The Boy and the Dolphin

Description

When a boy helps free a dolphin tangled in a discarded fishing net, they develop an unexpected friendship. "Once there was a boy who lived by the sea. He loved the sea and he swam in it every day he could ...which was most days. He was a very good swimmer. One day, the boy was swimming as usual when he noticed some splashing further out in the water. He decided to take a closer look."

Robyn Kahukiwa is an award-winning artist and children's book writer and illustrator and has been a prominent figure in Maori children's literature since the 1980s. Born in Sydney, Australia in 1938, Kahukiwa trained as a commercial artist and later moved to New Zealand at the age of nineteen. Kahukiwa is of Ngati Porou, Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti, Ngati Hau, Ngati Konohi and Whanau-a-Ruataupare descent on her mother's side. Kahukiwa's work often deals with themes of colonialism and the dispossession of indigenous people, motherhood and blood-ties, social custom and mythology. She gained prominence in New Zealand in the 1980s after her exhibition Wahine Toa (strong women) which toured the country. This exhibition drew on Maori myth and symbolism. Kahukiwa won the 1994 Young People's Non-fiction Award (now known as Elsie Locke Award) for Paikea.