Gold Pin Win for publishers of Taka Ki Ro Wai

On Friday night, Tania & Martin from Tania & Martin design, attended the 2014 BEST Design Awards at the Viaduct Events Centre, Auckland, along with 998 other people, in the hope of winning recognition for their design of Taka Ki Ro Wai.

The BEST Design Awards are unique in the way they honour design. Run by the Designers Institute of New Zealand, they don’t have a singular award for first, second and third. They award as many places as they believe deserve it in a section − or not at all if the standard isn’t met.

For our section, the Nga Aho Award, there were actually three gold pin winners, a silver and two bronzes from a field of eleven finalists, with the judges acknowledging the high standard within the category. The gold pin, their equivalent to a medal, went to ourselves, Studio Alexander, and architectural firm JASMAX (the architects most notably recognised for Te Papa Tongarewa) who for this nomination, had designed the building Te Uru Taumatua for Tuhoe in Taneatua). From amongst the three gold pins awarded, one supreme category winner was chosen as the purple pin winner, which was richly deserved by JASMAX.

We received our pin together with a winners certificate from Te Puni Kokiri Tamaki Makaurau head Pauline Kingi.

Though it was Tania & Martin in attendance, the application was about Taka Ki Ro Wai, and the collective strengths of the team responsible for it’s creation.

Author Keri didn’t accompany us this time, as she is due in Auckland this coming weekend for the Toi Maori Maori Writers Hui 2014, but we called her soon after the announcement and shouted the good news down the phone over the loud celebrations going on in the background.

Attending these events is essential to keep people talking about Taka Ki Ro Wai, because you’re nothing if you’re not in the news. While you create the book with the hope that it will be liked, awards such as this and the NZ Post Children’s Book Awards are the kudos that provide impetus for book sales.

As we’d like to produce more books like this one, the book itself needs to sell to help make that happen. That was why we targeted these awards. Without them, we could be faced with boxes of books gathering dust. This is a push to get the remaining copies of the book out into new homes and into the hands of eager readers, both the young and older, the fluent and the learner.

Submitted by Martin D Page, designer of Taka Ki Ro Wai, by Keri Kaa

Book Review: Taka Ki Ro Wai – He Kōrero Pūrākau mo Tētāhi Hoiho, by Keri Kaa, illustrated by Martin D Page

Available in bookstores nationwide, this is the winner of the inaugural Maori Language Award in the New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. 

This Māori language, 59 page picture book is an amazing compilation of story, artwork and photography, decorated and enhanced with examples of Māori weaving and carving patterns.

Publisher Tania was kind enough to relate the story to me in English (I am not bilingual) which I can summarise for you. As a Māori reader, you will get more out of the book than I can, so bear with me.

It is the true story of a rural home, surrounded by farmland, in the area of Ngati Porou, on which after an extremely rainy stormy night, the woman of the house looking out her window realises her mare is in difficulties. On closer investigation, she sees the mare has foaled overnight. The foal is still trapped in the birth sac, and in such deep water the mare cannot assist it to break free.

Friends come to help; they drag the foal onto higher ground, wrap it in a blanket with the hopes of saving the exhausted foal, who is very cold after being submerged in water. The mare is incapable of anything, so exhausted is she after birthing in the night and struggling in the flooded paddock.

The mare has shared her paddock with a pig, and is used to its smell. The pig comes to the foal, and tears open the birth sac. It licks then rubs against the foal, for so long it tires and drops to rest in exhaustion. It returns to the foal and now starts treading with its forelegs on its back, until finally the foal comes alive. The mare returns, and coaxes the foal to stand and feed.

This book is a strong mixture of the expertise of the story teller and of the illustrator. Every page has its own significance to te tikanga Māori, to rural communities, and to – especially – spell-bound children.

The publishers have assured me there is a solid intention to produce an English language version in the future. I will happily announce that here when it happens.

Translations of the front cover (thanks to publisher Tania)…
Main Title – Taka Kiro Wai = Fell in the water
Sub-title – He Kōrero Pūrākau mo Tētāhi Hoiho = A story about a horse
(Yellow circle sub-subtitle – He Kōrero Pūrākau Tūturu Tēnei = This is a true story

Reviewed by Lynne McAnulty-Street, published originally on her review blog here. 

Taka Ki Ro Wai – He Kōrero Pūrākau mo Tētāhi Hoiho
Author Keri Kaa
Artist Martin D Page
Publication 2013 by Tania&Martin, Rotorua NZ
ISBN 9780473184063