Mita Mohi's early working life was spent as a train driver for New Zealand Railways.
11 Facts About Mita Mohi
1.
2.
Mita Mohi played for the Marist-Western club in the Canterbury Rugby League competition.
3.
Mita Mohi represented Canterbury, New Zealand Maori, the Southern Zone and the South Island.
4.
Mita Mohi was selected for the New Zealand national rugby league team squad in the 1972 World Cup.
5.
Mita Mohi injured his calf muscle while performing the haka and had to be replaced.
6.
Mita Mohi played in two other games for New Zealand while in Britain.
7.
Mita Mohi moved to the Riccarton club in 1975 and spent three years at the club, the last as player-coach.
8.
Mita Mohi has run taiaha wananga throughout New Zealand and developed a mau rakau programme that has run in New Zealand prisons since the early 1990s.
9.
Mita Mohi was a professional wrestler for a time and was prominent in national Maori tennis, including a second placing in the Aotearoa Maori tennis championships.
10.
Mita Mohi worked as a lecturer at Waiariki Polytechnic and served as a member of the New Zealand Parole Board and a justice of the peace.
11.
Mita Mohi was recognised for his longstanding and ongoing contribution to mau rakau at the 2012 National Waiata Maori Music Awards, where he received the Keeper of Traditions Award, and the 2012 Te Waka Toi Awards, where he was awarded the Nga Tohu o Ta Kingi Ihaka.