Authors

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Angie Belcher is both writer and teacher. Creating a collaboration between the two is what gives greater depth to both her writing and her teaching. Predominantly known for her travel writing and non-fiction texts, her writing is varied and includes both Young Adult and Junior Fiction novels, commissioned and freelance articles and educational text many of them written to entice reluctant readers into the world of the written word. Commissioned travel writing has taken Angie to Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea, much of the Pacific and many parts of Europe. She has had more than 200 travel articles published in national and international magazines including prestigious in-flight magazines such as Silver Kri, Pacific Wave and Sawadee. Angie has also contributed to various coffee table books such as Guide to the World's Best Wreck Dives (New Holland) and The World's Best Dive Sites. She was also commissioned to write the Berlitz Pocket Guide to Fiji 2009. Other works for children include: The Girls in the Kapahaka" To Our Shores-a collection of immigrant tales" and "The Woven Flax Kete".

Michael Belgrave joined Massey University in 1993 on the opening of the university's Albany campus. A historian and previously a research manager at the Waitangi Tribunal, he taught in the social policy and social work programme until 2014, as well as Maori studies and history. In 1995 he began a long involvement with social workers and schools, managing and evaluating Massey University's pilot of the programme, and becoming the leading advisor and evaluator in the development of a government pilot and in the generalisation of the programme throughout New Zealand. The programme is now provided to all decile 1-3 schools. He continued to maintain a strong interest in Treaty of Waitangi research and settlements, providing substantial research reports into a wide number of the Waitangi Tribunal's district inquiries. More recently, he has been heavily involved in assisting iwi in negotiating the historical aspects of Treaty settlements. He has published widely on Treaty and Māori history, including being lead editor of Waitangi Revisited: Perspectives on the Treaty of Waitangi (Oxford University Press). He received a Marsden Fund award in 2015 for study into the re-examination of the causes of the New Zealand wars of the 1860s.

David Belgrave is a lecturer in citizenship and politics in the School of People, Environment and Planning at Massey University. His research interests are New Zealand foreign policy, East Asian security, the Cold War, and environmental politics. He is a former history researcher for Waitangi Tribunal claimants where he focused on environmental history and land law. Giles Dodson is a lecturer and course coordinator for Tutira Mai at Massey University. His research and teaching interests are public participation in social change and civic engagement, and science and environmental communication, decision-making and policy. He is also involved in te reo Maori revitalisation initiatives.

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EVANA BELICH was born in Wellington and now lives in Auckland where she has worked as a trade union official, a mediator and an employment relations adviser. She has degrees in law, dispute resolution and a Master's in creative writing from the IIML. She won the Fish Short Story Prize in 2013, was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize in 2016 and came second in the Sargeson Prize in 2020.

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BELINDA O'KEEFE has a degree in Japanese, and worked in the tourism industry before changing career paths to focus on the exciting world of literature, studying book editing, proofreading and publishing. Her previous books include Partners in Slime (Scholastic NZ, 2021) and The Day the Plants Fought Back, illustrated by Richard Hoit (Scholastic NZ, 2019). She lives in Christchurch with her husband, two sons and their cats, including a Russian blue named Enzo. MONICA KOSTER's paintings have been exhibited in Christchurch and Ashburton, as part of the Creator’s Room and ZONTA Female Art Awards exhibitions. She is studying Fine Arts at Canterbury University and loves to run, paint, make music and communicate in Morse. Her companions are two adventurous cats Mischief and Ziggy and a loyal border collie Ruby.

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Avril Bell is a Pākehā New Zealander and honorary associate professor in sociology at the University of Auckland. Her research centres on the legacy of settler colonialism in making sense of Pākehā identities, New Zealand national identity and Māori–Pākehā relations. Her book, Relating Indigenous and Settler Identities: Beyond Domination (Palgrave, 2014) extends this focus to make connections between settler colonialism in New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the USA. She is co-editor of A Land of Milk and Honey? Making Sense of Aotearoa New Zealand (AUP, 2017).

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After growing up on the family farm in Tadmor, (rural New Zealand) I moved to Christchurch to complete my teacher training and then spent many years living, working and raising a family in Nelson. Takaka is home now, where I live with family and Flynn the dog, working on a variety of projects including a church renovation, writing poetry, growing veggies and riding motorbikes whenever the opportunity arises. In amongst it all, I have been fortunate to have had a fairly unique experience - spending time fully immersed in the Lakota culture in South Dakota. What a Journey...