Bishop Don Tamihere will be installed as the sixth Pihopa o Aotearoa on Saturday, April 28 at Manutuke marae, west of Gisborne.

Bishop Don, who is 45, and who has Ngati Porou ties and connections with Turanga and Kahungunu iwi, was declared elected to the leadership of the Maori Anglican church earlier this month.

Upon his April 28 installation as Pihopa o Aotearoa, Bishop Don will be canonically recognised as the senior bishop of Tikanga Maori, and therefore as Primate/Te Pihopa Mataamua and Archbishop.  

He will thus succeed the late Archbishop Brown Turei not only as Anglican Bishop of Te Tairawhiti, the tribal district which covers the eastern seaboard of the North Island, but also as leader of Te Pihopatanga (the Maori Anglican church) and co-leader of the three tikanga church.

One of his first duties as archbishop will be co-presiding at this year's General Synod, which begins on May 4 in New Plymouth.

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Don Tamihere was born in Gisborne in 1972 and grew up on the Coast.

In 1997 he began studying for the priesthood at St John’s College.

He left there in 2001, equipped with a Master’s degree in theology – and taught first at the Tairawhiti taapapa and, more recently, as Tumuaki of Te Rau College.

He was deaconed at St Mary’s Church, Tikitiki, on March 23, 2003, and priested at Holy Trinity Gisborne on December 5, 2004.

He was nominated to succeed Bishop Brown Turei as Te Pihopa o Te Tai Rawhiti in October 2016, and ordained and installed as the second Bishop of Tairawhiti at Waiomatatini Marae, on March 11, 2017.

Bishop Don and his wife Kisa have three children: Tiana, who’s 22; Danielle, 19 – and Ethan, who is 16.