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Southern Cross Campus

Southern Cross Campus

Today I did a writing workshop with students at Southern Cross Campus in Mangere. Here’s what some of the students thought about our time together: “I enjoyed learning the skill of using the newspaper into making a whole interesting story.” “It was fun making our own stories and plays because ours was funny and relatable.”…

Rosalina

Rosalina

Tonight I went to watch Rosalina by the Sau e Siva Creatives at Mangere Arts Centre. The guys adapted the story from a legend in my book, Samoan Heroes. It’s pretty cool seeing the way they took the story from off the page and brought it to life on stage with a celebration of Samoan culture,…

Cook Islands visit

Cook Islands visit

I had an incredible week in Raro this week. The Cook Islands Ministry of Education invited me to come and share in their literacy week celebrations. I visited lots of schools on Raro, talking to young people, and being inspired by them. This photo comes form a writing workshop I did with children at Nukutere…

Wairua

Wairua

  Today I had an amazing experience at Kelston Boys High School in Auckland. I was asked to speak to two classes of year 13 boys about the awesomeness of reading. I started with my pepeha – “Tuhituhia te kite, kia marama rawa ki nga papa …” and I saw one of the boys sit…

May Meet Up

May Meet Up

On Thursday I attended an event called the May Meet Up at the Mangere Arts Centre. It was a gathering of artists and people with dreams from Mangere-Otahuhu and was such an inspiring evening.  We heard about these awesome projects that are happening in our community and country like: Anonymouz creating a soundtrack to help blind people…

SCJC Heroes

SCJC Heroes

This week I spent time with Year 6 students at Southern Cross Junior Campus in Mangere.  We worked on a project called Pasifika Heroes in Homes, set up by school social worker, Tupou Evans. The children chose heroes from the Pasifika Heroes books and wrote about how these heroes inspire them. It’s really exciting to…

The Eel and Sina

The Eel and Sina

Awesome day today with Jono Soo Choon and the team who came to our school and performed the Samoan legend The Eel and Sina. We hosted the show and had children from Rongomai Primary come up and see the show too. It’s really important for Pacific children to see Pacific stories on stage so they…

Storylines Awards 2018

Storylines Awards 2018

Cook Islands Heroes is the 4th book in the Pasifika Heroes series and the book won a Storylines Notable Books Award today. Awards are important for a self-publishing writer like me because they help people to trust the work. Two other books received special mention: Powering Up with Joseph Parker and Go Fiji Go. I think this is so awesome…