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The author of a new children's book says it's the product of her own spiritual journey.
Charlie Tangaroa and the Creature from the Sea uses a story about a 13-year-old, one-legged boy who finds a mermaid during a beach clean-up to retell the tale of the feud between Tāne and Tangaroa.
Tania Roxborough says the story took form after she wrote an outline in te reo Māori while sitting in a cafe.
"And then this warm wind came – it really felt like a spiritual thing. This feeling fell on where I was sitting and the answers I was asking in Māori came and I knew what Charlie was going to do, why he was asking that question, where he came from," she says.
She also drew on her own discovery of her Māori heritage and Ngāti Porou connections in the writing.
Charlie Tangaroa and the Creature from the Sea is published by Huia.
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