting kaimoana and taking more than he needed. Te Rau gives Te Rina his pounamu pendant, and when she awakes she still has the pendant, but Te Rau is gone.’
Non-fiction
- "A Passion For Māori Music." Mana: The Māori News Magazine for All New Zealanders 1 (1993): 67.
- A profile of Ngahiwi Apanui.
- "The Voice of the Coast." Mana: The Māori News Magazine for All New Zealanders 18 (1997): 17. 24-27.
Poetry
- "Poti Pango." He Kohikohinga. Ed. Maringi Riddell. Wellington, N.Z.: Learning Media, 1994. No further details.
- Poem from a child’s perspective about his black cat.
- "PCA Ducks at Duck Shooting Time." Return to Sender: What really happened at the fiscal envelope hui. Wira Gardiner. Auckland, N.Z.: Reed Consumer, 1996. 145-146.
- The poem is about being ‘messengers’ carrying the message (the fiscal envelope) and getting caught in the crossfire.
- "Armouralled." Return to Sender: What really happened at the fiscal envelope hui. Wira Gardiner. Auckland, N.Z.: Reed Consumer, 1996. 147-148.
- Erana Reedy writes that this poem ‘talks about preparing for the hui and the negativity toward the envelope.’
- "Ko te whakaaro whakamutunga." Return to Sender: What really happened at the fiscal envelope hui. Wira Gardiner. Auckland, N.Z.: Reed Consumer, 1996. 149-150.
- Erana Reedy states this poem ‘is a reflection of the consultation round and what impact the fiscal envelope had on iwi.’