Parents, teachers, friends and students - It’s a joy for us to gather here today and celebrate the class of 2018. I see assembled here, the faces of the future. Can we start by taking a moment to realise just how significant your finishing Yr...
Read More
My father turned 80 earlier this year. Getting older has only made him more wiley and more in tune with how to navigate communications with his fia feminist daughter...
Read More
Full disclosure - I hate snakes. I'm terrified of snakes. They are at the very top of the list of Things I Wish Were Never Created. (A list which includes mosquitos, centipedes, brain parasites that live on lettuce salad, and Celine Dion's song 'My Heart...
Read More
Once upon a time, there was a very clever (and stunningly beautiful) woman called Lani. One morning she woke up with a pesky itch on the side of her neck. It could have been a mosquito bite? Or a pimple? Either way, it was irritating...
Read More
I was asked to be on this panel: Culture and Context Online - because I have some experience with the complaints process reporting abuse to Netsafe and to NZ Police. My story may be that of only one brown woman, but I’m only one of...
Read More
When you're married to a triathlete who spends a lot of time training on our Samoa roads, then you live with the constant dread of getting 'that' phone call. I got it at 5.30am early one Friday morning. "Can you come get me?" he asked....
Read MoreI was blessed to have two very different mothers when I was growing up. (and no, I don’t mean my mum had a multiple personality disorder.) First there was my mum. The Pacific’s version of Martha Stewart. And then there was Peka – our babysitter/...
Read More
OCEAN’S KISS. What happens when Daniel’s father sails into Apia, bringing with him a locked box of dangerous memories and powerful emotions, that could just reawaken the human in an Ocean goddess. EMBRACE OF EARTH. Keahi – badboy millionaire cage fighter (with no control over the fire that rages within...
Read More
When brown women write. We are embraced with pride and celebration by the Pasifika community in many countries. The support, shares and encouragement is phenomenal. Nobody does #bookLove quite like our people. They bring your favorite food to book signings, and offer their homes for you...
Read More
I have a love-hate relationship with school holidays. I love them because it means I can sleep late, I don’t have to freak out over getting kids to school on time, and I can eat all the lunch box treats. But I also hate school holidays...
Read More