A desire, and need, to access te reo Māori books for her own revitalisation journey led Ella Cartwright to create an online bookshop bringing together as many titles as she could.
"This was an idea I had swimming around in my brain for a few years before I got to a point where I actually started taking it seriously as an option. I came up with it, from my own need and my own want as a second language learner raising my tamariki in te reo Māori.
"I wished there was a one-stop shop, where I could go and see all of the quality books that are coming out in te reo Māori."
After some encouragement from friends and support from her husband, Liam, she secured funding from Te Mātāwai and tereomaoribookshop.com became a reality.
She hopes having a dedicated bookstore for te reo Māori titles increases the audience and readership of existing reo Māori books, especially works by Māori writers, illustrators, translators and publishing houses.
"I think there can be a misconception sometimes that you have to already be a proficient or fluent speaker in order to benefit from reading te reo Māori children's books or to read them at all. So I'm trying to bust that myth and make them accessible to language learners from beginner to advanced."
The concept has three key whāinga (aims), to raise the profile of quality te reo Māori publishing, to support whānau language plans and to get more te reo into homes.
Language learning opportunities
"We're advocating for them as language learning opportunities as ways to improve your family language plans at home, that we have quality depictions that whakamana te reo, so we don't choose to stop things where te reo is small in comparison to the English. We want our tamariki to be proud of the language in these pukapuka."
Since launching during Te Wiki o te reo Māori last year, Cartwright says she has received good feedback and not always by Māori readers.
"I was contacted recently by a kuia who is Pākehā but her tamariki are Māori and speakers of te reo and she said 'I don't really have any reo, but what could I read to them that's easy and accessible for me that would help me have te reo in our relationship at home?' That's really rewarding for me to be able to support that."
While her business has just started and there is a pipe dream to one day have a bricks-and-mortar bookstore, Cartwright says the most important thing for whānau is to read to their tamariki by any means possible.
"We encourage people, even if they don't have spare pūtea at the moment to buy the books online, take a list to your local library and get them out at the library or ask your library to get them in. Anyone can be a part of reading pukapuka tamariki at home.
