“I’ve been wanting to write resources for our other social workers in schools because sometimes you are just thrown into it and you have to go and source resources.”
She says when she first started working with students she had a lot to learn.
“I didn’t realise intermediate-age kids did things like self-harm. They’re starting to come into their own at intermediate age and there’s all these different things going on for kids. I had to go and find the resources and understanding around a lot of it.
“I was looking for resources all the time and I thought wouldn’t it be cool if I could just create my own resources that were colour-coded so any social worker could come in and go, ‘I’ve got this dilemma going on I’ll pull this book out and I’ll work with this child and we’ll have a conversation around this book, this issue.’”
The books will cover a range of issues. The first is identity, something that came up regularly with the children she worked with.
“This book is a little bit more personal. This book has my four grandsons in it, it also has myself, it has my daughter.
“My dad’s mum was a Pākehā woman and she was whangied, adopted, into a Māori family and raised as a Māori, so she’s in it - so this book is basically about colour identity - the external versus the internal.
“You are who you, inside, believe you are. It doesn’t matter what you look like on the outside and that flows through the whole book. You are any colour you want to be, nobody tells you who you are - your whakapapa tells you who you are.”
She says identity is about creating a foundation.
“If you can connect to something strong that you believe in and you have faith in, it gives you grounding and gives you pride. If you have something you so strongly connect to, you are 100 times more wary of letting that down.
“People who have nothing and are just out there and don’t have that grounding and that connection, they are the ones more likely to stray.”
Kiri-Michelle has already completed the second book, on adversity. It will be released next year, with others covering areas such as grief and loss.
“They will all be very straight to the point. Each page rhymes with bright, appealing colours. The books are designed to accommodate teachers, parents, tamariki, the support workers that come into the school - they are not targeted at one audience, they are across the board.”
The subject areas are based on the issues she believes are the most prominent ones.
Kiri-Michelle is also a singer, but has not been active in recent years. After contracting a virus and waking up in ICU in June, she says the near-death experience gave her a new lease on life.
“But when I came out of that I thought - ‘I’ve been sitting on this stuff for years, I’ve been sitting on my singing and took a back seat on performing, but I’ve been given a second chance, it’s time to take hold and do the things I’ve put on hold’.”
The book launch at The Daily Cafe will be on December 16 between 11am and 12.30pm.
