Freestyle: the Israel Adesanya Story

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…

Would you like some free books with that bread and milk? During the COVID lockdown schools and libraries were closed and many of our young people lost access to books. I reached out to some of the Auckland Local Boards and other organisations to sponsor book packs – home libraries – so our youth would…

Today at Helensville Primary School I shared a message about how reading can change your life. I noticed a group of boys while I was speaking seemed to not really be listening. But at the end of the talk they came to see me asking to read the rugby league books I talked about writing…

I did a zoom sharing talk as part of the Reading Oceania conference recently. Whenever I’m blessed to do presentations I’m always proud to represent my home town Māngere, and let everyone know about the village that raised me.

Another day in Rewa … Amazing evening with Chad Robertson celebrating a new book written and illustrated  by children of Randwick Park School in Manurewa. My favourite part is when the families get their books and straight away turn to their child’s section to read it  14 new authors and illustrators have been ignited…

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…