View source for Arapera Blank

{{short description|New Zealand poet, writer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2022}}
{{Use New Zealand English|date=November 2021}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Arapera Blank
| honorific_suffix =
| image            =
| image_size       =
| image_upright    =
| alt              =
| caption          =
| birth_name       = Arapera Hineira Kaa
| birth_date       ={{Birth date|1932|06|07|df=y}}
| birth_place      =
| death_date       ={{Death date and age|2002|07|30|1932|06|07|df=y}}
| death_place      =
| resting_place    =
| occupation       = {{Hlist|Poet|short-story writer|teacher}}
| language         = [[Māori language|Māori]] and English
| education        = [[University of Auckland]]
| notable_works    =
| spouse           = {{Marriage|Pius Blank|1958}}
| children         = 2
| relatives        = {{plainlist}}
* [[Keri Kaa]] (sister)
* [[Hone Kaa]] (brother)
* [[Wi Kuki Kaa]] (brother)
{{endplainlist}}
| awards           = [[Katherine Mansfield Memorial Award]] (1959)
}}
'''Arapera Hineira Blank''' ({{nee|'''Kaa'''}}; 7 June 1932 – 30 July 2002) was a New Zealand poet, short-story writer and teacher. She wrote in both [[Māori language|te reo Māori]] and English, and was one of the first Māori writers to be published in English. Her work focussed on aspects of Māori life and the life of women. In 1959 she was awarded a special [[Katherine Mansfield Memorial Award]] for a bilingual essay. In 1986 she published a collection of poetry, and after her death her son published a further collection of her writing in 2015.
==Early life and family==
Blank was born in [[Rangitukia]] on New Zealand's [[East Cape]] on 7 June 1932.<ref>{{cite web |title=Births, Deaths & Marriages Online |url=https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/ |website=Department of Internal Affairs |access-date=7 August 2022}} Record 2002/18456.</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Blank, Arapera, 1932–2002|url=https://lccn.loc.gov/no2015161957|website=Library of Congress Authorities|accessdate=1 May 2016}}</ref><ref name="OCNZL">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Wattie |first=Nelson |editor1-last=Robinson |editor1-first=Roger |editor2-last=Wattie |editor2-first=Nelson |encyclopedia=The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature |title=Blank, Arapera (Hineira) |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195583489.001.0001/acref-9780195583489-e-133 |access-date=5 August 2022 |date=2006 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-1917-3519-6 |oclc=865265749 |doi=10.1093/acref/9780195583489.001.0001}}</ref> She was affiliated with the [[iwi]] (tribes) of [[Ngāti Porou]], [[Ngāti Kahungungu]], [[Rongowhakaata]] and [[Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki]].<ref name="OCNZL"/> Her father was the Reverend Tipi Whenua Kaa, from Rangitukia, who was vicar of the [[Diocese of Waiapu|Waiapu]] parish and her mother Hohipene Kaa (formerly Whaanga) was from [[Wairoa]]. Blank was one of 12 children: her siblings include the writer and [[Māori language|te reo]] advocate [[Keri Kaa]], Anglican church leader and child welfare advocate [[Hone Kaa]], and actor [[Wi Kuki Kaa]].<ref>{{cite web| title=Wi Kuka Kaa – Biography| url=http://www.nzonscreen.com/person/wi-kuki-kaa/biography| website=NZ on Screen| accessdate=10 April 2016}}</ref>
She married [[Switzerland|Swiss]]-born Pius Blank at St John’s Church, Rangitukia, in 1958. They had two children, Marino and Anton.<ref name="Spinner">{{cite news| last=Ihimaera| first=Witi| author-link=Witi Ihimaera| title=Spinner of Maori tradition| url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=2348913| website=New Zealand Herald| accessdate=10 April 2016|date=11 August 2002}}</ref><ref name="Brookes">{{cite book| last=Brookes| first=Barbara| author-link=Barbara Brookes| title=A History of New Zealand Women| date=2016| publisher=Bridget Williams Books| location=Wellington| isbn=9780908321476| page=296}}</ref>
==Career==
Blank was educated at Queen Victoria School for Māori Girls and studied anthropology at the [[University of Auckland]].<ref name ="Te Ao Hou">{{cite journal|title=Maori writer wins major award|journal=Te Ao Hou|date=December 1959|volume=29|page=4|url=http://teaohou.natlib.govt.nz/journals/teaohou/issue/Mao29TeA/c4.html|accessdate=10 April 2016}}</ref><ref name="OCNZL"/> She was a teacher for 25 years, including teaching [[Māori language|te reo Māori]] and social studies at [[Glenfield College]] and [[Auckland Girls' Grammar School]]; her pupils knew her as "Ma Blank".<ref name="Spinner"/><ref name="Kōmako"/>
