Oratia Media marks 25 years with launch of Five Oceans imprint

 

Oratia Media is celebrating its 25^th birthday, having been founded on 31 August 2000 by Peter Dowling and Alessandra Zecchini in Oratia, West Auckland. 

 

Initially a publishing services business for clients in New Zealand, Japan and Europe, Oratia Media later broadened its scope, while Peter maintained a full-time role at Reed Publishing (NZ).

Alessandra Zecchini

Business included cooking classes, food writing and styling, managing charity Te Potiki National Trust, business and travel journalism, teaching, translation and contract publishing. 

Hard work over those early years laid the foundation for the company’s own publishing under the Oratia Books brand. Since 2008 it has published more than 220 own and commissioned books. 

Peter Dowling

‘Sincere thanks to our team and all the authors, illustrators, clients, photographers, editors, designers, distributors, printers, booksellers, librarians, teachers, students, reviewers and readers who have been with us on this journey,’ the founders said today. 

 

Oratia Books’ philosophy is to publish and keep in print new and classic works, marketing across New Zealand with active distribution and rights deal worldwide. 

The Treaty of Waitangi, Margaret Mahy Book of the Year 2025 

That international approach led in 2021 to the BOP Bologna Prize for Best Children’s Publisher in Oceania. A further accolade came this month with Ross Calman’s The Treaty of Waitangi named Margaret Mahy Book of the Year in the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. 

 

To mark its 25^th anniversary, Oratia Books is launching a new international imprint, Five Oceans. This new list will bring literary non-fiction and children’s books to Oceania from cultures whose works are under-represented in English, let alone in Polynesian languages. 

 

First comes The Ant Rebellion, a bestselling junior novel from Turkey, in October, then Finnish picture book Thank you, Forest in November. Books from India and Norway are next up in 2026. 

‘We look forward to extending Oratia’s activities to all five oceans of our planet,’ said Peter, who is developing the imprint with Rome-based Maria Leonardi, international rights manager.

 

‘With Five Oceans, we aim to bring outstanding writing and illustration into our languages, while encouraging cultural exchange to and from Aotearoa.’

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. 

Remembering the irrepressible Dick Scott

Dick Scott, who passed away on 1 January, was a courageous voice for justice and righting historical wrongs throughout a long and original writing career. 

It was Dick who first brought to light the appalling treatment of the Parihaka community led by Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kakahi, in The Parihaka Story in 1954. 

That book was later published as Ask That Mountain, widely regarded as among the most important New Zealand books of the twentieth century. 

Dick on the Kaipara Harbour during the Seven Lives on Salt River project

It was in working on a revision of that book in 1998 for Reed Publishing that I came to meet Dick, and we formed a strong friendship through two other new editions (his seminal works 151 Days and Seven Lives on Salt River) and his autobiography Dick Scott: A Radical Writer's Life. 

The latter was his last book, and Dick happily retired in this eighties to pursue his varied interests and spend time with his wife Sue. 

Not only an historian, Dick was also a publisher of note, having a hand in his own books through his Southern Cross Books and founding the country's first wine journal, Wine Review. 

A collection of his writings with photography by Marti Friedlander, whom Dick had employed early in her career, made up another Reed book, Pioneers of New Zealand Wine.

Dick recalled that winemakers on occasion paid for ads in early editions of the Review in kind, with crates of wine delivered to his home office. 

Consuming what was often not the highest-quality vintage had its hazards, but Dick survived and thrived. 

He lived to be 96 and received honours including the Prime Ministers Award for Literary Achievement and an honorary doctorate from Massey University. 

- Peter Dowling

Click here for the New Zealand Herald's item about Dick.

RIP Len Gale

It is with sadness that we note the passing of artist, author, left-wing activist and teacher Len Gale on Saturday at the age of 89.

Len and I met in 1997 not long after his book Greenstone Carving was published. I had the privilege of becoming his editor at Reed Publishing, and we formed a strong friendship as we brought to publication three further books – Wood Carving, Creative Metal and Technology Basics. 

Len matched a deep knowledge of all these crafts with a rare ability to communicate them in words and his inimitable drawings. 

These were far from his only literary productions, too – until the end of his life he was writing about craft for magazines and publishing booklets about his family and his childhood in Grafton as one of the 'Gully Boys', and maintaining a link to the tense days when he had covertly printed pamphlets to support the 1951 Waterfront Lockout.

He led a colourful life, and one characterised by a generous concern for others. As a craftsman he was noted especially for his work in metal, and he gave back much to the communities of West Auckland and Ngaruawahia, assisting schools, marae and craft groups.

Len, you will be missed. I do hope that Oratia can carry through on our discussions to bring some of your books back into print before too long.

- Peter Dowling

RIP John Johnston

Photographer, artist and author John Johnston passed away last week at the age of 96.
John had a long and distinguished career as a photographer and artist - starting out as a street photographer in downtown Auckland using the first Leica camera, establishing Auckland's premiere photographic studio after the Second World War, later picking up paintbrushes to become a commercial artist, and at the end of his life still creating and experimenting with a digital camera and Photoshop.
John published two books: I Didn't Have a Choice (Reed, 2006), the illustrated account of his Second World War service in North Africa and Italy, and the privately published Notions (2011). His last work, 80 Years Behind the Lens: The life story of a professional New Zealand photographer, is now being prepared for publication by his long-term collaborator Martyn Thompson.
Loved by those who knew him, John was a true gentleman and a meticulous craftsman. Our thoughts are with his partner Susan, his friends and family. Rest in peace, John.