Our first 10-Year Book Giveaway — Kura Toa: Warrior School, by Tim Tipene (2009)

Kura Toa: Warrior School  – Tim Tipene

The first giveaway to celebrate our 10 years of books is the first title Oratia published back in mid-2009: Tim Tipene’s Kura Toa: Warrior School. 

Haki, the hero of this young adult novel, is a high-school student who’s been going off the rails. With the guidance of his tribe, Haki finds his identity and grows into a warrior in defence of their land.

Click here to view the book.

Kura Toa had been previously published but was out of print when Tim agreed to us taking it on. Oratia committed to our authors to try and keep their books in print, and we’ve managed thanks in part to short-run digital printers in New Zealand. In fact the giveaway copy of Kura Toa is hot off the press from YourBooks in Wellington — the latest print run has just reached the Northcote warehouse of Publishers Distribution Ltd, our awesome distributors.

To be in to win a copy of Kura Toa: Warrior School go to our Fb Page.

Prize available to New Zealand residents only.

Competition closes on Monday 3 June, and winner announced on Tuesday 4 June.

-->

Celebrating 10 years of books from Oratia

It was in May 2009 that Oratia Media launched the first book under its Libro International imprint — a new edition of Tim Tipene’s junior novel Kura Toa: Warrior School. 

Ten years on, Kura Toa remains in print, like almost all the 80 books Oratia has now published. In 2016, the imprint name changed to Oratia Books, better to reflect our roots in Auckland’s Waitakere Ranges.

Founded in 2000 by Peter Dowling and Alessandra Zecchini, Oratia was primarily a publishing services company with global clients including Reed Publishing NZ, where Peter had become publishing manager.

‘After Reed was taken over in 2007, editorial director Carolyn Lagahetau and I continued our relationship with Reed authors, many of whom were ready to work with an independent publisher,’ Peter recalled. 

            The first four books from 2009

‘In 2009 we tested the waters with short runs of Tim’s novel and Jeff Evan’s Nga Waka o Nehera, then jumped right in with two big new books in Outrageous Fortune and The Iron-Bound Coast.’

All four books in that first year were from a West Auckland stable, and the link to Waitakere creativity remains strong — as does a commitment to market the books worldwide through distribution, rights sales and presence at international book fairs.

Children’s books, Māoritanga and local non-fiction (especially history) form the majority of the books published to date, and Oratia Media continues to offer publishing and management services.

Oratia's 2019 catalogue; click here to view

‘In 2019 Oratia will publish 11 new books, from large pictorial hardbacks to a new non-fiction series for young adults,’ said Belinda Cooke, who joined Oratia part-time as sales & marketing consultant in 2016.

The Oratia team (pictured from left Alessandra, Belinda, Carolyn and Peter) join with their friends from the past decade to celebrate this milestone and look forward to a solid future in publishing.

Oratia Books available through University of Hawai'i Press

Readers in North America and Asia can now purchase a selection of Oratia Books list through the University of Hawai'i Press.

Starting from their Spring 2019 catalogue, which released in April, University of Hawai'i Press has seven Oratia titles available across the U.S., Canada and East Asia:

12 Huia Birds – Julian Stokoe & Stacy Eyles
Favourite Māori Legends – A.W. Reed
Māori Weapons in Pre European New Zealand  – Jeff Evans
Māui — Sun Catcher – Tim Tipene & Zak Waipara
New Zealand Tattoo – Chris Hoult & Steve Forbes
Ngā Atua – Robyn Kahukiwa
Polynesian Navigation and the Discovery of New Zealand – Jeff Evans

More books will be listing in the Fall 2019 catalogue.

"We feel a natural affinity with the Pacific and Asian orientation of the University of Hawai'i Press and look forward to a long relationship as one of their publishing partners," commented Oratia Books publisher Peter Dowling.

To view or order, click here to go to the Oratia Books page on the University of Hawai'i Press website; and to email the Press, click here.

Oratia Books Catalogue 2019 out now

The Oratia Books Catalogue 2019 is now available in print and PDF formats.

We're pleased to present 11 new books for this year, along with a growing back list.

Here's what the introduction says; click here to view the entire catalogue.

In 2019 Oratia Media marks ten years of publishing our own books, and our nineteenth year as a publishing and media business. To celebrate, Oratia Books brings you at least ten titles that encompass outstanding writing and illustration in both new and revised editions.

There’s a maritime theme in adult hardbacks, with Sir Bob Harvey’s much-awaited Sea Edge celebrating the Waitematā Harbour, and Gavin McLean’s Shipwrecked: New Zealand maritime disasters, while the pensive Home Child follows a group of children shipped from the UK for adoption on the other side of the world.

Our commitment to te Ao Māori deepens with new editions of classic works by Sir Hirini Moko Mead and A.W. Reed, Merata Kawharu and Paul Tapsell’s seminal work on entrepreneurship, and Darryn Joseph’s Whakarongo ki ō Tūpuna, written in te Reo with English translation.

Dawn McMillan and Ross Kinnaird put a new comic spin on the international bestseller I Need a New Bum! with a side-splitting sequel, and Tracy Duncan gives a makeover to the most popular of Melanie Drewery’s Nanny Mihi series. In July we launch the first two titles in The NZ Series, a new non-fiction collection for young adult readers, with works by Gordon Ell and Sarah Ell.