Matariki at St Francis

This is my favourite part of writing projects with kids: celebrating with the children and their families. This evening we launched The Streets: a celebration of Mt Wellington written by children of Bailey Road School.

Cool evening being interviewed by Fatima Lui as one of her “Live Talk” subjects. Check it out here: https://www.facebook.com/livetalksnz/videos/1096004440555461/

Today we celebrated Tuvalu Independence Day with the launch of 8 new bilingual Tuvaluan children’s books. The books represent each island in Tuvalu and are written by 8 Tuvaluan young women. As well as the writers the team that made these books is Sagaa Malua (project paramount chief), Alamai Sioni (cultural advisor), Chad Robertson (illustrator),…

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,…

This year Chad Sta-Krucial Robertson and I have been working on an awesome project with the Tuvalu Auckland Community Trust. We made 8 bilingual Tuvaluan children’s books, one representing each island of Tuvalu, and today the books were launched as part of Tuvalu Language Week celebrations. Each book comes with an audio version as well…

‘I will always remember the last words my parents said to me before I came here: “Don’t forget who you are.” I’m proud of who I am. I’m proud to be Sāmoan.’ ‘O le ā ‘ou manatua pea ‘upu mulimuli a oʻu matua iā te aʻu ‘ae ‘ou te leʻi sau i’inei: “Aua neʻi e…