He Ata te Raru ki Tai?                        

What’s the Matter with the Sea?        Mij le ábijn dáhpáduvvamin?

 

Author: Rita Sørly
Illustrator:  Malgorzata Piotrowska
Translators: Kanapu Rangitauira (Māori), Are Tjihkkom (Lule Sámi), Maria Nayr de Pinho Correia Ibrahim and Charlotta Maria Langejan (English)
Five Oceans series, Oratia Books (2026)
Picture book, 48 pages, Hardback
ISBN: 978 1 99 135301 6

 

 

A rare tropical whale is in trouble in northern Norway. Two Māori marine researchers from Otago must sail there, through the Pacific and Arctic Oceans, to find out what has happened. What they discover about the condition of the world’s seas during their journey helps them understand the fate of the stranded whale. Remarkably, this story is told in three languages: Māori, Sámi and English.

 BOOK REVIEW:

He Ata te Raru ki Tai?  What’s the Matter with the Sea?  Mij le ábijn dáhpáduvvamin?

 

‘We could be the first researchers from our iwi to travel by sea to Norway,’ says Whina.

 Whina and Aihe are both Māori and both work as marine biologists at the New Zealand Marine Studies Centre at Portobello on the Otago Harbour. Aihe specialises in studying whales, while Whina is a krill expert. (Krill are tiny shrimps, a food for many sea creatures, especially whales.) The pair are invited to Gamvik, in Norway, for a conference about ocean pollution by plastics. They are to travel there by sea.

 The conference is faced with a mystery. A rare deep-diving tropical whale has stranded near Gamvik. Why was it in the Arctic waters? Aihe says, ‘This whale is a long way from home.’

As their research boat travels northwards, the two researchers sample the sea and dive to check the underwater wildlife. They see turtles, fish and whales tangled in ropes and fishing net debris.

’Is plastic spreading everywhere?’ they ask.

 Further North, they encounter ice. ‘A polar bear and her cub stand on an ice floe, surrounded by bottles, plastic bags and remnants of fishing gear.’

 When Aihe and Whina reach Gamvik, they find that the whale had thirty plastic bags in its stomach. ‘Algae stick to the plastic, so fish and sea creatures think it is food.’

At the conference they share their findings about the dangers of ocean pollution by plastic debris.    

‘The whale probably thought the shiny plastic bags were tasty squid.’

 The story concludes with a page suggesting ways to reduce pollution in the sea.

 

                                                                                                                                CAPTION: Author Rita Sørly  
                                                                             (Photo: Adrian Svendsen Bensvik)

The Polish-Norwegian artist, Malgorzata Piotrowska, has created richly fantastic colour illustrations for this book. Rather than providing realistic pictures, she has used symbolic representations which clarify what is happening in the story. For example, when the scientists are looking at news of the goose-beaked whale on a computer, the wall of their office has been replaced by an ocean scene featuring a goose-beaked whale. Young readers can work out instantly how it earned its name, as soon as they spot its profile.   

Pedants may complain that Piotrowska’s painting of Otago Harbour distorts the landscape but it emphasises two key aspects of the story: the vastness of the ocean and the birds pecking at plastic netting.                                                  

 Her underwater scenes – and many of the pictures are in or under the ocean – use a subtle range of blues and greens to provide another reminder of how huge the planet’s oceans are. This gives a strong background, directing attention to the various fish and other sea creatures facing the perils of floating plastic.

 The endpaper map showing the voyage of the research boat is amusingly depicted by Malgorzata Piotrowska as a pattern of frothy bubbles on the ocean’s surface. Only Australia will not be amused.

 Another amusing aspect of her illustration work (on page 46) is the inclusion at the conference of Greta Thunberg.

 

A unique feature of this book is that it is written in three languages, two of them belonging to indigenous peoples facing exploitation of their land and sea resources. For this reason, I checked my phone’s translator app on the text to see how it coped with the three.

 The English version of the text has Whina saying, ‘Floating plastic is destroying life in the ocean.’ The Māori equivalent seemed perfect. ‘E patua ana ngā koiora moana e te kirihou mānu,’ which came through my phone as ‘Marine life is being killed by floating plastic.’ No problems for Kiwis there.

 My phone then took the Sami equivalent (‘Ábijn fievve plastijka biejssti nuore iellemav’) and rendered it in English as, ‘I’ve never seen a plastic bag in my young life.’ Further attempts produced, ‘I’ve had a lot of plastic in my young life.’ And ‘Plastic surgery has changed the lives of young people.’ I went to Google Translate and got even stranger results. (‘Abijn five plastic beast young life.’)

 I suspect the Sami input into the translation app vocabulary banks is a work in progress. Human translators are still the best.

