Wiremu Kaa was a kaumātua of Ngāti Porou, Tūwhakairiora, Te Whānau a Kahu, Hunaara, Ngāti Hoko, Hinepare, Ngāi Tāne, and Takimoana. He worked as a teacher, civil servant in the Education Department, Māori Education Lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington, publisher and editor. Wiremu was active in the Anglican Church, and a broadcaster in te reo Māori for Te Upoko o Te Ika Radio.
Jossie Mateohorere (Te Ohorere) Kaa was a Ngāti Porou teacher, editor, writer, and Māori language expert. Over a long career she worked on numerous Māori publications and was also the coordinator for the Ngata Dictionary. She has authored short stories for children under the pen name Oho Kaa and has written levelled readers in Māori as part of the Ngā Kete Kōrero series produced by Huia Publishers.
Together, Jossie and Wiremu worked on the first all-Māori language dictionary, Tirohia Kimihia, with a team from Huia Publishers; this dictionary was a finalist in the 2007 Montana New Zealand Book Awards reference category. They edited three collections in te reo Māori with Te Herenga Waka University Press, new editions of which are published in 2024.
