The Greatest Haka Festival on Earth

Book Author & Illustrator Pania Tahau-Hodges & Story Hemi-Morehouse
Rights Available World excl. NZ

It’s national kapa haka competition time again, and this Māori performing arts festival is a big event! It needs planning, tactics and dedication – and that’s just for the people watching! Nan’s a hardcore kapa haka follower, and she shows her mokopuna all the tricks to get the best seats, find the choicest pāua and whitebait fritters, hunt out the coolest poi, pounamu and glittery moko, and meet the star performers. And all along, Nan’s keeping a big secret that’s only revealed when the star performer does Nan’s amazing signature poi move – and her group wins the competition.

About the Author
Pania Tahau-Hodges (Ngāti Tūwharetoa/Ngāti Tūtemohuta, Tūhoe) is Publishing Manager at Huia Publishers and has worked as a writer, editor and resource developer in English and Māori languages for more than twenty years. She is passionate about Māori language and loves creating stories that reflect Māori realities and aspirations. In 2015, she was awarded an internship with a leading publisher in Frankfurt through an initiative of the Publishers Association of New Zealand, the Frankfurt Book Fair and Creative New Zealand. Pania is a self-confessed kapa haka geek and has been to every Matatini festival for the last twenty-five years. This is Pania’s second picture book, following the successful Santa’s Worst Christmas, Te Kirihimete i Whakakorea, which she co-wrote with the HUIA team.

Story Hemi-Morehouse (Ngāti Koata, Ngāti Toa Rangatira) is a Māori creative – who took her professional and creative background in Scriptwriting and Animation, and ran! She now works as a full-time, freelance Illustrator / Writer – for Indigenous Polynesian-based picture books and stories.