Come to Tangaroa College this Tuesday evening if you’d like to see some local theatre featuring amazing young people of Otara. My year 12 Drama class are performing a play called “Too Much Too Young”. It’s on the theme of teen pregnancy and sexual health, a pretty big issue in our community.
It’s Cook Islands Language Week and we’re celebrating by sharing a little about some of the inspirational people 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 life. Today’s…
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…
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…
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…
What could we say to those who built a foundation for us while we still can? Rocky ‘Soul Man’ Johnson, father of Dwayne Johnson, passed away suddenly last week. “Say something good about me.” That’s what Dwayne thought his dad would want from him at his funeral. Here’s what he might have said … and…
Do you guys sometimes get Impostor Syndrome? That’s that feeling you get when you start doubting yourself, about whether you can really do something and you’re just waiting for someone to catch you out and say “Faker!” To be honest, I get these thoughts sometimes when it comes to writing. I say things like this to…
