"She still visits friends and attends meetings, birthdays and celebrations, always looking for opportunities to give, share and offer herself to the community," it read.
Tata was also one of five esteemed kaumatua to get the Nga Tohu a Ta Kingi Ihaka Award at Te Waka Toi Awards in 2010 as recognition of her lifetime contribution to the preservation of Toi Maori.
A passion for Maori culture was fostered at Queen Victoria College where she recalls auditioning for a Kapa Haka group, and missing out for being too uncoordinated.
It was not a life-long affliction, Tata later became a very successful professional entertainer touring America with the Te Arohanui Kapa Haka Group, also stopping off in Hawaii.
A lover of music, she continued to perform at resthomes along with a ukulele ensemble well into her 90s and was Kaumatua on air at Radio Kahungunu.
Passionate about advocating Maori awareness and excellence, she took part in a 2000- strong powhiri for the inaugural Takitimu Festival and welcomed the Prime Minister to Waipatu Marae in 2009.
Among other things she was also a Justice of the Peace; Kuia for Hawke's Bay Prison, and often represented Ngati Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated and Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga at events.
In her younger years Tata won a woolhandling event at the inaugural Golden Shears (1961), which became a regular fixture in the mid 1980s.
Tata was wife of the late Whareki Horomoana Maere, and had 10 children, including former New Zealand basketball representative Jack Maere.
She will be lying in state at Korongata Marae.
