Kirsten and I have been working with Allen and Unwin, to create Toru-our third series of bilingual pukapuka, for five months. It has been exciting, after the quiet and uncertainty of lockdown, it has been a whirlwind of saying yes. In truth the transition has also been a time scattered with clouds of trepidation and grief. “What if we’ve made the wrong move?”, “Who are we now?”, “Are they going to look after our (Reo) Pēpi?!”

We have been learning big, fancy publishers (as we like call Allen and Unwin) do things differently. Where we would have put on a song and dance, throwing a pāti for the launch of Toru, thier publicity people advise us to taihoa. Gratefully we accept this advice-we were always so apprehensive about those things.

In earlier times we would have spent these last few months leading up to release, endlessly locked in detail, stealing precious whānau time and working late into the nights.. Now, with Allen and Unwin, we are constantly amazed that amid this reduced workload, we’ll soon have three new pukapuka hitting the shelves!

One new blessing of our partnership is the time, we now have to commit to our creative mahi. We have been using this time to redefine our identities for what comes next. As we hurtle towards our pukapuka being released to the world, it is true luxury to have time, for this type of reflection. We are gathering our thoughts on some things we want to say, as some modest attention will be turned our way, soon enough with the launch of Toru. You’ll see lots of writing appear here on the Reo Pēpi blog. This is coming from the rare and shining space gifted to us by this new relationship.