Maori youth targeted by local author

- July 2010

Maori author Ngarongo Te Oti Ormsby is a man on a mission - to share his stories with youth in order to help them become less disenfranchised with the modern world. Until recently a self-confessed ‘closet writer’, Ngarongo brings a new energy to writing for children and is a breath of fresh air for lovers of children’s fiction.

It’s Ngarongo’s passion for people that comes through so strongly in his writing. With his whanau spread around the globe, Ngarongo’s first forays into writing were in the mid 1980s when he started writing a quarterly family newsletter to help keep his family connected.

His varied and colourful work history adds an extra depth to his stories and gives him added insights into today’s youth. With one series of books fleshed out and several picture books on the go, Ngarongo is set to take the publishing world by storm.

While he has his ideas in order now, it wasn’t always so straight forward. In order to give his fledgling ideas a kick start, Ngarongo joined a group of aspiring writers at Bay of Plenty Polytechnic’s Writing for Children’s Picture Books, taught by local author Jean Bennett. “Ngarongo was one of the most focused writers I’ve seen,” said Jean. “During lunch times and after each session there was smoke rising from his laptop as he pounded the keys!”

It was during the programme Ngarongo gave his character ‘Waka Jack’ his first outing when the course participants were asked to share their story ideas. Waka Jack was warmly received by the group and it was suggested the storyline would be more suited to a chapter book, rather than a picture book.

“Waka Jack is an idea that I’ve been building on for a while. It’s about a boy growing up in a traditional M?ori world and having to learn a whole new skill set when joining the contemporary world,” said Ngarongo.

“He has to deal with the rites of passage that young men of old had to go through - learning to deal with emotions and issues such as anger, disappointment and commitment for example. A problem we see everyday is young men who are disenfranchised with the modern world - a world where there is no definite line between child, adolescent and man. Many youth are left without a sense of direction, without a sense of their own ‘being’. In Waka Jack I address these core issues by creating a character that our young children can identify with.”

The polytechnic’s course saw Ngarongo expanding on his story ideas, and along with the Waka Jack series of books, he’s also got a large number of picture book stories in the pipeline too, several of which he sent to award winning independent New Zealand book publisher, Huia Publishing.

While Huia has not accepted any of the manuscripts yet they were so impressed with Ngarongo’s writing skills and determination they offered him a place on an exclusive writers retreat for up-and-coming writers. The retreat honed Ngarongo’s skills, providing him with fresh ideas on structure and keeping storylines tighter.

Ngarongo’s star is surely on the rise - watch out for his work, in a children’s book shop near you soon.

 Related Links:

• Writing for Children's Picture Books Level 5