Pania Tahau-Hodges (Ngāti Tūwharetoa/Ngāti Tūtemohuta, Tūhoe) is an author, publisher and Director at HUIA Publishers, an award-winning Māori-owned publishing house based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. She has worked as a writer, editor and resource developer in both te reo Māori and English for more than twenty years.
Pania's mahi is driven by a deep commitment to Māori language, storytelling and story sovereignty, and loves creating books that reflect Māori realities and aspirations. Her picture books include Santa’s Worst Christmas, Te Kirihimete i Whakakorea, Mokopuna Matatini, The Greatest Haka Festival on Earth, Hīkoi: A Māori Alphabet Book for Little (and Not-so-Little) Activists and its Māori-language edition, Toitū.
Mokopuna Matatini / The Greatest Haka Festival on Earth received international recognition after being selected as one of six HUIA books for the inaugural IBBY–UNESCO Collection of Remarkable Books for Young Readers in Indigenous and Endangered Languages.
