South Auckland Writers Festival 2018 in Mangere...

Yesterday, I met with Holly Langley, the coordinator for the inaugural South Auckland Writers Festival, which is proposed to be launched in Mangere for the weekend of 26 - 28 October 2018 and utilising the Mangere East community centre as the hub for planned activities during the weekend. She is also looking for more South Auckland writers to join the event and she can be contacted on hollygeneen@gmail.com for further information or to register your interest.

This is a great opportunity for South Auckland writers, particularly Indie or self-published writers to share their books and stories for local communities to access rather than having their books gathering dust on library bookshelves or forgotten stockpiles in garages etc.

It's also a neat venue in that in the last decade the area has had a revamp with its various associated sites and has become a hive of various activities with its associated venues i.e. the new Mangere East library that I had a book launch at a couple of years ago, the old Metro theatre which is adjoining that once was a movie theatre but now utilised by the local community, the community centre which has become a hive of activities with its after school clubs and evening/day classes, the bowling club and adjacent netball courts, soccer/rugby fields and clubs that my children have joined up over the years, as well as the 'village green' where the annual cultural festival and December evening markets were held, not to mention (almost forgot) the Massey Homestead which was once home to one of New Zealand's early Prime Ministers and a place I used to frequent as a budding artist in the 1980s and then writer in the 1990s.

This is such exciting news as I have been to various writers and authors book events all over Auckland but none in my hometown so this will be the first to showcase South Auckland writers to the various communities out there and a chance to network and share our stories with local high schools, organisations and interested people in our local communities.

This is a far cry from the time that I first went to the local high school and the only writer that I could identify ethnically with, as a 13 year old, was Witi Ihimaera, a Maori writer from the East coast who wrote short stories about his Maori community in his 'Pounamu, Pounamu' collection. I remember reading his books and being fascinated by some of his stories that I could relate to as a young SamoaNZ and it was a book shared with the class by my dearly beloved English teacher who later became a friend, the late Ms Mary Kayes.

She probably was one of the catalysts for why I loved learning the English language and in fact thinking back on my teenage years, I had some pretty neat English teachers who fostered in me a love for reading and learning to understand and decipher this mysterious language with all its nuances.

I've offered my services to support the committee, as a local, to share my local knowledge for such an event and looking forward to how it unfolds and the possible workshops and activities during the weekend that will connect writers with the local communities and look forward to this being an annual event at different localities.

Definitely an event to look forward to, so watch this space with more news to follow leading up to the event.