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National | Education

Mothers nurture Reo Pēpi

Two Dunedin mothers started their own bilingual publishing company in an attempt to provide more junior reading resources for their children.

Three years on and their brainchild is here, the latest edition of Reo Pēpi books.

Ngāi Tahu kaumātua Edward Ellison says "For anything that advances the use of our language in particular our dialect in our tribal area is very important and an advancement of our own culture and we think that it's not only ours it's something we can share with communities."

More than 1000 books have been released from Kanohi (my face), Kararehe (animals) to Kākahū (clothing), all books from the Reo Pēpi series.

One of the creators of Reo Pēpi Kitty Brown says, "We look at our tamariki and we see now that they are three years older than when we first had the idea and the whakaaro for Reo Pēpi."

Digital copies are still in the pipeline, but for now, work is going towards having titles stocked in bookstores right around the country.