Kāinga Pukapuka
Home Libraries
The Idea
The idea for this project came from being worried for a lot of our young people who had been in Covid lockdowns. Some children attended very few online classes for various reasons. Libraries were closed which meant there was even less access to reading resources. This was concerning for many of our youth who were so far behind when they went back to school.
The Kāinga Pukapuka project helps alleviate this by gifting packs of books to children so they can start or add to their own home library. The books are specifically chosen so that children from different cultural groups can experience the thrill of reading books they can engage and connect with.
The change we hope to see is a love for personal reading created and improved reading levels which in turn will lead to greater achievement at school and improved mental wellbeing for children who can see themselves being successful.
A whakataukī says: Mā te huruhuru te manu ka rere. (By feathers the bird will fly.) This can also mean, give the bird the feathers it needs to fly. That’s what we want to do for our young people with these home libraries.
Our kaupapa is to find ways to help Māori and Pasifika young people improve their writing and reading literacy. This project does this by providing books to families which are culturally relevant, including bilingual books, and help develop a culture of reading at home.
Dear Oceania Literacy Trust, thank you for the books. I'm very grateful and can’t wait to read them in the holidays with my family. I enjoy reading books about my culture and looking at the pictures. I'm happy I can share them with my twin sister and my little brother and I think they'll like them.
Rico
Hi, Oceania Literacy Trust! I am 9 years old and I really like to learn about my culture (Tonga.) I really appreciate what you bought for me with all of those books in the box. Thank you for all of those books and I promise I will look after them. I won't forget this. Thank you so much. What you have brought for me I will learn a lot from these books. I have a Tongan test coming up from my Sunday school class. I will learn heaps for what you did. And probably get all the answers right. I can't stop saying thank you because I've always wanted Tongan books, but my mum and dad have no money to waste on books. Thank you thank you thank you.
Dear Oceania Literacy Trust
Thank you for the books you gave me. It was an honour to have them. I read them a lot at night. My favorite one is the Niuean book. I got a big surprise to get them and my mum did too. It was nice meeting you last week when you came to our school
Thank you so much for the books. My daughter particularly enjoyed reading the 'Cook Island Heroes' book where she could easily identify people she looks up to who express their culture with pride and honour. We appreciate the beautiful illustrations and the dual language of English and Cook Island written in these books."
It shows that girls can be whatever they want to be. It’s good to share they shared their success with others. These books encourage Pasifika people to read about others success.