The whakapapa of Reo Pēpi can be traced to the source of many self determining Māori iniatives. Whānau ora. We come down through the southern line of this mighty organisation Te Putahitanga. Our origin story is one steeped in aroha. A beautiful examplar of Whanau ora circulating its mana in the wild, deep South of Te Waipounamu.
The idea for Reo Pēpi was born when as a first time māmā I went looking for beautiful books that would help our whānau learn te Reo Māori together. I was underwhelmed by the number of books, the age and the quality available.
I knew other parents would be out there looking for these books.
I talked to my cousin Kirsten who’d just had pēpi Mihiata. We decided then and there on a maternity leave project that would have an impact, far beyond our imaginings.
We brainstormed concepts we’d like to learn, useful daily language that could be interchanged between books. Vocabulary built page by page. We knew we wanted board books. We settled early on the look. Beautiful illustrations were central to our kaupapa. We wanted taonga for bookshelves.
Each pukapuka began life at our kitchen table visited between breastfeeds, embellished during naps. As they grew we saw their personalities come through. Gradually they established thier own identity through story.
While our tamariki slept, we spent long nights tending our book babies! Somewhere deep in our nocturnal mahi we began to wonder how we would bring this all forward as published work.
With photocopied paper versions we started asking our community if they would like these kind of books. Our local (Ōtākou) Māori Women’s Welfare League supported our idea and suggested we find some funding for a print run.
Our Aunty Robyn put us in touch with Te Pūtahitanga who were just rolling out thier very first wave of funding in Te Waipounamu. Inspired by their aspirational encouragement we applied. Our Rūnanga chair Donna Matahaere emboldened us to think of our work as a creative way to provide for our whānau, connect with our people and share our gifts. She helped us to think of the solution for our own question, as an answer many in our own community, might be seeking.
And that’s what Whanau Ora does. It empowers whānau to create their own futures, with thier unique ideas, talents and solutions. Not prescribing answers but encouraging questioners.
The process of applying (and the gruelling rewrites, revisions and revisits) was robust and powerful. We were led through a method of clarification. A quest to ensure our idea would have the strength needed to take a place in the NZ publishing ecology. Eventually we were successful in gaining start up funding. This was not just funding though...
We were the recipients of an investment. One which carried the belief, backing and full support of our people. It was and is an honour to be the recipients of the collective trust Whānau Ora assigned to us.
We were wrapped in a korowai of support people throughout-Helen Leahy and Maania Fararr identified us as an initiative to gift additional marketing and brand support to. We worked closely with the mighty Maui Studio’s to develop our tohu, website, online shop and of course our books themselves.
We launched Tahi-our first series of 3 pukapuka in 2015, three years after the initial idea. The Whānau ora support machine has hummed in the background and throughout our lives ever since.
Reo Pēpi has now published 9 titles, they are on constant reorder in beautiful bookshops all over Aotearoa. They are in every ECE, kōhanga and library in the country.
The impacts of all this, reach into our lives in a myriad of ways. Reo pēpi is a central financial, creative and identity system to our whānau. That’s our business and it works
But the investment Whānau Ora made in us has had deeper effects and wider growth. It’s the belief factor-the empowerment. Thats the stuff that has reached out beyond our Reo pēpi kauapapa to shape our lives in ways we didn’t expect. It’s the sense that we are worthwhile, creative practitioners who can contribute to kaupapa Māori projects in our communities. It’s the belief that we are woven into the fabric of something so much larger than ourselves. We have the safety to explore and contribute. And it’s an intrinsic responsibility to our people that will continue to ensure return on investment.
Aroha mai-Aroha atu-Love recieved demands love returned
Ānei this is a love letter. It’s an acknowledgement of our connection to and pride in our place, within the lineage of Whānau Ora.