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Nā Colleen Waata Urlich i whakawhanake i tōna toi uku i ngā tau whakamutunga o te tekau tau 1950 i a ia e whakangungu ana hei kaiako i te Auckland College of Education. I ngā tau 1980, whai muri i ngā tau maha hei kaiako, ka whakatūria e Urlich rātou ko Baye Riddell, ko Manos Nathan Nga Kaihanga Uku – te rōpū ihiihi i whakatairanga ai i te uku hei rawatoi onāianei.

Whai muri ake i tāna whiwhi Tohu Paetahi mō Applied Arts me te Tohu Paerua mō Fine Arts, ka whakaputaina e ia tāna rangahau i te pānga o ngā tauira nō ngā ipu Lapita. Nā tāna rangahau hōhonu i nga whare pupuri taonga me ngā wāhi whakaputu i whakapakari ana mahi uku, ā, ka whakauruhia te whakapapa o te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, ngā atua wahine, me te mātauranga tawhito a te Māori.

Colleen Waata Urlich developed her life-long commitment to clay work in the late 1950s while training as a teacher at Auckland College of Education. During the 1980s, after many years as a teacher, Urlich worked with Baye Riddell and Manos Nathan in establishing Nga Kaihanga Uku – the National Māori Clay Workers Collective, a dynamic group that promoted uku (clay) as a contemporary art medium.

After gaining a Bachelor of Applied Arts and Master of Fine Arts she published her research into the influence of Lapita pottery patterns. Her later clay work was informed by extensive museum and archival research, and incorporated Pacific genealogy, female Māori deities and customary knowledge.

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