Ōtara Heroes


Ngā Tamaiti Rangatira is a collection of writing by young people from the Tipu Whare program at Panama Road School. I helped these rangatahi share their thoughts about life, their dreams and the special people they admire. Look how proud they are to be honoured and celebrated as they should be as children of chiefs!
These are some of the children I’ve been working with to write a Chinese story teaching children what to do in a thunderstorm. They are members of the New Zealand Multicultural Arts and Sports Center, a group dedicated to the cultural and educational development of young people from the age of three. They provide free…
“So you want our blessing to publish stories for children? First you have to play me in table tennis. Then you have to listen to me make fun of you with a song.” Thank you Papa Tangatakino – first for schooling me in table tennis and then allowing me to create children’s books from Mangaia…
First day of our project working with Tokelau youth and their families to make some bilingual Tokelau children’s books 🇹🇰 So Tokelau children can go into a library and find books they can see themselves in, written by Tokelau writers, illustrated by Tokelau artists. Where to find stories? I encouraged the young writers to fehili…
Some Kiwi children’s writers – Abel Junior Tutagalevao, Bill Nagelkerke, Brianne Te Paa, and me – on our way to encourage and be inspired by kids at Poukawa School, Hawke’s Bay … with our driver Vicki Cunningham in front
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…
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