Cora-Allan is a multidisciplinary artist of Māori and Niue descent, originally from Waitakere. In recent years her practice has focused on her efforts to revive the art form of Hiapo, prior to this she completed her Masters in Visual Art and Design in Performance from AUT (2013), also receiving a AUT Postgraduate Deans award for her research. Cora-Allan was recently awarded a McCahon House Residency (2021) the Creative New Zealand Pacific Heritage Artist award (2020) and received a Springboard award from the Arts foundation in 2021.

In 2021 she received an Annual Arts Grant funding to focus full-time on her Hiapo practice which she is currently doing alongside full-time study at Te Wananga o Takiura this year.