Ana Te Aroha was born in the late 1950s in Auckland. She states that during a trip to Ireland in 1977-78 she reconnected with her Māori identity and on returning to New Zealand became actively involved with the Waitangi Action Komiti. She is writing a novel called The Mountain Song which is “set in New Zealand and the Six Counties of Ireland and is being written as a tribute to a people of courage and principles.” She writes that she has “total commitment, on all fronts, to the fight for Black liberation in Aotearoa.” She has lived in Mangataipa, Northland, “fighting in a land based situation and absorbing traditional Māori living.” She participated in the Maranga Mai Māori Theatre, which toured the North Island in 1980-81.
Biographical sources
- Meihana, Ana Te Aroha. "Hamilton: the 25th Day: Te Aroha-Hinekaha-Ririwairua." Arms Linked: Women Against the Tour: Poetry & Prose by New Zealand Women Opposed to the 1981 Springbok Tour. Ed. Margaret Freeman and Rosemary Hollins. Auckland, N.Z.: Margaret Freeman and Rosemary Hollins, 1982. 1.
- Meihana, Ana Te Aroha. "An Unwelcome Presernce." New Women’s Fiction 4. Ed. Wendy Harrex and Lynsey Ferrari. Auckland, N.Z.: New Women’s Press, 1991.
- Meihana, Ana Te Aroha. "From The Mountain Song." Te Ao Mārama: Contemporary Māri Writing. Comp. and ed. Witi Ihimaera. Contributing ed. Haare Williams, Irihapeti Ramsden and D. S. Long. Vol. 3: Te Puāwaitanga O Te Kōrero: The Flowering. Auckland, N.Z.: Reed, 1993. 211.
Fiction
- "An Unwelcome Presence." New Women’s Fiction 4. Ed. Wendy Harrex and Lynsey Ferrari. Auckland, N.Z.: New Women’s Press, 1991. 83-90.
- When the army plan to establish an army camp near the town where Haami and Mihi live, the local community is divided over the issue until Mihi speaks out vehemently against the proposal. The army is perceived by Mihi to be an instrument of destruction and violence both in the land wars of last century and in the more recent history of Bastion Point and the 1981 Springbok Tour.
- "From The Mountain Song." Te Ao Mārama: Contemporary Māori Writing. Comp. and ed. Witi Ihimaera. Contributing ed. Haare Williams, Irihapeti Ramsden and D. S. Long. Vol. 3: Te Puāwaitanga O Te Kōrero: The Flowering. Auckland, N.Z.: Reed, 1993. 211-217.
- This is the same text as Meihana’s short story "The Unwelcome Presence." published in 1991.
Non-fiction
- "Life Inside Mautini Prison." Ana Te Aroha Meihana. Broadsheet 99 (May 1982): 14.
- When Meihana was arrested at Bastion Point and imprisoned for five days after Judge Callander charged her with contempt for chanting Māori in the courtroom, she witnessed the oppressive existence of Māori and Polynesian women in Mautini Prison. Meihana describes some of the demeaning and barbaric prison policies and decries Jim McLay’s reported statement that ‘women inside get better ante-natal care [than] women on the outside.’ She concludes by stressing the importance of campaigning for a halfway house for newly-released women prisoners.
Poetry
- "Hamilton: the 25th Day: Te Aroha-Hinekaha-Ririwairua." Arms Linked: Women Against The Tour: Poetry & prose by New Zealand women opposed to the 1981 Springbok Tour. Ed. Margaret Freeman and Rosemary Hollins. Auckland, N.Z.: Margaret Freeman and Rosemary Hollins, 1982. 1-2.
- In this poem, dedicated to ‘all those who stood so bravely in Hamilton’ on the 25th July 1981, Meihana gives a stinging denunciation of ‘the cowards of rugby’ and avows that the ‘fight will never end!’
- "Aftermath: Te Aroha-Hinekaha-Ririwairua." Broadsheet 101 (July/Aug 1982): 67.
- Meihana writes of the aftermath of the 1981 Springbok Tour and describes the wave of destruction that followed in its path.