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.<ref name="Anton">{{cite web|title=Anton Blank – for Someone I Love|url=http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/201771357/anton-blank-for-someone-i-love|website=Radio New Zealand|accessdate=10 April 2016}}</ref> Her short stories often dealt with aspects of Māori life and culture.<ref>{{cite book|editor=Douglas H. Bray, Clement G. N. Hill|title=Polynesian and Pakeha in New Zealand Education: Ethnic difference and the school|year=1973|publisher=Heinemann Educational Books|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8RENAQAAIAAJ&q=Arapera+Blank|page=242}}</ref> She was a member of the Maori Artists and Writers Society.<ref name="Spinner"/> She said of her two languages:<ref name="Kōmako">{{cite web |title=Arapera Hineira Kaa Blank |url=https://www.komako.org.nz/person/78 |website=Kōmako |access-date=29 November 2021}}</ref> {{blockquote|I enjoy words that sparkle, whether they be in Māori, my mother tongue, or English. What a privilege it is to inherit and to appreciate a language, and to enjoy another equally.}}
In 1959 Blank was awarded a special [[Katherine Mansfield Memorial Award]] for her essay ''Ko Taku Kumara Hei Wai-u Mo Tama'' which had been published the previous year in ''[[Te Ao Hou / The New World]]''.<ref name ='Te Ao Hou'/> In 1970 she featured in [[Margaret Orbell]]'s anthology ''Contemporary Māori Writing''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Contemporary Māori writing, selected with an introduction by Margaret Orbell. |url=https://natlib.govt.nz/records/21470250 |website=National Library of New Zealand |access-date=5 August 2022}}</ref> In 1986 her poetry collection ''Nga Kokako Huataratara: The Notched Plumes of the Kokako'' was published,<ref name="OCNZL"/> and she had poems and short stories published in [[Witi Ihimaera]]'s bilingual anthology ''Te Ao Marama: Contemporary Māori Writing'' in the 1990s.<ref name="OCNZL"/> [[Barbara Brookes]], author of ''A History of New Zealand Women'' (2016), describes Blank's work as offering "insights into Māori culture, feminism, and the dual Māori-Pakeha world she lived in".<ref name="Brookes"/>
==Legacy==
On her death in 2002, Ihimaera described her as one of three women he considered his elders in the Māori writing tradition, together with [[Kāterina Mataira]] and [[Jacquie Sturm]], and said "the whaia, the mother of the Maori writing tradition as we today practise it in that lowlier language called English, has died".<ref name="Spinner"/> In 2015, her son Anton published a collection of her short stories, poems and essays, accompanied by photos taken by her husband, under the title ''For Someone I Love''. The collection was edited by Anton and her daughter Marino.<ref name="Anton"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Blank |first1=Arapera |title=For Someone I Love: A collection of writing |date=2015 |publisher=Anton Blank Ltd |location=Auckland, New Zealand |isbn=9780473299187}}</ref> A review in ''[[Landfall (journal)|Landfall]]'' said Blank "is very well-served by this loving compilation and she should be accorded much more attribution in Aotearoa literary circles".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rapatahana |first1=Vaughan |title=Into the Boil Up |journal=Landfall Review Online |date=1 May 2016 |url=https://landfallreview.com/into-the-boil-up/ |access-date=5 August 2022}}</ref> [[Tina Makereti]] for the ''New Zealand Review of Books'' noted her "ability to fluently engage two different world views via language" and that the collection is also of historical interest as an insight into the years between 1958 and 1990.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Makereti |first1=Tina |title="We talked and we argued to keep ourselves alive" |journal=The New Zealand Review of Books |date=Autumn 2016 |issue=113 |url=https://nzbooks.org.nz/2016/literature/we-talked-and-we-argued-to-keep-ourselves-alive-tina-makereti/ |access-date=5 August 2022}}</ref>
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
* Arapera Blank, [http://teaohou.natlib.govt.nz/journals/teaohou/issue/Mao24TeA/c9.html "Ko Taku Kumara Hei Wai-u Mo Tama"], ''Te Ao Hou'', No. 24 (October 1958)
* [https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/summernoelle/audio/201785422/anton-blank Blank's son, Anton, reads two of her poems] on [[Radio New Zealand]], 13 January 2016
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blank, Arapera}}
[[Category:1932 births]]
[[Category:2002 deaths]]
[[Category:New Zealand women poets]]
[[Category:New Zealand schoolteachers]]
[[Category:People from Rangitukia]]
[[Category:Ngāti Porou people]]
[[Category:Ngāti Kahungunu people]]
[[Category:New Zealand Māori writers]]
[[Category:20th-century New Zealand writers]]
[[Category:20th-century New Zealand poets]]
[[Category:20th-century New Zealand women writers]]
[[Category:Māori-language writers]]
[[Category:20th-century New Zealand short story writers]]
[[Category:New Zealand Māori schoolteachers]]