Graduating as a Textile Designer at Wellington Polytechnic in 1978, Angela moved north to Auckland to work as a carpet designer. She was born in Dunedin and was influenced from an early age by the textile works of her mother, Betty Fraser.

Training as a Secondary art teacher in 1980, Angela spent some years teaching art in schools. In 1986 she started her own small business and made her living producing a range of colourful leather bags and purses to outlets throughout New Zealand as well as Sydney.

Her bags featured strong bright colours and use of applique. Since then she has produced painted purses, as well as some using screenprinting.

From the mid 1980's to the mid 1990's Angela designed and made painted floormats. Using paint and canvas, painting freehand as well as using large hand-cut stencils, she finished them with layers of polyurethane, producing a strong and durable mat, similar to linoleum.

She returned to teaching in 1990 and has been teaching Fabric Printing at AUT since 1994. She currently designs web sites and has built this site, Patterns of Identity: Textiles in Aotearoa, with a team of other researchers.

In 2005 she launched Pacific Shirts Gallery, an online gallery of limited edition printed shirts designed and made by a group of Auckland textile artists. This project can be viewed at http://www.pacificshirts.co.nz

Angela has Ngai Tahu ancestry from Otakou.