Aroha Yates-Smith

Greta Regina Aroha Yates-Smith, known as Aroha Yates-Smith, is a New Zealand performer and academic, who affiliates to Te Arawa, Tainui, Takitimu, Horouta, and Mataatua. She is known for her research into Māori female deities. Early life and education Yates-Smith grew up in Rotorua. As a child, she had wanted to know why there was a lack of stories about female Māori goddesses. Yates Smith completed a Masters degree and taught the Māori language before undertaking a PhD to look for lost stories of Māori female deities. She has composed work and done vocal work including the DVD Tau te Mauri Breath of Peace, which won the Sonja Davies Peace Award in 2005, and the 2007 film He Oranga He Oranga Healing Journeys, which received a Commended World Peace Film Award at the World Peace Film and Music Festival in Lucknow, India. The exhibition reinterpreted the story of Hine-tītama /Hine-nui-te-pō, the woman who became the goddess of death in Māori mythology. In 2017, she was selected as one of the Royal Society Te Apārangi's 150 women in 150 words.

Family Yates-Smith lives in Hamilton with her husband, Lloyd Smith, and three children.

Selected works