Not only is George Potaka the author of several books, but he is also a well-known artist. Photo / File
George Potaka wears many hats.
He is an award-winning artist, a well-known horseman and works for Māori health provider Te Puke Karanga Hauora in Raetihi.
But for as long as he can remember, Potaka has been a writer.
His children's book Rahor The Blowfly - Recruits was first published about 10 years ago and it all started with a bit of fly abuse.
"I started writing it a long time ago, after thinking about the stuff that my dad used to do in regards to these flies when I was young," Potaka said.
"He'd swat them with a tea towel or burn their wings off when we were kids and I thought 'what would that look like from the flies point of view?'.
So Rahor The Blowfly - Recruits was born, a tale in which Rahor has had enough of being abused by humans and puts together an army of insects to stand up to them.
Now, Potaka has given his tale an overhaul, he has created modern illustrations to accompany the book and had them brought to life by overseas illustrators.
A kickstarter campaign was started to raise funds for the extra illustrations, printing and postage fees associated with the book.
Initially, Rahor was going to be a one-off story about his vendetta against humans, but Potaka decided to extend it.
"It fits in so well with the way the environment is, Rahor and his insects, their whole goal now is to rehabilitate everything that the humans are wrecking," Potaka said.
"There's always something going on in my head and the best way to get it out is through books."
Potential future storylines might be inspired by occurrences such as the Raetihi oil spill in 2014 and deforestation among others.
Despite having partly written stories on the go, Potaka said that Rahor had to be updated while he was still in that frame of mind.
"For me at this particular time, Rahor was all-consuming, it was easy to do because he was paramount in my mind," he said.
"My everyday life would involve the question 'what would Rahor do in this situation?'."
His tales have even begun to intertwine, with Koro Rangi entering the fray as the evil fly-killing villain in Rahor.
"Koro Rangi was based on the things I used to do as a kid, through the eyes of an adult," Potaka said.
"I began writing these stories because I wanted kids to see the type of things I've gone through in my life."
Contributions of more than $10 to the Rahor Kickstarter campaign will be rewarded with gifts such as bookmarks, signed book copies, collectors cards, framed illustrations and more.
The fire spread into trees and grass and measured up to 10m by 15m.