Don Long (D.S)

ABOUT

In Brief

Don Long is a multicultural children’s book author and editor. In 1979, he began collaborating with Witi Ihimaera. Together they edited Into the World of Light: an Anthology of Contemporary Māori Writing and then the five volume anthology of contemporary Māori writing Te Ao Mārama. Don did the original research in Hawaiʻi that led to the founding of the New Zealand Book Council’s Writers in Schools scheme. (He visits schools through Writers in Schools.) He worked for Learning Media for many years, where he published Ministry of Education resources for teaching Māori as a second language and led Learning Media's Pasifika section. He founded the Tupu series and the Samoan-language school journal, Fōlauga. For the National Diploma in Children’s Literature he developed the paper on multicultural children’s literature. He now works as a publisher for South Pacific Press.

In Detail

Like many authors, Don only earns part of his income from writing. As well as being a writer, Don also works as an editor. On a typical day, Don spends about half his time writing and half his time editing. Working as an editor, Don has just finished editing vagahau Niue language, lea-faka-Tonga, gagana Tokelau and New Zealand Sign Language courses for Year 7–8 students in New Zealand schools in the Ministry of Education’s Learning Languages Series and the Ministry of Education’s new Year 1–6 resource for teaching and learning te reo Māori He Reo Tupu, He Reo Ora. 

As a multicultural children’s book writer, Don has just finished a story with Loimata Iupati written in gagana Tokelau and another in lea faka-Tonga with Edgar Tuʻinukuafe. His books for children have been translated into Cook Islands Māori, Danish, French, New Zealand Māori, Samoan, and Swedish. Many of the more multicultural stories in the Ready to Read series are by Don. He has a working knowledge of six Polynesian languages and has family connections with Hawaiʻi and the Cook Islands. Te Tahuna, the Māori translation of his children’s book The Battlefield, was awarded LIANZA’s Te Kura Pounamu Award for a children’s book published in te reo Māori in 2004. His Vietnamese New Zealand children’s book, The Lacquered Box, was broadcast by Storytime on Radio New Zealand on 8 May 2010. His Chinese New Zealand story Barry and Jim can be read at http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Kids/ChildrensAuthors/Stories/DonLo...  

As a multicultural resource editor, Don helped to create the Ministry of Education’s current suite of resources for teaching te reo Māori and five other Polynesian languages as second languages. He edited the Matariki resources and Te Ata Hāpara, the precursor’s to He Reo Ora, He Reo Tupu. For many years, he led Learning Media’s Pasifika team, where he founded the Tupu series and the Samoan-language school journal, Fōlauga. A former teacher of the deaf, Don created the first gagana Sāmoa sign language resources to be published in New Zealand.

Using his experience as a writer and editor, he wrote the multicultural children’s literature paper in the National Diploma in Children’s Literature and served as a member of Unesco’s education sub-commission and the International Reading Association’s Oceania committee. He remains one of New Zealand’s best-known multicultural children’s literature writers and editors. He joined South Pacific Press in 2005.

What first drew Don to write multicultural stories? Don grew up in a multicultural family – and married into another one. One of his grandmother’s, for example, was Cajun and French Creole. On another side, his great-aunt was the Jindyworbak writer R. Kate. She encouraged him to become a writer.  

Featured Titles

The Battlefield (2003) was illustrated by Phillip Paea. This is a story about a girl who discovers that she had ancestors who fought on both sides during the colonial land wars. What were those wars really like – and what does it mean to be of mixed ancestry? The Maori translation, Te Tahuna, was awarded the 2004 Te Kura Pounamu Award.

The Lacquered Box (2004) was illustrated by Vivienne Lingard. It takes the reader on a journey to Hanoi with a New Zealand-born Vietnamese girl. It explores the experiences of a Viet Kieu (an overseas-born Vietnamese). Copies have also been widely distributed to schools in Vietnam.

Glow-Worm Night (2004) was illustrated by Tracy Duncan. This is a story about two children who go glow-worming with their parents at Matariki.

Don’s latest books for young people are Taken for Granted (2011), Atolls (2011), and Crash! (2011), all published in the CSI Chapters series, which is available through www.csi-literacy.com. These non-fiction chapter books explore things we take for granted (for example, did you know that 100-minute hours were used for a time), the impact of global sea rise on atolls, and how stock market crashes can have a huge impact on our lives, as in the Great Depression during the 1930s.