New book 'Sense of belonging' launch...

This Saturday we're launching our second collection of prose and poetry by the 'Mana Mangere writers collective' with local guest writers from Otahuhu and Mangere.

The cover was an art piece that my youngest sister had completed last year and when I saw it, I knew that I had to purchase it for a book cover and when this project came to mind - the cover seemed to have been made for the collection.

In this second collection we've included voices from our youth as I was given the opportunity to hold workshops at Otahuhu library and was able to share ideas on writing and at some schools as well. Those who submitted their writing ideas were then discussed and in some instances with some editing have been included in the collection.

I count is a privilege as the book title of a 'Sense of belonging' was the working title of first PhD thesis at Auckland University, Geography department that I started in 1997 and deferred in 2000 but then didn't quite finish due to getting married and starting a family.

I feel like it's now come to fruition in that people themselves from the community of Otahuhu but particularly of Mangere are now able to answer that question for themselves as to their own sense of belonging or not belonging in local communities.

Now looking forward to the book launch this Saturday at Otahuhu library around lunchtime but it may be the last community effort for a while as now with my doctoral studies needing to be completed these neat projects need to go on the back burner for a while in order to finish an important priority.

And I'd like to thank the Mangere Otahuhu local boards for their financial support in making these efforts possible both for the workshops and also for the book printing...