Keri Kaa

Hohi Ngapera Te Moana Keri Kaa (194226 August 2020) was a New Zealand writer, educator, and advocate for the Māori language. She was of Ngāti Porou and Ngāti Kahungunu descent. Family and education Kaa was born in 1942 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. Kaa was one of 12 children: her siblings include her late brother Hone Kaa, Anglican church leader and child welfare advocate, her late sister Arapera Blank, a writer and poet, and her late brother Wi Kuki Kaa, a well-known actor. Kaa attended Queen Victoria School for Māori Girls and Auckland Girls' Grammar. She spent a year in America after high school on an American Field Service scholarship and then attended Ardmore Teachers' College where in her second year she became the first woman to be the College President. She graduated with her teaching diploma in 1964; in 2013 she completed a Master of Arts through Te Wānanga o Raukawa.