Arapera Blank

Arapera Hineira Blank (; 7 June 1932 – 30 July 2002) was a New Zealand poet, short-story writer and teacher. She wrote in both 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. She was affiliated with the iwi (tribes) of Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Kahungungu, Rongowhakaata and Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki.

She married Swiss-born Pius Blank at St John’s Church, Rangitukia, in 1958. They had two children, Marino and Anton.

Career Blank was educated at Queen Victoria School for Māori Girls and studied anthropology at the University of Auckland. Her short stories often dealt with aspects of Māori life and culture. She was a member of the Maori Artists and Writers Society.

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. In 1986 her poetry collection Nga Kokako Huataratara: The Notched Plumes of the Kokako was published, A review in Landfall said Blank "is very well-served by this loving compilation and she should be accorded much more attribution in Aotearoa literary circles". 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.