She was born in Ōpōtiki and educated at Bainesse School in Foxton, Te Aro School in Wellington, and Te Kaha Māori District School. From 1984-86 she worked on a Continuing Education Certificate in Social Studies at Victoria University. Tiaki has always been interested in writing, and when she attended a writing workshop at the Learning Connexion it took away her writing blocks; since then she has continued to write. She has attended a number of other writing workshops some organised by Huia Publishers, the Women’s Centre, Te Ha writers’ hui, and she continues to go to writing classes. She is a mother of three and a grandmother of five. Tiaki states: "Although I have always loved writing, I lacked confidence and would hide everything I wrote in case people laughed at my mistakes." Her story "The Funnel Web Spider" is being translated into German and reprinted in a collection of short stories taken from the Huia collections of Māori writing of 1995 and 1997. It is also being included in a German collection published by Isele. She wrote "The Funnel Web Spider" under the name Jacqui Brown. In 2002 she began writing short stories for Learning Media school journals. She writes whanau stories from all the areas she is affiated with. She has also written under the name Jacqui Brown.
Biographical sources
- Correspondence, phone conversation and interviews with Tiaki Brown, 24 Oct., 1997, 31 Aug. 1998, and 17 Oct. 2008.
- Huia Short Stories 1995. Wellington, N.Z.: Huia, 1995. 135.
Fiction
- "The Funnel Web Spider." Huia Short Stories 1995. Wellington, N.Z.: Huia, 1995. 21-27.
- A story about the implications of sexual abuse. This story was a finalist in the Huia Publishers Māori Writers’ short story competitions of 1995.
- "The Whispering Bush." Huia Short Stories 3. Wellington, N.Z.: Huia, 1999. 19-27.
- "The Facts of Life." Huia Short Stories 6. Contemporary Māori Fiction. Wellington, N.Z.: Huia, 2005. 1-15.