Kararaina Uatuku

Iwi/Hapu Affiliations: Tuhoe

I grew up on the edge of the Te Urewera forest at Ruatoki with my grandparents. Te Urewera is where I formulated my world view; I draw on those customs and traditions in both my professional and personal life. My first language is Māori, and I am a second language learner of English.

After graduating from Waikato University with a BA (Humanities) in 1995, Kararaina spent five years in the health sector working as a social worker at Rotorua Hospital. She is a licensed translator and has worked as a writer/editor at Huia (NZ) and as a project coordinator at the Māori Language Commission for the monolingual dictionary project Te Matapuna. Currently Kararaina is a Senior Editor at Te Pou Taki Korero/Learning Media providing technical leadership within the Māori Publishing team.

Selected bibliography:

• Ngā Rongoā a Koro translation of Koro's Medicine written by Melanie Drewery, illustrated by Sabrina Malcolm (Huia NZ 2004).
• Ngā ō Rangaranga a Pāpā translation of Dad's Takeaways written by Melanie Drewery, illustrated by Christopher White (Mallinson Rendel 2007).