Tihema Baker is an analyst with a government agency and a writer. He holds a double major in Māori studies and English literature from Victoria University. Tihema was accepted into the Te Papa Tupu Māori Writers’ Programme in 2012, where he developed Watched under the mentorship of Phillip Mann. In 2013, Tihema won the Best Short Story written in te reo Māori at the Pikihuia Awards for Māori Writers, and the story was published in Huia Short Stories 10 later that year.