Name Arapera Kaa | Role Poet | |
Arapera Hineira Kaa Blank (7 June 1932 – 2002) was a Māori poet and teacher. She was of Ngati Porou and Ngati Kahungungu descent.
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Family
Blank was born in Rangitukia on New Zealand's East Cape. Her father was the Reverend Tipi Whenua Kaa, from Rangitukia, who was vicar of the Waiapu parish and her mother Hohipene Kaa (formerly Whaanga) was from Wairoa. Blank was one of 12 children: her siblings include her writer and te reo advocate Keri Kaa, Hone Kaa, an Anglican church leader, child welfare advocate, and Wi Kuki Kaa, a well-known actor. She was married to Swiss-born Pius Blank for 44 years and had two children, Marino and Anton.
Career
Blank was one of a small group of Māori writers writing in English during the 1950s, and one of New Zealand's first bilingual poets. She was educated at Queen Victoria School for Māori Girls and studied anthropology at the University of Auckland.
In 1959 Blank was awarded a special Katherine Mansfield Memorial award for her essay Ko taku kumara hei wai-u mo taku whanau which had been published the previous year in Te Ao Hou. Barbara Brookes, author of the recent book A History of New Zealand Women, describes Blank's work as offering 'insights into Māori culture,feminism, and the dual Māori-Pakeha world she lived in.'
For the last ten years of her working life Blank taught te reo Māori at Auckland Girls' Grammar School where the girls knew her as "Ma Blank".