CBCP x CeLM x OIW webinar: Nicola Daly, ‘Indigenous Voices in Aotearoa New Zealand children’s picturebooks’

Part of the ‘Explorations in Translation for Children’ series co-organised by The Centre for Book Cultures and Publishing (University of Reading) in partnership with Outside in World, the organisation dedicated to promoting and exploring world literature and children’s books in translation. Exceptionally for this webinar we are also pleased to partner with the Centre for Literacy & Multilingualism.

On Wednesday 18th November at 12-1pm (UK time)/ 10 pm (Melbourne time) we will be welcoming Nicola Daly (University of Waikato, New Zealand) who will be speaking on ‘Indigenous Voices in Aotearoa New Zealand children’s picturebooks’

Presenter: Nicola Daly (bio at end)

Authors: Nicola Daly, Eboni Waitere, Julie Barbour, Darryn Joseph, Te Kani Price, Pania Tahau-Hodges, Kawata Teepa, Nic Vanderschantz, Bryony Walker

Indigenous storytelling has often been marginalised in children’s publishing with many stories retold and published by authors and publishing houses outside Indigenous communities (Scaletti et al., 2025). In the last decade there has been an increase in the number of Indigenous owned and/or led publishing houses which is essential for the creation of children’s books sharing authentic Indigenous voices (Encisco, Wolf, Coates & Jenkins, 2020). Research in the area of Indigenous children’s literature publishing is limited but growing (Scaletti et al., 2025; Sheehan-Bright, 2010; Bradford, 2007; Stagg-Peterson & Robinson, 2020), and findings indicate the importance of commitment to storytelling, collaboration and education; the amplification of Indigenous languages, the place of external funding and the educational background of authors and illustrators. The overarching aim of our research on picturebooks in Aotearoa New Zealand is to document and explore the ways in which Indigenous voices are and can be authentically represented, through a close collaboration with Huia Publishers, an Indigenous publisher; in a sense we are working to document and understand the ways in which this successful award-winning publisher is both Indigenising and simultaneously decolonising picturebook publishing in Aotearoa. Our work is developing understandings of the process of Indigenous children’s picturebook publishing, identifying key principles underpinning the decision making which leads to their publication. Using research conversations, reflections and field notes with key participants in the publishing process we explore decolonising approaches in terms of who writes and illustrates picturebooks, the cultural content of the picturebooks, and the languages used in their texts. This research contributes to our understanding of the successful Indigenous publishing of picturebooks.

References

Bradford, C (2007). Unsettling narratives: Postcolonial readings of children’s literature. Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press.

Enciso, P., Wolf, S. A., Coats, K., & Jenkins, C. (2010). Children’s literature: Standing in the shadow of adults. Reading Research Quarterly, 45(2), 252-263.

Scaletti, M., Barbour, J., Daly, N., & Vanderschantz, N. (2025). Amplifying Indigenous Voices: Four Indigenous Publishing Houses. Bookbird. A Journal of International Children’s Literature, 63 (3), 57-69.

Sheahan-Bright, R. “Red, Yellow, and Black: Australian Indigenous publishing for young people.” Bookbird: A Journal of International Children’s Literature, 49(3), 1-17.

Stagg Peterson, S., & Robinson, R. B. (2020). Rights of Indigenous children: Reading children’s literature through an Indigenous knowledges lens. Education Sciences, 10 (10), 281.

Bio

Nicola Daly is a Professor in the Division of Education at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand where she teaches courses in children’s literature and language learning and pedagogy. She is the co-director of the Waikato Picturebook Research Unit. Her research focus is multilingual picturebooks and her recent publications can be found in The Linguistics Landscapes International Journal, the Journal of Multilingualism and Multiculturalism, and Children’s Literatire in Education. She has been a recipient of several fellowships related to her research in children’s literature including a Fulbright New Zealand Scholarship (2019-2020); the Internationale Jugendbibliothek Fellowship (2017); the Marantz Picturebook Collection Fellowship (2016); the Dorothy Neal White Collection Fellowship (2014). Her most recent book is Language. Identity and Diversity in Picturebooks. An Aotearoa New Zealand Perspective (Routledge, 2025)