 Of Te Atiawa descent, Puketapu-Hetet was born in Lower Hutt on 28 January 1941.Her parents were Vera May Puketapu (née Yeates), who was Pākehā, and her husband Ihaia Porutu Puketapu.Puketapu-Hetet grew up in the Te Atiawa tribal settlement at Waiwhetū marae near Lower Hutt and married Rangi Hetet, one of the carvers who had worked on the marae.