I’ve seen a few Book Week parades, where children dress as book characters, but I haven’t seen any do it the way Flat Bush Primary School does it. Dress as people you admire and are inspired by – they could be book characters, might be someone in your own whānau. Parade together as a whole…
On Thursday I was blessed to participate in a rangatahi programme for the uri of Te Ahiwaru – Hapuu of Ihumaatao called Te Ara a Hape. This Kaupapa was designed to support rangatahi and whānau to re-engage with education and inspire their tamariki post COVID. I felt so happy for those rangatahi in the program…
Spent the morning at Flat Bush School with inspirational alumni Willie Maea, Samson Vaotuua, Greg Va’afusuaga, Jay Paniani and Dr Julienne Faletau as they returned to visit their old school. The Writers Group of children interviewed these tuakana for a book of inspiration that will be called Flat Bush Forever.
A pic from our photoshoot at Wiri Central School today. These awesome young people have written a pukapuka about their pride in being Māori. We’re launching their pukapuka during Matariki later this term. 15 new published authors unleashed into the world. Thank you to Manurewa Local Board for supporting this project.
I visited Papakura Intermediate today and it was so awesome sharing stories with these talented young people, showing them that reading can change people’s lives … even a book about rocks! And then to hear that the kids took books about rocks out from the library afterwards – that’s pretty cool.
Today ‘Alisi Tatafu and I launched our children’s book Rise of the To’a (the MMT story) online in Tonga. We would have been there if it wasn’t for COVID but there’s still so much to be thankful for, especially learning how beautiful Tongan culture is through this whole process.
