Te Ropu Kahurangi

Tu Tangata, Issue 15, 1 December 1983, Page 13

Te Ropu Kahurangi

Te Ropu Kahurangi (The Kahurangi Cooperative) has been formed by a group of secondary school teachers to extend and ultimately to take over the well known KAHURANGI READERS SERIES. These are booklets designed to help secondary school age students to learn to read or to extend their reading competence so that the students can cope with texts used in the everyday classroom. Some of the Kahurangi Readers also are in Maori. Some of them incorporate Maori as a normal part of a basically English language text. Te Ropu Kahurangi has launched five readers with very strong cultural themes. ‘Ruru’, ‘The Unveiling’ and ‘Marae’ are English language readers which all incorporate important Maori words such as kuia, ruru, marae, tipuna. They are therefore useful in the Maori class as well as in the English class. Or as little booklets parents can read with their children. ‘Little Brother Maui’ retells the fishing of New Zealand in lively language. ‘Hair Cutting’ tells of a Cook Islands/Nuiean custom.

Each booklet is illustrated with enjoyable line sketches. The booklets are small, and cost about $1 each (‘Hair Cutting’ 50c) plus postage, The Kahurangi Readers have been praised by teachers and student readers. Where other kinds of books have failed to interest adolescents to want to improve their reading, these often suceed with their lively language closer to the language the student is used to hearing, and with their stories close to students lives, and with their humorous or emotionally appealing drawings. Te Ropu Kahurangi has been set up not to make money, but to provide reading material relevant to the lives of adolescent Maori and Polynesian youngsters today, a market not sufficiently profitable for the established publishing companies. There are now about 23 Kahurangi Readers aimed at secondary school students. They cost between 50c and $1 each. They are obtainable from TE ROPU KAHURANGI, 43 Landscape Rd., Papatoetoe.