Now I see me: Using picturebooks for Indigenous language preservation and revitalisation
Associate Professor Nicola Daly from Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato the University of Waikato will work with a team of researchers and award-winning Huia Publishers to explore the ways in which Indigenous voices are, and can be, genuinely portrayed in picturebooks
Published on 2 Whiringa-ā-rangi November 2023
Children’s picturebooks are a powerful form of literature. They are a building block for our tamariki, promoting language acquisition as well as a sense of self-identity. But how exactly do they exert this influence? How do publishers use visual elements such as illustrations, font, colour palettes, and layout to shape children’s awareness of the world around them? And more specifically, how do picturebooks represent the complexities of Indigenous language, knowledge and identity?
Associate Professor Daly has received a Marsden Fund Standard grant to document and explore the ways in which Indigenous voices in Aotearoa New Zealand are, and can be, authentically represented. This research will be carried out in collaboration with the multi-award-winning, Māori-owned publishing company Huia Publishers. Executive Director of Huia Publishers Eboni Waitere says they are looking forward to working with the research team.
Multidisciplinary in nature, and driven by kaupapa Māori principles, this exciting and novel project aims to challenge our perspectives of how picturebooks are published. The team of Māori and Pākēha partners will focus on the tensions of translation, appropriate visual expression of Indigeneity, and how picturebooks preserve and grow Indigenous languages.