Keri Kaa

Hohi Ngapera Te Moana Keri Kaa (known as Keri Kaa) is a New Zealand-born writer, educator and advocate for Te Reo Māori. She is of Ngati Porou and Ngati Kahungungu descent.

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, 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 Teacher's 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 Wananga o Raukawa.

Kaa taught at primary schools in Rangitukia, Wellington and the Hawke's Bay, and secondary schools in the Hutt Valley. For fifteen years she was a lecturer at Wellington Teachers College where she played a significant part in the founding and running of the college marae, Te Ako Pai. During her time in Wellington Kaa was involved with the Haeata Women's Collective (a group of Māori women artists), the Herstory diary project, and the Waiata Koa collective.

After returning to Rangitukia, Kaa has both taught and studied at the Te Wananga o Raukawa campus at Hicks Bay.

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