Hēmi Kelly
“We decided to create a pukapuka that could motivate people to use te reo Māori every day…
This was back in 2017. Jeremy Sherlock, who was with Penguin Random House at the time, got in touch to kōrero about an idea he’d had for an accessible, fun Māori dictionary of common words that people could use to kickstart their reo journey. We hadn’t worked together before but he knew my work. I’d worked with Witi Ihimaera to translate Sleeps Standing into te reo Māori. So we talked. We met to discuss the idea and we developed the concept. I focused on the most commonly used words and whittled them down to 365, one for each day of the year. When it came to the cover, we wanted to give a Māori artist the opportunity. The artwork by Sheree Willman is a traditional tukutuku design — named takitoru — which can symbolise two way communication. I remember that sense of release and relief when the final result, A Māori Word a Day, was out there in the bookshops and libraries. After investing a lot of thought and time it felt really good to have finished and finally have the pukapuka out in the world. We released the second book, A Māori Phrase a Day this year and now we’re discussing a third idea. When it comes to my creative rights, I’d say I’m learning as I go. I have a much clearer idea of the things that are important to me as an author, that I would want to retain, if and when we do get to that third pukapuka.
I lecture fulltime in te reo Māori at Auckland University of Technology. In my academic research, the revitalisation of te reo Māori is an area of focus for me. And I think it’s important that we have resources for new learners – something we can really only create here in Aotearoa. But there’s a lot of choice in this space right now. What we don’t have much of yet, are novels or the kinds of pukapuka you might pick up and read for enjoyment as a young person or adult. Last year, I translated The Alchemist for Kotahi Rua Pukapuka, a publishing project from Auckland University Press to translate 100 popular titles into te reo Māori. Books like these and Sleeps Standing are particularly significant for this reason.
Working with Witi Ihimaera on Sleeps Standing was a unique experience. I’m of Ngāti Maniapoto descent and the narrative is about the Battle of Ōrākau, a Ngāti Maniapoto story. Witi invited me to work on the project and was open to me working alongside him throughout the entire process. He also gave me some freedom to portray the meaning of the story rather than the words alone.”
Hēmi Kelly is author of A Māori Word a Day and A Māori Phrase a Day and translator of Sleeps Standing Moetū by Witi Ihimaera and The Alchemist (Te Ruānuku) by Paulo Coehlo.