Former Ngati Porou East Coast rugby prop and captain Puri Hauiti has launched his own series of heartfelt children's books, Maia the Kaitiaki. Photo / Neil Reid
Former grassroots rugby hero Puri Hauiti talks to Neil Reid about his recent journey into kids’ book publishing, with stories inspired by his son’s health condition and his beloved late nan’s memory.
Puri Hauiti used to spread fear through opposition ranks as a blockbusting prop in rugby’s NPC.
But now, instead of making an impact on the rugby field, the former captain of the Ngāti Porou East Coast team is now all about putting smiles on children’s faces.
The Gisborne-based teacher has launched a new series of e-books - Maia the Kaitiaki – following the journey of schoolboy Maia as he learns to navigate life’s challenges with courage, resilience and the guidance of his loving grandmas.
The books – that were launched in January and are for sale via Amazon - are deeply personal for 47-year-old Hauiti.
They touch on the challenges of living with epilepsy – the brain disorder his 19-year-old son Duke suffers from – and the resilience shown by family members, including Hauiti’s 10-year-old son Maia.
Māori traditions and values – including whakapapa (roots), kaitiakitanga (guardianship) and whanaungatanga (relationships) - are also woven through the nine releases to date, traits Hauiti learned from his beloved grandmother Moke Hauiti who raised him on New Zealand’s isolated East Coast.
“My love of stories started at an early age,” the rugby player turned author told the Herald.
“Every day and every night my Nanny told me stories of the local history and the whakapapa. I was just so fascinated by it. And for a long time, I have been passionate about pursuing that storytelling space.
“Our local stories give us a connection to who we are, what we are, and why are we here. What is our purpose? My Nanny always said to me, ‘What is your why?’
“It goes back to [Jamaican political activist] Marcus Garvey who talked about a person who doesn’t know their genealogy, or whakapapa, is like a tree without roots. It just falls over.”
Promotional material for the nine books published to date describe them as being “a heartfelt exploration of identity, perseverance, and the healing power of whānau, land, and spirit, designed to inspire tamariki and whānau alike”.
They are based on life experiences of Hauiti and his sons; including how epilepsy has impacted Duke’s life and how despite being eight years younger, Maia has almost been a big brother to his teenage sibling.
Hauiti hopes those who read his books - both young and old – will learn valuable and inspiring life lessons from them.
The path to getting them published – currently in e-book form – has also been a learning lesson for him. He asked for advice from his wide circle of friends and also watched YouTube videos from other self-published authors.
“I’m still learning now. On the publishing spectrum from a zero to 100, I’m still back in the zero stage,” he joked.
“It’s been a whole lot of a guessing game for me ... My dad always used to say that nothing in this world comes for free, nothing gets handed to you on a plate.”
Hauiti is now working towards getting his books published in hardcopy form.
Hauiti was an imposing – and inspirational figure – on the footy paddock during his rugby career.
He was a regular in the Ngāti Porou East Coast provincial team between 2003-2011, including being captain in 2009.
He played under two of the province’s most inspirational modern-day orators and storytellers; Joe McClutchie as coach and Wirihana Raihania as his first provincial captain.
The McClutchie/Raihania era was the most successful in the Ngāti Porou East Coast union’s 104-year history; culminating in two Third Division NPC titles and coming agonisingly close to winning the 2001 NPC Second Division title.
The pair’s motivational team talks weren’t restricted to tactics. Like Hauiti’s beloved grandmother, the duo would regularly dig into the Ngāti Porou iwi’s rich history.
That included the World War II fighting record of the Māori Battalion’s C Company – dubbed ‘The Cowboys’ - which was made up of men from the East Coast and Poverty Bay. Their number included Moana-nui-a-Kiwa Ngārimu, the first Māori to win a Victoria Cross.
“They were always connecting us back to who we were, where we were from and why we are here,” Hauiti said.
“It took us away from just thinking about rugby. Rugby became just a vehicle. It was like feeding off your superpower; it got us geed up to go out there and do our best to be the best version of ourselves.
“And when you’ve got 22 warriors going out on the field to try and be the best versions of themselves, you really want to be a part of that.”
Himself a storyteller from a young age, Hauiti would follow Raihania and McClutchie’s lead when he was appointed the captain of Ngāti Porou East Coast – New Zealand’s only iwi-based rugby province – in 2009.
“One of the happiest and proudest days of my life was to go home and tell my dad I was made captain,” he said.
“It was the first time I’ve actually seen a tear come out of my father’s eye. My dad was a strong man.”
He’s had no shortage of congratulations from former teammates from his days wearing the province’s famous Sky Blue jersey since he launched the Maia the Kaitiaki series.
“The boys have all been really supportive,” Hauiti said, smiling with obvious pride.
