Merata belongs to the Ngati Pikiao and Ngai te Rangi Iwi and was born and reared in a small, traditional Maori community in Maketu. She has been involved in film and video production for over twenty years, and has made significant inroads for indigenous filmmakers, both in Aotearoa and globally. Merata was the first New Zealand woman to write and direct a dramatic feature film, Mauri (1988), after a lengthy career as a documentary filmmaker. Highly regarded for her insights she has hosted workshops and been featured on panels ranging from the Sundance Film Festival's "From Oral Tradition to the Screen: Indigenous Screenwriting"; to "A Conversation with Merata Mita" at the Messagesticks Festival at Sydney Opera House.

Merata is currently Assistant Professor at the Academy of Creative Media, University of Hawai'i Manoa, where she teaches courses in indigenous screenwriting, aesthetics and production.
She currently serves on the Board of Advisors for the National Geographic's All Roads Film Project, which supports indigenous and minority culture filmmakers from around the globe. She is a patron of the ImageNative Film Festival in Canada and serves on the Board of Advisors of the Sundance Institute's Native Program. In 2003 and 2004, Merata was the artistic director/ creative advisor to the Sundance/Moonstone screenwriters labs held in New Zealand. In 2005 Merata served as a Creative Advisor to the Australian Film Commission's inaugural screenwriters lab for Aboriginal Australian writer/ directors, The Long Black Writers Lab, and she enjoys a continuing relationship with the lab. When in NZ Merata gives generously of her time, within the last few months holding a writer’s workshop focusing on indigenous women’s writing.