Silent Witnesses – interview

Today we had a cool celebration of 4 bilingual children’s books I worked on with young people of Māori, Samoan, Chinese and Hindi heritage. The kaupapa of the books is how to survive natural disasters. The theme of the series is: You Ready? You can get copies from Auckland Emergency Management.

I’m doing a project with children in the Samoan unit at Clendon Park School in Manurewa. We started the project with a parents fono so the parents could understand what we’re doing and help their children with the activities. The stories shared were so interesting and I’m really excited to hear more over the next…

“Thank you to former MC student & Author Extraordinare David Riley for the gift of boxes of new books to families in South Auckland so they can start, or add to their own kāinga pukapuka – home libraries. The books are culturally specific e.g. a box of Maori books for a Maori family, Samoan books…

Here’s an Auckland Council story about my work with students at Ferguson Intermediate in Ōtara: https://ourauckland.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/news/2024/09/empowering-minds-inspiring-young-publishers/?fbclid=IwY2xjawMPOP1leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFkcWJlb3U5RlBnRmxmMHl5AR40bqrJBYeblbzDW2BtL-urahY9AR_Uu_xwXkd77MM_UxYVtcWLpvT0_j4EYg_aem_JBLEpF_PGVK4_AIgNjCwVg

Today I shared about how reading changes people’s lives with children at Grey Lynn Primary School.

I’ve been working with children at Matua Ngaru School in Kumeū to make a book about the river which sometimes floods during storms. Many people in this community are anxious when it rains heavily because of the damage the floods cause. They asked if we could make a book to ease some of the worry…