“They’ve said they’d always known I had it in me, just with the way I spoke in our team huddles and the sheds before games. Some of the boys said, ‘It’s about bloody time you did this’.”
Hauiti said it was the deaths in recent years of two of his former Ngāti Porou East Coast teammates, and close friends – Horace ‘Horse’ Lewis and Sam ‘Sausage’ Matenga – that had provided the impetus for him to get his creations published.
Lewis – who played for the province between 1999-2009 – was the team’s coach who appointed Hauiti as captain.
“I always go back to Horse and Sausage,” he said.
“We all did so much with those men and they both had so much more to give. Thinking about them, that’s given me the encouragement that now was the time to get these stories published. You never know when your time is up.”
Winning games isn’t the only motivation for proud wearers of the Ngāti Porou East Coast rep jersey both past and present.
So too was winning hearts by flying the Ngāti Porou flag on the national stage and being role models to the region’s younger generation.
The isolated province offers some of the most beautiful scenery and coastlines in New Zealand, but it is also one of the country’s most challenged regions economically.
Almost 9% of the population of Ruatoria – the biggest town on the East Coast – are unemployed, almost twice the national average.
The median household annual income in the wider Tairāwhiti region – which covers Gisborne and the East Coast – is $66,000 per year, $14,000 less than the national median.
More than a quarter of households in the region have incomes of less than $30,000.
Those stark stats amplify the need for role models for the youth to aspire to, something Hauiti has stepped up to both on the footy field and in the classroom.
“One thing about playing on the Coast, we’d never shoo away the kids,” he remembered.
“They would haka with us before matches. They would come into the team huddle, and we would make room for them. We all know the kids look up to us, but also for them to be able to sit with us in the changing rooms, to pat us on the shoulders, it gave us a huge boost.”
Hauiti’s late mother and some of his aunties were teachers.
His father was a proud man of the land, a hardworking farmer, who Hauiti said he used to love watching “lift huge logs around the farm”, driving machinery and riding horses.
“All the stuff that young men want to do.”
Hauiti has taught at Gisborne Intermediate School for the past 11 years, dedicating himself to integrating a Tikanga Māori approach within a mainstream setting through the Ngā Manu a Rehua initiative.
He said the programme – which brings Kaupapa Māori into the classroom - has deepened cultural connections, fostering respect and understanding across diverse backgrounds.
As well as working at Gisborne Intermediate School, he also visits other schools in the area as part of his company, Ngā Ahikā Puni; an initiative aimed at school children having a better understanding of their culture and tikanga via storytelling regardless of their ethnicity.
Every day he sets foot through any school gates he knows he and his teaching colleagues could be amongst the leading positive role models in their students’ lives.
“A lot of our kids do have positive role models in their lives here on the Coast, but a lot of our kids don’t,” he said.
“I’m lucky. I had so many positive role models in my life who steered me in a really solid direction. But in my profession, I see a lot that don’t. That saddens me to say that. So, in a sense bro, you become their father, you become the uncle, you don’t just become the teacher.
“You become all those things that they’ve wanted in a role model.”
Making a difference in children’s and family’s lives – and not sales figures – is what Hauiti hopes is the legacy of the Maia the Kaitiaki series.
There are many more stories to be told than the nine already published, with the books illustrated by Walter Shepherd.
Epilepsy NZ has been in touch to find out more about the books.
“I’m not too fussed about the buying and selling,” he said.
“The key for me was to get the message out there, just to say there is hope out there for people who are going through struggles.”
Hauiti is also passionate that his books will increase the exposure children – especially in a unique region like Tairāwhiti - have to local books; publications which in part educate them on where they live and local legends of the past.
In his occupation as a school teacher, he is well aware of how most books our children are exposed to are from Australia, the UK or America, with specific cultural nuances to those countries.
“But we’re not Americans. We’re not Australians. We’re Kiwis and we have our own identity,” he said.
“Some of the books that come through schools, that we have to read to the kids ... there’s just no connection [to the children or New Zealand]. They’re bland.
“With Maia the Kaitiaki, Nanny will help Maia overcome something; it could be fears of the darkness, some pains or another problem.”
They’re real stories with a very local twist.
As sales start to grow, Hauiti is reminded of one of many things that Nanny Moke Hauiti taught him as a young boy.
The family might not have been rich in terms of financial wealth, but they had a huge “richness” in life via a loving and supportive family.
“You don’t need to have materialistic things to be rich,” Hauiti said.
“And whether I get $1 from the book or $1000 from the books, I’m already rich [with life].
“And if something comes back financially from the books I’ll buy a barbecue for the marae. Or I’ll go and buy my uncle a bike.
“That’s just the way I’ve been raised.”
Neil Reid is a Napier-based senior reporter who covers general news, features and sport. He joined the Herald in 2014 and has 33 years of newsroom experience.
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They allege the Crown ignored Treaty obligations by not engaging with them.