Auckland Libraries launched the new bilingual te reo Māori VOX Books in a small staff gathering at Central City Library in April. This project had been a long time in the making. Led by Teri Ta’ala, who has since left Auckland Council, and Louise Harper (Library and Learning Services) with essential mahi by Raniera Kingi, Maureen Ned and others at Te Waka Kerewai, the Māori Outcomes unit at Auckland Council.
Content creation in its many forms has become an important part of our work at Auckland Council Libraries. Our publishing programme aims to fill gaps in our library collections and create content for and with our local communities, focusing on Māori, Pasifika, literacy and our collections. A specialist publishing team works with internal partners, local community and publishing partners to create and publish content.
Back in 2021, we had a large and growing children’s VOX Books collection – and we still do! –including some bilingual Chinese and English VOX books. We thought it would be wonderful if we could offer VOX Books in te reo Māori. And there was the possibility of some DIA funding under the New Zealand Libraries Partnership Programme.
If you’re not familiar, VOX books are picture books with an attached audio reader so children can listen and read along. No batteries required, and no screens! VOX Books are narrated as the words appear on the page. And VOX Books are only available at libraries!
We emailed Library Ideas and asked if they wanted to collaborate with us on some VOX Books in te reo Māori. And they said yes immediately! We arranged a video meeting with Kyle Wiseman, our main contact at Library Ideas, and the CEO of Library Ideas, Brian Downing. This was a new venture for us all, and I recall the way Brian pronounced ‘Māori’ on our first video call. Let’s just say we all had a lot to learn!
Library Ideas would cover the cost of producing the books, with the understanding that Auckland Libraries would buy a certain number of copies.
We chose stories that didn’t use rhyme as we thought this would be more straightforward to translate. We wanted themes that were in harmony with Te Ao Māori, and stories that reflected the interests of tamariki.
The project group included Māori staff and te reo speakers who helped select six titles and were on board to review the translations and narration. It was important to us that Auckland Libraries had oversight regarding the language – we had to be sure that the reo was right.
Library Ideas found a translator for our books: Kanapu Rangitauira, who has worked with Huia Publishers. Raniera reviewed the translation and provide feedback. The first translation was more adult- level and Raniera and the team made sure it was suitable for the intended young audience. Raniera not only provided extensive feedback, but he also provided some original translation for the instructions page, he translated a page of missing text, and he generally kept track of each word and each sentence, in both languages, on the page of every book. Raniera’s deep knowledge, and the patience and aroha that he brought to this project was vital.
And there were challenges. The project took three years to complete, partly due to te reo speakers, translators, and bilingual voice actors being in such huge demand.
A big challenge in working with an American company was that they really didn’t know much about the Māori language or culture. They didn’t ‘get’ that te reo Māori is a taonga. We found this out when they sent us the first recordings of the books by an actor who was neither Māori nor a reo speaker! Perhaps the actor misrepresented herself, or maybe Library Ideas hadn’t done enough research, but we provided feedback and Library Ideas corrected the mistake by finding two wonderful reo speakers to read the stories: award-winning actor Miriama McDowell and well-known local actor and TV presenter Kimo Houltham.
Library Ideas is a business that makes products for libraries, but they took a chance on us with this project. They did not expect to make a profit on these books, but they wanted to grow their collection for the New Zealand and Australian library markets. This project was also an opportunity for Library Ideas to test the waters for publishing VOX Books in other indigenous languages.
We were stoked to bring these unique children’s books to Tāmaki Makaurau, and other libraries around Aotearoa have bought them too from Library Ideas for their collections. We are in discussions about creating more books with Library Ideas so watch this space!
The books have been in the collection for six months now and they’ve had turnover of 4.15 so far (600 items and 2492 checkouts at 30/10/2024). They have been moving around the region, getting checked out by kids from Wellsford to Waiuku. Raniera was interviewed for a new s story on Te Ao Māori News in May. The books were featured on the NZ Herald during Te Wiki o te Reo Māori. Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori featured the books in their June newsletter.
There is a real demand from people to hear, see, and read te reo in Tāmaki Makaurau. We were so fortunate to have all these talented, skilled, knowledgeable people working with us. And we now have the finished product of their collective mahi. Ka rawe!
The six titles are:
Four fiction picture books:
- Maybe by Kobi Yamada, illus. Gabriella Barouch – a story about children’s possibilities and potential
- What do you do with a problem? by Kobi Yamada, illus. Mae Besom – a story for anyone who has ever had a problem that they wished would go away!
- Seree’s story by Irma Gold & Wayne Harris – about Seree, an elephant who longs for her mum and her whānau. Bring the tissues when you read that one! It’s a heart wrencher.
- Show us where you live, humpback by Beryl Young, illus. Sakika Kikuchi – a story about a baby whale and a human baby, and the connection with the environment and living things.
And two nonfiction picture books:
- Octopuses by Ann Herriges
- Tarantulas by Kari Schuetz