'No greater joy': My afternoon writing poetry with 22 budding Pacific authors

Courtney Sina Meredith​ takes us with her on a visit to an Auckland school to share her skills and knowledge as one of New Zealand's premier poets.

On a sunny day at the beginning of spring I was ushered into a beautiful little library at Edendale Primary School while 22 Pacific children filed in, ready to spend the afternoon writing with me.

With their shiny brown knees facing mine, they flanked my chair cross-legged and unafraid, without a word we arranged ourselves like family.

What would you say to your younger self?

This is a question that visiting Pacific authors can answer in the presence of young Pacific writers.

Instead of following the lesson plan burning at the bottom of my tote bag, instead I asked the children – did you know we are the richest people on earth when it comes to aiga?

Their little faces beamed in delight to hear their families brought into the space. I promised them I would prove our abundance of alofa through a series of questions.

"Put your hand up if you know at least ten people from your family would drop everything to be with you if you needed them right now?"

"Put your hand up if your aunties and uncles brought food to your doorstep when your household had Covid?"

"Put your hand up if you’ve stayed home to help take care of an elder or a sibling?"

Their hands stayed up, they looked around at each other amazed, I had my hand up too.

My class was made up of Pacific seniors (aged 8 to 10) from across the school, some were class leaders and others had learning needs, with English just one of many languages spoken.

I have published five books and two of them are for children with The Adventures of Tupaia as my flagship publication for Tagata Moana tamaiti.

My publishers had a vision to reach eight to 12-year-olds in Aotearoa with Tupaia but once the book was published in 2019 I started hearing from teachers and parents all over the world.

After explaining some of this briefly to the kids I told them I was much more interested in their writing than my own and during the session’s entirety they each wrote a minimum of four new poems, and as a group we created two name poems.

Kids who had rarely spoken in class suddenly stood confidently sharing their poems with the group, I was astonished at the level of creativity and innovation with lines such as these standing out:

I make poems but I hide them

Family is golden like Pokemon

I come from the deep blue sea

This is the power of the Read NZ Te Pou Muramura Writers in Schools programme where teachers can apply for someone like me to come and visit their class.

There is no greater joy than being a Pacific author visiting Pacific students, and it shows the children where their writing may take them one day but more importantly it reminds the author where their writing belongs.

I donated my fee back to the school so that it may go towards publishing a small reader of the poems written by the children I was humbled to share tā and vā time and space with, I cannot wait to read it.

​With special thanks to outstanding teachers Lily Bergin and Lynne Carlin from Edendale Primary School​ fa'afetai tele lava for hosting me.

If you would like to know more about the Writers in Schools programme click here.​