Ihimaera attended the University of Auckland and Victoria University of Wellington and began his career in New Zealand's foreign affairs ministry; he served as New Zealand consul to the United States, among other offices. His first short-story collection, Pounamu, Pounamu (1972; “Greenstone, Greenstone”), written for secondary school students, presents one of his characteristic themes—traditional, communal Maori society confronted by mechanized, individualistic Pakeha society. His Tangi (1973; “Mourning”) is the first novel in English by a Maori author. The novel Whanau (1974; “Family”) presents a day in the life of a Maori village.

Ihimaera surveyed Maori life in the nonfiction Maori (1975). He also coedited Into the World of Light (1982) and edited Te ao marama (1992), anthologies of Maori writing. His later writings include the novels The Matriarch (1986), The Whale Rider (1987), and Nights in the Gardens of Spain (1995), and the short-story collections The New Net Goes Fishing (1977) and Dear Miss Mansfield: A Tribute to Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp (1989).