Poet and spoken word performer Te Kahu Rolleston is in Tairāwhiti this week inspiring students to read more as part of the Writers in Schools programme.
Poet and spoken word performer Te Kahu Rolleston is in Tairāwhiti this week inspiring students to read more as part of the Writers in Schools programme.
Tairāwhiti schools have been treated this week to authors Te Kahu Rolleston and Brianne Te Paa touring the region as part of the Writers in Schools programme run by Read NZ.
The programme’s mission is to get kids in schools hyped about reading and storytelling by connecting them with authorswho reflect their own lived experiences.
The published authors are “experts at invigorating even reluctant readers,” Read NZ chief executive Juliet Blyth said.
On Monday, they visited Waikiriki School and Tolaga Bay Area School. Today they were at Te Wharau School and Gisborne Girls’ High School.
Tomorrow, they will be inspiring students at Tūranga Tangata Rite and Elgin School. Finally, on Thursday, they head to Lytton High School and Muriwai School.
Blyth said there was a perception that reading was dying due to the rise of tools like AI, and with recent research showing a drop in the number of 18 to 35-year-olds reading, it was urgent kids got hooked on books.
Brianne Te Paa (Ngāti Kahu, Te Rarawa, Ngāti Whātua, Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki and Te Whānau-a-Apanui) is an award-winning children’s author based north-west of Auckland and works as deputy principal at Kaipara College.
Published author, poet and actor Te Kahu Rolleston talks to a group of students at Otaki College in the South Island as part of Read NZ's Writers in Schools programme.
Te Kahu Rolleston (Ngāi Te Rangi) is a poet, spoken word performer, actor and battle rap artist according to a statement from Read NZ.
“Tamariki and rangatahi are more engaged when they can see themselves in stories,” Blyth said.
“It’s an honour to be able to bring kaituhi [writers] like Te Kahu and Brianne to schools in Tairāwhiti, they bring their mana and mauri generously to every single visit.”
The Read NZ Te Pou Muramura’s Pōkai Tuhi programme is an initiative to work with more Māori and Pasifika writers to ensure tamariki and rangatahi see themselves reflected in writers and stories.
On Friday they will be in Napier and Hastings where they will speak at Hastings Boys’ High and Maraenui Bilingual School.
