Colourful Picture Book Explores Pacific Identity Through Young Hero’s Trip To Festival In Hawai’i

Tangaroa Paul’s first book Rere Atu Taku Poi! / Let My Poi Fly! has been a big hit, with audio and stage adaptations springing from the book that published in early 2023.

Now Tangaroa is back with a sequel in which Rangi and his kapa haka group fly from Aotearoa to Hawai’i for a cultural festival.

While sharing the group’s culture with others from around the Pacific, Rangi makes friends with young people like him from Hawai’i, Sāmoa and Tonga, who combine male and female energy.

And so on with the show! Performances take the stage while in the background, Rangi ponders how Māori define gender and identity.

Written in Māori and English, with vivid illustrations by Tongan-Kiwi artist Luca Tu’avao Walton, Rere Atu ki Poronihia is an uplifting story that opens the cultures of Polynesia to young readers.

It is jointly published by Auckland Council Libraries and Oratia Books, and hits the bookshelves ahead of the Pasifika Festival 2026 in Tāmaki Makaurau, with a free Teacher Resource soon to be available online.

The authors

Tangaroa Paul (Te Whare Tawhito o Muriwhenua), a poi expert who identifies as gender-fluid, is a lecturer in te reo Māori at the Auckland University of Technology, where they completed a doctorate in gender studies in 2023. Their books drawn on Tangaroa’s own experience as the first biological male to compete in the poi section of Te Matatini.

Luca Tu’avao Walton is an artist and animator who spent his early life in Tonga and now lives in Auckland. His art explores themes of femininity and representation in the Pacific context.

Rere Atu ki Poronihia / Flight to Polynesia

Written in te reo Māori and Engilish by Tangaroa Paul

Illustrated by Luca Tu'avao Walton

Published by Oratia Books, in partnership with Auckland Council Libraries

ISBN: 978-1-99-004297-3 | RRP $22.99 | Paperback

www.oratia.co.nz

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