Tauranga students create interactive story book sharing Mauao legend

Four Otūmoetai College students are putting in the work to "expand the knowledge" of young people by creating a bilingual colouring and storybook sharing the legend of Mauao.

Year 13 students Haylee Van Herpen-Jacobs, Paige Sutton, Imogen Lowe and Jasmine Evans have been working on Pūrākau O Mauao all year as part of the Young Enterprise Scheme.

Haylee, 17, said they had spent "so many hours" in class, before school and during lunchtime in an effort to get the book over the line.

"We are all very driven because we feel this is such a unique product and something that we all wanted to push for," she said.

The book has been created using local suppliers, with Year 9 Ōtūmoetai College Isabella Chaney creating the illustration. School kaitiaki Bobby Ketu translated the story in te reo Māori.

Haylee said the group had made the call to include English and Māori voice recordings alongside the physical book to help young people better interact with the story.

"Our ancestors all learnt their legends by hearing," she said.

"I so wish I had something like this because I am Māori. But I grew up in a household that wasn't recognised for that part of my identity.

"Being able to interact with the story, and colouring it in myself definitely would have been something I would have been interested in having growing up."

The group agreed that Isabella was "amazing" to work alongside.

"She illustrated a photo for the Ngai Tahu magazine. I get that in the mail because she is from the same iwi I am from," Haylee said.

"Our teacher gave us her contact information. It was quite cool to get someone from our school and from where I am from as well. She was amazing to work with."

Paige said it was "pretty crazy" seeing the finished product two weeks ago.

She said Pūrākau O Mauao had received a warm response from the community, with more than half of the 150 copies selling by last Wednesday.

They had received multiple orders from people outside of the Bay of Plenty - including Auckland and Taranaki.

"We are just hoping in general that it helps expand the knowledge of children."

The group was keen to create more interactive stories to help connect young people with other local legends.

"We have received so much good feedback. Honestly just growing it, and adding more stories to the collection would be the biggest goal for us," Haylee said.

For every 10 books that sell, one is donated to Bay of Plenty social service Te Tuinga Whanau Trust.