Te Kura Pounamu Award

The Te Kura Pounamu Award was established in 1995 and first presented in 1996 by LIANZA, the Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa. Te Kura Pounamu is awarded annually to a writer who is a New Zealand citizen or resident, for the book that is considered to be the most distinguished contribution to literature for children and young people written in Te Reo Maori. The prize is a greenstone pendant (Taonga) and $1000.00. As a member of Te Rōpū Whakahau, Māori in Libraries & Information Management, Haneta Pierce was asked to convene the panel of judges for this years award and she has invited 3 local people to join her on the panel; They are Hana ORegan, Kaiwhakatere o Te Waka Reo ki Ngāi Tahu , Gina Colvin Mcluskey who has taught in elementary primary schools in Taiwan for 4 years and does the bilingual pre school story times for our network of libraries, and finally Nekeneke-i-te-Rangi Te Tauhu o Kawatapuarangi Paoraturoto, who is the Māori Resources Librarian at the Macmillan Brown Library, and is highly regarded as a fluent speaker of te reo Māori.

The panel received a total of 9 books to read and from set criteria they short listed 5 titles. The shortlist includes.

Title: He Tamaiti No Aotearoa
Author/s: Melanie Drewery
Illustrator: Potter, Bruce
Translator: Apanui, Hone
Publisher: Reed Children's Books

Title: I te Timatanga
Author/s: Gossage, Peter
Illustrator: Gossage, Peter
Translator: Mataira, Katerina
Publisher: Scholastic NZ LTD

Title: Nga Raukura Rima Tekau Ma Rima
Author/s: Ben Brown
Illustrator: Taylor, Helen
Translator: Apanui, Hone
Publisher: Reed Childrens Books

Title: Nga Rongoa a Koro
Author/s: Drewery, Melanie
Illustrator: Malcolm, Sabrina
Translator: Uatuku, Kararaina
Publisher: Huia

Title: Tarakihana Pakupaku
Author/s: Cowley, Joy
Illustrator: Bishop, Gavin
Translator: Mataira, Katerina
Publisher: Scholastic NZ Ltd

The winner will be announced at te wero, the LIANZA Conference, held in Christchurch in October.