Wi Taepa

[2] He also took part in carving two pou for the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington at this time and worked on the Orongomai meeting house in Upper Hutt.

In 1985 Taepa became a social worker at Kohitere Boys Farm and again introduced art as a form of connection and rehabilitation.

[2] After the closure of Kohitere Taepa enrolled in the four-year course for the New Zealand Certificate of Craft Design at Whitireia Polytechnic, graduating in 1992.

[3][4] Taepa dates his interest in clay back to the 1960s, when he saw an exhibition of ceramics by an English artist, Jo Munro, at Willeston Gallery in Wellington.

[5]: 246–8 In 1986 Taepa, alongside Baye Riddell, Paerau Corneal, Colleen Waata Urlich and Manos Nathan formed Ngā Kaihanga Uku, a collective of Māori clayworkers.

[5]: 245 In the 2022 Queen's Birthday and Platinum Jubilee Honours, Taepa was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to Māori art, particularly ceramics.