[1] Baker's first solo public performance was as a child at a basketball association concert in Temuka, South Canterbury.

She attended St Joseph's Māori Girls' College in Hawkes' Bay and joined the school choir there.

[1] The same year, Viking Records invited her and the St Joseph's choir to re-record their initial album, which was re-released in 1976 as Maori Love Songs.

[2] In 1979, after singing tours around New Zealand, Fiji and Australia, Baker settled in New South Wales.

[6] In 2015, her biography was included in an exhibition by Otago Museum focusing on the lives of notable women of Ngāi Tahu.