Growing readers, growing stories: Te Awhi Rito in action
From school visits to national advocacy, Te Awhi Rito reading ambassadors are working alongside kaiako to grow a culture of reading for pleasure across Aotearoa.
Te Awhi Rito New Zealand reading ambassador is a national role focused on championing reading in the lives of tamariki and rangatahi, including in classrooms across Aotearoa. Led by Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa National Library of New Zealand and supported by partners including Read New Zealand Te Pou Muramura, Creative New Zealand Toi Aotearoa, and Storylines Children’s Literature Charitable Trust, the role connects schools, libraries and communities to grow a culture of reading for pleasure.
It's about relationships
At its core, the role is about relationships. Te Awhi Rito programme includes “engagement with young people in schools and other settings, and with whānau and community,” alongside collaboration with educators, librarians and the wider literacy sector. In practice, that often looks like school visits, workshops and conversations about books that stick with ākonga long after the session ends.
Former Te Awhi Rito reading ambassador Alan Dingley passes the harakeke, and the position, to current ambassador Kate de Goldi. Photo: Mark Beatty
Te Awhi Rito derives from the whakapapa of the harakeke plant. In te ao Māori, the rito are the young shoots at the centre of the plant. Awhi rito are the strong, mature leaves that stand straight and tall to surround, protect and nurture the rito. The outer leaves of the plant are tūpuna that support the whole, over time bending towards the ground and eventually becoming part of the whenua, making sure the cycle of growth continues.
Te Awhi Rito is a metaphor for the reading ambassadors’ role in nurturing and inspiring young and new readers. Te Awhi Rito reading ambassadors, along with authors, kaiako, librarians and others, can be seen as the tūpuna whose collective strength supports the creation of a flourishing community of readers.
Finding the right book
For schools, the work of Te Awhi Rito is most visible in the way the ambassadors connect directly with ākonga and school staff, who are important reading role models.
They share their own reading lives, introduce new texts and help teachers and school librarians discover books that resonate.
Former ambassador Alan Dingley brought a strong focus on kaiako and school librarians to the role. As a practicing school librarian, he focused on matching readers with texts that sparked interest and enjoyment. His approach is captured in his words: “A good book is either a doorway or a mirror. You can see yourself in it, or you can escape into it.”
Over two years, Alan reached nearly 20,000 young readers through visits and events nationwide. His mahi reinforced something many teachers already see every day: when students find the right book, engagement follows.
Before Alan, inaugural ambassador Ben Brown (Ngāti Mahuta, Ngāti Koroki, Ngāti Paoa) focused on storytelling, identity and belonging. Through school engagements and national initiatives, he encouraged tamariki to see themselves in stories and to value their own voices. Reflecting on his impact, current ambassador Kate De Goldi said he was “a man of huge heart, deep thought and astonishing mahi… it seems to me now that our first Te Awhi Rito could have only been Ben.”
A new chapter with Kate De Goldi
Kate, the National Library’s third Te Awhi Rito, began her term in June 2025 and continues this strong connection with schools. An award-winning author, broadcaster and educator, she brings a clear focus on reading for pleasure and its place within everyday learning.
Kate de Goldi
Kate describes the books she shares as “exemplars of the various elements I look for in reading with young people and recommending books for them.” For her, that includes “language play and stretch,” “the shapeliness of story”, and “skilfully developed character and relationships across generations”. She also looks for “language and story that both mirror and affirm the known world and sharpen a lens on new worlds, other beings, different ideas”, alongside “the nuances and moral shadings of character” and “the frailty and comedy of human behaviour”.
At their best, she says, these texts offer “transcendent moments of lived experience: joyous insight, wonder, inspiration, imaginative leaps and bounds”.
The wider purpose of the role
Kate also reflects on the wider purpose of the role. “I'm so grateful for the opportunity this appointment offers to contribute to the National Library's farsighted aspiration of building a nation of readers alongside Te Awhi Rito founding partners and the broader sector,” she says. “It seems more vital than ever before that a multitude of voices advocate for our young people and their communities, why reading matters and the crucial benefits of reading for pleasure on education, lifelong joy and learning.”
Across each appointment, Te Awhi Rito continues to evolve. What remains consistent is the focus on connection – between readers and texts, between schools and communities, and between the many people who contribute to a young person’s reading journey.
Check out the reading ambassadors’ blogs and more information about Te Awhi Rito are on the programme’s website.
