Her first paying job was with Guide Kiddo's concert group at Whakarewarewa but her taste for competition came from joining the St Faiths Church Youth Club.
[1] Atareta and Trevor Maxwell led the leading kapa haka group Ngati Rangiwewehi for several years, taking it to the top of national competitions with performances at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo in Scotland and in 2005 opening the New Zealand Toi Maori exhibition in San Francisco.
She is survived by husband Trevor Maxwell, deputy mayor of Rotorua, son Inia and daughter Kahurangi.
Maxwell's body lay at Tamatekapua meeting house, Te Papaiouru Marae, Ohinemutu, until she was buried at Kauae Cemetery in Ngongotahā on January 20, 2007.
The Māori king, Tūheitia Paki and his Tainui-Waikato people brought her body back from Waikato hospital to her Ohinemutu home.