Thinking Big – Pōtiki Poi by Joanna Cho is a reflective non-fiction text that weaves personal story with wider themes of culture, community, and leadership to honour a young Māori entrepreneur who is revitalising taonga through business and kaupapa-driven action. Through first-hand narrative and biographical detail, Cho explores Georgia Latu’s vision, resilience, and commitment to uplifting her people through the creation of Pōtiki Poi. The text situates Georgia’s journey within broader ideas of mātauranga Māori, mana motuhake, and collective responsibility, showing how enterprise can be grounded in cultural identity and aroha. Rich, inspiring, and deeply personal, the text supports students to understand leadership and social change through lived experience and voice.

The text is ideal for integrated learning across literacy, social sciences, and health, supporting inquiry into identity, community, entrepreneurship, sustainability, and cultural revitalisation in Aotearoa New Zealand.

 

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 8

English (NZC Levels 4–5):
reading for meaning and critical thinking, analysing author perspective and voice, understanding biography and personal recounts, synthesising information, exploring descriptive and reflective language, identifying themes of leadership and purpose

Social Sciences – Aotearoa New Zealand Histories:
Māori leadership and enterprise, cultural revitalisation, mana motuhake, continuity and change, collective action, identity and belonging, community participation

Health and Physical Education:
wellbeing, inclusion, respect for diversity, social responsibility, relationships, resilience

Text type:
Non-fiction, personal recount, biographical narrative, informational text

Key words include:
Aotearoa New Zealand histories, biographical narrative, business, challenge, community, culture, Down syndrome, environment, entrepreneurship, fundraising, identity, leadership, living wage, mana motuhake, mātauranga Māori, poi, recycling, rangatahi, resilience, social change, sustainability, taonga, whānau, Women’s Rugby World Cup