Born in Gisborne, Haare Williams grew up in remote New Zealand on the shores of the Ohiwa Harbour near Opotiki in the traditional Maori way. He did not speak English until his schooling started at age eight.
Haare went on from high school to Ardmore Teachers College which became a spring board for his extensive teaching career . Years later he returned to the college to share his experiences as a lecturer.
In his later years, Haare worked in broadcasting where he pioneered Maori radio as the General Manager of Aotearoa Radio. He has worked closely with iwi claimant communities collecting and preparing iwi oral testimonies for presentation before courts and the Waitangi Tribunal.
He was an executive director of the New Zealand 1990 Commission responsible especially for waka construction and their assembly at Waitangi for the 1990 Sesquicentennial. Haare set up a joint venture with South Seas Film and Television School in Birkenhead for the training of speakers of te reo as film and television producers and operators. He is often consulted on Maori aspects of education, health, business, art and the media and has worked for the Auckland Mayor as cultural advisor. He now holds a position as Amorangi at The Auckland War Memorial Museum.
Haare has published poetry, is an exhibited painter (with six solo art exhibitions in both Auckland and Gisborne), and is a script writer and lyricist for televisions and film. Haare was one of the founders of the Papakura Marae and a Trustee and remains a resident of Papakura.
“I grew up with a love of the spoken word; on the marae, in the Bible and later Shakespeare, I paint, write and sing the sounds and rhythms of the spoken word; I allow these to wash over me like gentle drops from heaven.” (Haare Williams, 2015)
Haare will be contributing spoken word poems from his collection for our Matariki mobile exhibition. The audio will complement an exhibition of his paintings and poems that is occurring concurrently with Place Stories (Matariki) in the Papakura Art Gallery.
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