Wesley College

Our Normal is a series of intimate and honest conversations with some of New Zealand’s most talented Paralympians. The athletes tell us about the books, food, music, people, places and taonga they love. They share the challenges they face living with disabilities, and the ways disabilities enrich their lives. And they talk about the assumptions and…

Today we celebrated the launch of Stand Your Ground, a book I did with young people at Sancta Maria College. This was the first book I made sponsored by the Oceania Literacy Trust which is a trust a few of us started to help improve literacy and wellbeing in our young people. “The students who…

Today we launch a new book in the bilingual Pasifika Superheroes series: Who Stole My Taro? Taro is one of the most popular foods in the Samoa. You can bake it and eat it with palusami. You can boil it and soak it in coconut cream. You can even fry it and make taro chips….

Have you heard of the Ice Bucket Challenge, the Level Up Challenge and the Kiki Challenge? Today I helped Kedgley Intermediate launch the Reading Chain Challenge. Children who sign up for it receive spot prizes along the way and special prizes when they’ve read 7 books. They’re also encouraged to tag 3 other people (family…

  Today I had an amazing experience at Kelston Boys High School in Auckland. I was asked to speak to two classes of year 13 boys about the awesomeness of reading. I started with my pepeha – “Tuhituhia te kite, kia marama rawa ki nga papa …” and I saw one of the boys sit…

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…