Seamer engaged Īnia as a soloist and choir member, and for 18 months they travelled all over New Zealand. Seamer, who had formed a Methodist Māori Mission choir. In 1932 the deep, powerful voice Īnia had displayed in the Rangiātea Church choir was noticed by the Reverend A. He was known as ‘Happy’ from around this time. Īnia became a basso profundo when he was 14, and was allowed to join a popular trio made up of Mihi’s brother Dan, Wī Nicholls and Henry Tāhiwi.
Īnia had grown up speaking Māori, but at primary school was to learn and speak in English only. Pairoroku was well-versed in Māoritanga, and noting Īnia’s keen interest in the subject singled him out as worthy of learning whakapapa. Īnia attended Ōtaki primary school and Ōtaki Native College. Mihi, the Rikihanas’ daughter, brought the children up, and took a strong interest in teaching music to her charges. They were market gardeners and before and after school Īnia had to pick vegetables, milk cows, do household chores and collect and chop driftwood from the beach.
Īnia was then sent to live with Rākate and Pairoroku Rikihana, relations of his father. When Īnia was eight she married Pāneta Te Waaka Naihi, also known as Barnet Waaka. After Wātene Te Wīata died in the influenza epidemic of 1918, Īnia’s mother had a struggle to make ends meet by taking in washing, cleaning offices and doing housework. His father was of Māori–Scots descent with affiliations to Ngāti Raukawa his mother was of Swedish descent. Īnia Mōrehu Tauhia Wātene Iarahi Waihurihia Te Wīata (originally Te Iwiata) was born in Ōtaki on 10 June 1915 to Wātene Te Wīata and his wife, Constance Helena Johnson, also known as Kone (Connie) Papi Nīkora.
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