Rotorua is a city in the Bay of Plenty Region of New Zealand's North Island. It is sited on the southern shores of Lake Rotorua, from which it takes its name. It is the seat of the Rotorua Lakes District, a territorial authority encompassing Rotorua and several other nearby towns. It has an estimated resident population of 58,900, making it the country's 13th largest urban area, and the Bay of Plenty's second-largest urban area behind Tauranga.
Sir Howard Leslie Morrison was a New Zealand entertainer. From 1964 until his death in 2009, he was one of New Zealand's leading television and concert performers.
Te Karere is a news and current affairs show that was New Zealand's first Māori language television programme. Te Karere is broadcast on Television New Zealand's TVNZ 1 at 4:00 pm on weekdays after Tipping Point and repeated 1:05 am and 5:35 am the following day. The focus of the programme is content which is of national significance to the targeted Māori audience.
Miriama Te Rangimarie Smith is a New Zealand film and television actress who has played roles in various TV shows such as Xena: Warrior Princess, Karaoke High and Shortland Street. Her best-known roles, however, were the role of Moz in the third season of The Tribe, and also the role of Elsa / Principal Randall in the 2004 Power Rangers series, Power Rangers Dino Thunder. She was one of the three judges on the first season of entertainment show New Zealand's Got Talent that aired on Prime TV in 2008. She starred as Brady Trubridge on the TVNZ 2 drama series Filthy Rich.
Tāmati Gerald Coffey is a New Zealand broadcaster, politician, and former Member of Parliament.
Ngāti Pikiao is a Māori iwi of New Zealand.
Ngāti Rangiwewehi is an iwi of the Te Arawa confederation of tribes.
Ngāti Whakaue is a Māori iwi, of the Te Arawa confederation of New Zealand, tracing its descent from Whakaue Kaipapa, son of Uenuku-kopakō, and grandson of Tūhourangi. The tribe lives in the Rotorua district and descends from the Arawa waka. The Ngāti Whakaue village Ōhinemutu is within the township of Rotorua. The Ngāti Whakaue chief Pūkākī is depicted on the New Zealand 20 cent coin.
Tūhourangi is a Māori iwi of New Zealand with a rohe centered on Lake Tarawera, Lake Rotomahana, Lake Okaro, Lake Okareka, Lake Rotokākahi, Lake Tikitapu and Lake Rotorua.
Te Ure o Uenukukōpako is a Māori iwi of the Te Arawa confederation in the Bay of Plenty of New Zealand.
Toi whakairo or just whakairo (carving) is a Māori traditional art of carving in wood, stone or bone.
Michael Te Arawa Bennett is a New Zealand writer, screenwriter and director for film and television.
Tene Waitere was a New Zealand Māori carver from the Rotorua district. He identified with the Ngāti Tarāwhai and Te Arawa iwi. His mother was Ani Pape, the daughter of Te Rāhui, a Ngāti Tarāwhai leader. As a young girl, she was captured by Ngāpuhi during an attack on Rotorua in 1823 and taken as a slave to Northland, where she was forced to marry a Waitere. Tene Waitere was born probably in 1853 or 1854 at Mangamuka. When Tene was a few years old an uncle brought him, his elder sister Mereana Waitere and their mother to Ruatō, on Lake Rotoiti. There he was trained as a carver by Wero Tāroi and Ānaha Te Rāhui. He married Ruihi Te Ngahue of Tūhourangi and they had one child, a daughter Tuhipō. One of Tuhipō's children was Rangitiaria Dennan, better known as Guide Rangi. Eramiha Neke Kapua, another carver, was Waitere's nephew, son of his sister Mereana. Some of Waitere's carvings included Tiki-a-Tamamutu, Hinemihi, the Kearoa whakawae and Rauru, and in the 1900s worked on the Whakarewarewa model village near Rotorua.
Mita Hikairo Mohi was a New Zealand exponent and teacher of the art of traditional Māori weaponry and a former professional rugby league footballer who represented New Zealand at the 1972 World Cup.
Ngāti Tarāwhai is a Māori iwi of the Rotorua area of New Zealand, and a member of the Te Arawa confederation of tribes. The iwi's rohe covers the western shore of Lake Ōkataina.
Cathy Moana Dewes is a New Zealand Māori language advocate. She has been a leader in Māori language and education since the 1970s.
Dame Hinewehi Mohi is a New Zealand musician and producer, best known for her double-platinum album Oceania (1999) and its lead single "Kotahitanga (Union)", performing the New Zealand National Anthem in Māori during the 1999 Rugby World Cup, and as a producer for the 2019 Māori language compilation album Waiata / Anthems.
Te Manahau Morrison, better known as Scotty Morrison, is a Māori language academic, writer and broadcaster in New Zealand. He is known for presenting two Māori current affairs programmes on television: Te Karere and Marae. He is author of award winning Māori language guide Māori Made Easy.
Te Pikikōtuku o Ngāti Rongomai is a New Zealand kapa haka group that formed in 2013, formed from members of Ngāti Rongomai from the Lake Rotoiti area of the Rotorua Lakes District. The group placed second at the 2019 Te Matatini competition. In 2022, the group recorded "Te Ata Māhina", the waiata tira from this performance for the 50th anniversary of Te Matatini. The song became one of the most successful Māori language songs for 2022 in New Zealand.
