New team members bring wide experience to help grow Oratia Books

Halfway through the year and things are humming along at Oratia Books. 

Our aim is for brilliant people to work with Oratia and not for us. The company’s flat and dispersed structure reflects that, with a mix of fixed and freelance contributors, working from home in different parts of the country and world. 

 

This year we’re pleased to have formalised working relationships with several collaborators and friends. We welcome these four publishing professionals who are helping to grow Oratia Books:

 

Mike Bradstock has taken on the role of editor-at-large for Oratia Books, from his base in Raumati South, Wellington. A vastly experienced publisher and writer, Mike was for many years publisher of Canterbury University Press, and before then a managing editor with Bateman Books and Reed Publishing. Mike is making a valued contribution in commissioning, editing and proofing for Oratia. 

Sharon Whitaker has come on board to manage the printing, production and shipping of Oratia Books. Based in Papamoa in the Bay of Plenty, Sharon is a renowned production manager who contracts to select publishing clients. During a long career at Reed Publishing, she managed multiple projects across trade and educational titles, working closely with Carolyn and Peter.

 

Sam Hill keeps the Reed connection alive, having joined Oratia as a freelance editor. He worked in editorial and distribution over his time at the Reed offices in Rawene Road, Birkenhead. Now based up the road in Glenfield, Sam is engaged in both editorial and marketing work for Oratia (sam@oratia.co.nz). 

Internationally, Maria Leonardi is managing the acquisition of international books under our new Five Oceans imprint. Based in Rome, Italy, Maria is a dual Italian and New Zealand citizen who has many years of experience in international rights and editorial management with publishing houses including nottetempo, Nutrimenti and La Nuova Frontiera. 

Maria Leonardi with Peter Dowling at the Bologna Children's Book Fair

Maria managed the New Zealand stand at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in 2022, and has attended the fair with Peter in the past two years.

 

A warm welcome to Mike, Sharon, Sam and Maria. 

 

They join our key contributors Frances Chan, Hirini Tane, Ella Fischer, Cheryl Smith and Sarah Elworthy in assisting the mahi of our senior team – Belinda Cooke, Carolyn Lagahetau, Alessandra Zecchini and Peter Dowling. 

Classic guide to traditional Māori designs comes back into print after many years

Māori Rafter & Tāniko Designs

W.J. Phillipps

In the more than 80 years since Māori Rafter & Tāniko Designs first saw the light of day, the book’s clear text and sumptuous colour patterns have served legions of readers and craftspeople. 

 

Now Oratia Books is bringing this classic work by W.J Phillipps back into print, enabling a new generation to access a work that until now had been hard to source. 

This handy guide provides a detailed exploration of important patterns used in Māori architecture and textiles, focusing on the intricate designs of rafter carving, tāniko weaving and tukutuku panels. 

 

With an all-new layout, updated text elements including macrons, and inclusion of new colour illustrations, this edition aims help readers easily access the designs.

 

That supports the aim Phillipps outlined in his introduction, namely ‘to analyse Māori rafter patterns and discuss their component parts in such a manner that a clearer understanding and a greater appreciation of them will be the result.’

Māori Rafter & Tāniko Designs is on sale now in good bookstores nationwide.

This new book adds to Oratia's range of arts and craft books from Oratia, including Hirini Moko Mead's Te Whatu Tāniko: Tāniko Weaving Technique and Tradition and Te Toi Whakairo: The Art of Māori Carving.

The Author

William John (W.J.) Phillipps was born in Oamaru in 1893. In 1915, he joined the staff of the Dominion Museum (now Te Papa Tongarewa), Wellington, where he worked as an ethnologist, ichthyologist, ornithologist and scientific illustrator. During a career that spanned five decades, he published some 200 scientific papers and authored several books in the fields of zoology and anthropology. He passed away in 1967.

Publication Date: 10 June 2025 |  ISBN: 978-1-99-004279-9 |  RRP $39.99

Paperback, 250 x 185 mm portrait, 72 pages colour