Pania Tahau-Hodges (Ngāti Tūwharetoa/Ngāti Tūtemohuta, Tūhoe) is a Director at Huia Publishers and has worked as a writer, editor and resource developer in English and Māori languages for more than twenty years. She is passionate about Māori language and loves creating stories that reflect Māori realities and aspirations. In 2015, she was awarded an internship with a leading publisher in Frankfurt through an initiative of the Publishers Association of New Zealand, the Frankfurt Book Fair and Creative New Zealand. Pania is a self-confessed kapa haka geek and has been to every Matatini festival for the last twenty-five years. Mokopuna Matatini / The Greatest Haka Festival is Pania’s second picture book, following the successful Santa’s Worst Christmas,Te Kirihimete i Whakakorea, which she co-wrote with the HUIA team.
