Shona Rapira Davies was born in 1951 in Auckland, New Zealand. She graduated with a Diploma of Fine Art from Otago Polytechnic in 1983 and she was the Frances Hodgkins Fellow at the University of Otago in 1989.
Shona first exhibited Nga Morehu (The Survivors) at the Wellington City Art Gallery in 1988. Nga Morehu was purchased in 1992 by the National Art Gallery (now Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand, Wellington). In March 1992 Nga Morehu was included in Headlands: Thinking through New Zealand Art at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia, in collaboration with the National Art Gallery, New Zealand.
From 1988 to 1992 Shona designed and completed Te Aro Park in Wellington, a major ceramic tile permanent work and considered one of New Zealand's most successful public sculptures.
Other series by Shona include Drawings for the cicada tree; Not exactly a Mäori work of art; Palisades, teaching aids for Kahurangi and Immigrant. She featured in Prospect 2004 at the City Gallery in Wellington and exhibits in public and dealer galleries throughout New Zealand.
Recently, Shona and Diane Prince have worked together as Native Bird Productions. They exhibited their unique and challenging installation at The Dowse Gallery in Lower Hutt in 2003.