Tīvaevae by Maria Samuela is a reflective fiction text that weaves personal experience with cultural tradition to explore grief, memory, and the strength of family and community in Cook Islands culture. Told through the voice of a young narrator preparing for her mother’s unveiling, the story captures the rhythm of the day through timed moments of food preparation, travel, ceremony, and remembrance. Through rich sensory detail and gentle humour, Samuela shows how cultural practices such as sewing a tīvaevae, singing, and gathering together provide comfort and continuity after loss. The narrative honours the role of aunties, cousins, and whānau in guiding a young person through change, while highlighting how taonga and rituals hold emotional and spiritual meaning. Tender, vivid, and deeply personal, the text supports students to understand culture, identity, and healing through lived experience and voice.

The text is ideal for integrated learning across literacy and health, supporting inquiry into family relationships, cultural traditions, grief, resilience, and wellbeing in Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific.

This pack contains a range of response activities complete with activity explainer videos for exploring thinking skills and developing emotional understandings and compassionate inquiry including:

• Blooms Higher Order Thinking activities
• Book Club guide for deepening text discussion
• A range of activities to explore emotional understanding, compassionate inquiry, empathy development, vocabulary and developing skills for self and co-regulation.

Curriculum Phase: Phase 3
Year Level: Year 6–7

English (NZC Levels 4–5): reading for meaning and critical thinking, analysing narrative voice and perspective, understanding reflective fiction, exploring descriptive language and imagery, synthesising events and themes, identifying author’s message

Health and Physical Education: wellbeing, emotional awareness, relationships, resilience, coping with change and loss, support systems

Social Sciences – Aotearoa New Zealand Histories: Pacific cultures and identities, continuity and change, family and community practices, cultural heritage, belonging

Text type: Fiction, personal recount, reflective narrative, cultural narrative

Key words include: Cook Islands, tīvaevae, culture, family, whānau, grief, loss, unveiling, aunties, resilience, relationships, identity, Pacific, tradition, wellbeing, support, remembrance