Former Kawerau woman wins at book awards
18 August 2015
A FORMER Kawerau woman has taken out top honours at the 2015 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults with her book Nga Ki.
Sacha Cotter’s book Keys, illustrated by Josh Morgan and translated by Kawata Teepa, won the Maori Language category at the awards announced last Thursday at a ceremony in Wellington.
Keys, published by Huia Publishers, is the first book penned by Cotter and explores the special relationship between a father and his daughter.
The story was based on her earliest memory of her father, a shift-worker at the Tasman mill, arriving home in the morning and his keys jangling in the door.
“I would wake up so excited and go running up to dad and then he would tuck me back into bed and tell me stories,” she said
Miss Cotter said the awards ceremony at Government House was amazing and it was an honour to be among so many talented writers and illustrators, and to be a finalist in both the Maori language category and the picture book category.
“It was such a fantastic feeling to hear our names being announced and to find out that Nga Ki had won the Maori language category. I heard someone yell out ‘Yes!’from the crowd and I knew that it was my dad … We are all delighted about it and I’m definitely walking about on Cloud 9 at the moment.
She said it was always the intention to produce the story in English and Maori and she had received many positive comments on the creative translation.
“For me it is brilliant, because I think Kawata has really captured the essence of what Keys is about.
“There is a vehicle called a Zippenburger, which is a made-up word. Kawata has in turn created his own word in Te Reo Maori – Weneperetere – which not only fits in idea, but is also is fun to say, just like it is in English.
Source: Whakatane Beacon