Te Whaea o te Motu

David Hill

David Hill is a prolific and highly regarded New Zealand writer, playwright, poet, columnist, and critic. He is best known for his highly popular and award-winning body of work for young people, ranging from picture books to teenage fiction. His novels have been published internationally and translated into several languages, and his short stories and plays for young people have been broadcast both in New Zealand and overseas.

Born in Napier, New Zealand, David studied at Victoria University of Wellington and became a high-school teacher, teaching in both New Zealand and the UK. In 1982, he became a full-time writer. His first novel for teenagers, See Ya, Simon (1992), about a boy with muscular dystrophy, was shortlisted for major awards in New Zealand and the UK and won the 1994 Times Educational Supplement Award for Special Needs. An enduringly popular novel used as a class text in high schools across New Zealand, it was awarded the Storylines Gaelyn Gordon Award for a Much-loved Book in 2002.

David has published over 50 titles across four decades. His middle-grade novels include My Brother’s War (2012), which won the Junior Fiction Award and the Children’s Choice Junior Fiction Award in the 2013 New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, the LIANZA Librarian’s Choice Award, and was listed as a Storylines Notable Junior Fiction book, a White Raven, and an IBBY Honour book. This was followed by novels Brave Company (2014) – also a Storylines Notable Junior Fiction book; The Deadly Sky (2015); Enemy Camp (2016), which won the 2016 HELL Children’s Choice Award for Junior Fiction; Flight Path (2017), a Storylines Notable Book; Finding (May 2018), Highly Commended in the New Zealand Heritage Book Awards 2018; and Coastwatcher (2021).

Below (2022) won the Wright Family Foundation Esther Glen Award for Junior Fiction at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults 2023. Described as ‘a white-knuckle survival story set in a catastrophic tunnel collapse,’ the judges commended the way ‘it trusts its young readers to handle big environmental ideas and come to their own conclusions.’

David is also the author of a series of critically acclaimed picture book biographies about notable New Zealanders. First to the Top (2015) is the bestselling story of the life of Sir Edmund Hillary, which won the 2016 Children’s Choice Award for non-fiction and was a 2016 Storylines Notable Picture Book. Speed King (2016), about the world-record-breaking achievements of Burt Munro, and Sky High (2017), recounting the life of the daring aviator Jean Batten, were both presented with Storylines Notable Picture Book awards. Hero of the Sea: Sir Peter Blake’s Mighty Ocean Quests was published in 2018 and Dinosaur Hunter: Joan Wiffen’s Awesome Fossil Discoveries was published in 2019 and was a 2020 Storylines Notable Picture Book. Mother of the Nation: Whina Cooper and the Long Walk for Justice, translated into te reo Māori by Stacey Morrison and published as Te Whaea o te Motu, was published in 2025 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1975 hikoi.

In 2004, David was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit and in 2005, he was awarded the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal, acknowledging his significant contribution to children’s literature in New Zealand.

In 2021, David was awarded the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement - Fiction in recognition of his outstanding contribution to New Zealand Literature.

He lives with his wife Beth in New Plymouth, New Zealand.

Story Hemi-Morehouse (Illustrator)

Story Hemi-Morehouse (Ngāti Koata, Ngāti Kuia, Ngāti Toa Rangatira) was born in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) and moved to Australia when she was young. She was always obsessed with comics and drawing and turned her love of illustrating into a career. Story’s first published book, Mokopuna Matatini/The Greatest Haka Festival on Earth by Pania Tahau-Hodges, was shortlisted for four awards in the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults 2022. She has since added several more picture books to her portfolio, and in 2023, Kua Wheturangitia a Koro/How My Koro Became a Star, with author Brianne Te Paa, was a finalist in the Best Picture Book category and won the Te Kura Pounamu Award.

Story divides her time between Whanganui-a-tara (Wellington) and Yugumbeh Country (Gold Coast, Australia) thanks to the flexibility of freelance work.

Stacey Morrison (Translator)

Stacey Morrison (Te Arawa, Ngāi Tahu) is a radio and TV broadcaster whose projects have spanned 25 years. She is also a māmā to three tamariki who have been brought up with te reo Māori as their mother tongue. Stacey herself didn’t learn to speak Māori until she was an adult. It required a lot of research, determination, wonderful mentors, and the support of a community to achieve her goal of becoming fluent by the time her children were born.

Stacey and her husband Scotty co-wrote Māori at Home to help other families use te reo in everyday settings, and Stacey’s first children’s book, My First Words in Māori, became a number-one bestseller. She has since co-authored Kia Kaha: A storybook of Māori who changed the world with Jeremy Sherlock, which won NZ Booklover’s Best Children’s Book and a Storylines Notable Non-fiction Award.

Both Stacey and Scotty work with many groups and families to build Māori-language friendships and community for whānau. Stacey has also been an advisor on pre-schooler and children’s TV shows, which, along with her experiences with her own children, has helped her identify the words children pick up early in their language learning. As a winner of Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori Champion Award in 2016, and the winner of Waipunarangi - Te Reo and Tikanga Award 2021, as well as a graduate of Te Panekiretanga o te Reo (the Institute of Excellence in Māori Language), Stacey loves encouraging the learning and use of New Zealand’s beautiful native language.

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