Fanene Peter Maivia – Son of Samoa

Another cool project I got to do this year was work with children of Weymouth Primary to share stories of place names in the Manurewa area which tell the stories of Te Ākitai Waiohua iwi. This mahi is important because the place names help keep alive the stories of people, events and the environment which…

Today I got to visit students in the middle school at Sir Edmund Hilary Collegiate in Ōtara. I find these young people really inspiring because they have big dreams and they’re in the perfect place to build on the things their families have already been instilling in them. Our country has an amazing future because…

Celebrating 10 newly published South Auckland writers. I wanted to be a writer when I was 10 years old at Viscount School in Māngere but never met a writer so I didn’t think someone like me could do that. That’s why I love these projects with young champions, helping them see they can do this…

He’s a blond pocket rocket! He’s like a magician with a box of tricks! He’s dazzling, lightning, electrifying! But he’s only 175 centimetres (5 feet 9 inches) tall and weighs just 78 kilograms. How does he do it? You’ll Be Right is the inspiring story of Damian McKenzie’s journey from the deep south of New Zealand…

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.

Today ‘Alisi Tatafu and I launched our children’s book Rise of the To’a (the MMT story) at Mangere College as part of Tongan Language Week celebrations. The book even had its own cake! Why Mangere College? ‘Alisi is a current teacher and Dean at MC, and MC is the school I went to. Seek the…