E whakanui ana te Coalition for Books i Te Wiki o te reo Māori mā te whakaputa i a Kete Books  ki roto katoa i te reo tawhito rawa o te motu, a Te Reo Māori.

The Coalition for Books will celebrate Te Wiki o te reo Māori week by publishing Kete Books entirely in the country’s oldest language.

Kete’s home page will feature an editorial from guest editor Ruth Smith (Ngāti Kōhuru, Te Aitanga-ā-Mahaki). A parliamentary interpreter and translator, Ruth has worked previously as a broadcaster, presenter and commentator for Māori television and radio. The Gisborne local translated Puripāha, the te reo Māori edition of Witi Ihimaera’s Bulibasha, and is also a contributor to Kete Books as a reviewer and translator.

“We celebrate Te Reo Māori as the official language of New Zealand this week and every week, “ says Coalition for Books Manager Kim Meredith, “but as we are about books and written language, we want to show our commitment to the language through making the kāinga/home page of Kete entirely available in te reo. We also acknowledge the many amazingly talented Māori writers of Aotearoa and so we are running te reo reviews of some of recent books and poetry collections from Coco Solid, Whiti Hereaka, J. P. Pomare, Robert Sullivan and Nicole Titihuia Hawkins.”

The project received the blessing of the Māori Language Commission, which welcomes initiatives that provide a platform for te reo, and involved working with a team of licensed te reo Māori translators from around the motu.

The Coalition for Books acknowledges the support of Creative New Zealand in helping fund this initiative.