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Cook Islands Heroes: Michael Metuakore
It’s Cook Islands Language Week and we’re celebrating by sharing a little about some of the inspirational Cook Islanders featured in my book Cook Islands Heroes. The aim of this book is to inspire Kuki Airani young people and anyone else who loves reading stories of people who overcame great challenges to achieve their goals in…

Sumo Inspiration
My family went to Tokyo, Japan in the holidays. Everyone was excited to go see Tokyo Disneyland and Takeshita Street shopping, and the Shibuya Crossing. My only request was that we go and see live Sumo wrestling. I didn’t know anything about Sumo apart from it being two massive guys wrestling each other. But after…

Mental Wealth – The White Mouse Pt 3
It’s mental health month in Aotearoa and I’m thinking about mental strength as I read the children’s book, “The White Mouse”, with my daughter. It’s the story of Kiwi nurse, reporter and spy, Nancy Wake. In this week’s reading we learned about Nancy’s resilience and selflessness. Here’s a list of the things that happened to…

Wish I was gifted
We’re nearly halfway through term one of the school year and it’s a good time to remind the young people we live and work with, and ourselves, that being successful isn’t about talent or gifts. It’s about learning, working with the right people and hard work. Kemba Walker is a basketball player. Kemba led his…

Where I Live
I wanted to be a writer when I was a child but I didn’t believe in myself because I thought writers were famous people from places like LA and New York. Not David Riley from Mangere! One of my goals now is to encourage young people that those kinds of thoughts aren’t true. This term…

My Mental Health – The White Mouse Pt2
It’s mental health month in Aotearoa and I’m thinking about mental strength as I read the children’s book, “The White Mouse”, with my daughter. It’s the story of Kiwi nurse, reporter and spy, Nancy Wake. In our first reading we learned that Nancy’s husband was forced to join the French army to defend France from…