 The importance of its message, as well as the recognition of the value of storytelling in all cultures, certainly justifies all the creative work that went into the publication of He Ata te Raru ki Tai? What’s the Matter with the Sea? Mij le ábijn dáhpáduvvamin?

 

Note. The University of Otago’s Marine Studies Centre website is at:

NewZealand Marine Studies Centre Home, New Zealand Marine Studies Centre |University of Otago

A Sami people website is at:

Sápmi - IWGIA -International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs

 

 

BACKGROUND:

He Ata te Raru ki Tai?
What’s the Matter with the Sea?
Mij le ábijn dáhpáduvvamin?

 

Author: Rita Sørly
Illustrator:  Malgorzata Piotrowska
Translators: Kanapu Rangitauira (Māori), Are Tjihkkom (Lule Sámi), Maria Nayr de Pinho Correia Ibrahim and Charlotta Maria Langejan (English)
Five Oceans series, Oratia Books (2026)
Picture book, 48 pages, Hardback
ISBN: 978 1 99 135301 6

 

A rare tropical whale is in trouble in northern Norway. Two Māori marine researchers from Otago must sail there, through the Pacific and Arctic Oceans, to find out what has happened. What they discover about the condition of the world’s seas during their journey helps them understand the fate of the stranded whale. Remarkably, this story is told in three languages: Māori, Sámi and English.

  

BACKGROUND  TO THE  BOOK:

He Ata te Raru ki Tai? What’s the Matter with the Sea? Mij le ábijn dáhpáduvvamin?

This handsome hardback picture book needs some prior explanation, because it has an interesting history. In Norway in 2020, the Professor in Social Work and Director of the Arctic Youth Research Programme of Nord University, Rita Sørly, wrote a bilingual book Ábiid plástihkat – Plasten i havet [Plastic in the Sea]. The illustrations were by Malgorzata Piotrowska, a Polish-Norwegian writer and illustrator.  The striking feature of this book was that it was bi-lingual, written in both the Norwegian and the Lule Sámi language.

 The Sámi people are the indigenous people of the Arctic region of Scandinavia (once known as Lapland) with a population of about 100,000 spread across northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and parts of Russia.  The publication had a double aim: to illuminate an environmental issue and to provide a book that young Sami people could read in their own language.

 The success of Ábiid plástihkat – Plasten i havet led directly to the creation of He Ata te Raru ki Tai?  

 Several staff from Nord University were involved in the venture, including Rose Martin, Dean of the Faculty of Education and Arts. Originally from New Zealand, Rose Martin is strongly committed to Sámi and Indigenous issues. She saw the parallels between the Sámi and Māori cultures and languages.

 

 CAPTION: Rose Martin, Dean of Faculty
of Education and Arts at Nord University. 
The standard is the Sámi flag.
 (Photo: Bjørnar Leknes)

 Two researchers and translators at the university, Maria Nayr de Pinho Correia Ibrahim and Charlotta Maria Langejan, translated Rita Sørly’s original Norwegian text into English as What’s the Matter with the Sea?.  Are Tjihkkom provided the Lule Sámi translation, Mij le ábijn dáhpáduvvamin?. Two publishing companies became involved – Davii Girji in Norway and Oratia Books in New Zealand. The translation into Māori was provided by teacher and translator Kanapu Rangitauira (Te Arawa, Ngāti Porou, Te Whakatōhea) as He Ata te Raru ki Tai?. Once again, the illustrator was Malgorzata Piotrowska

 

Thus, the world’s first tri-lingual picture book was created. In 2026 it was the central feature of Norway’s display of books at the famous Bologna Children’s Book Fair, where Norway was the official guest-of-honour. A recording of Kanapu Rangitauira and his whanau reading the Māori text was played as part of the book’s international launch at the Fair on 13^th April 2026. “This is an inspiring example of how collaboration across languages, cultures, and Indigenous contexts can create new spaces for visibility, recognition, and learning," said Rose Martin.  

(In New Zealand the book’s publication date is 11 June 2026, in the same week as World Oceans Day on 6 June.)

Caption: Charlotta Maria Langejan (left) 
and Maria Nayr de Pinho Correia Ibrahim (right) 
at Nord University (Photo: Private)

 

Researcher and translator, Maria Nayr de Pinho Correia Ibrahim, said, ‘Bringing these languages together reflects a desire for greater understanding, curiosity, and empathy in a world that sometimes feels cruel. I hope that in classrooms worldwide, this book builds intercultural and linguistic bridges for Indigenous and minority cultures.’

 

Her co-translator, Charlotta Maria Langejan, believes that for a language to survive and develop it must be used.  She says, ‘When children and young people can read books in their own language, it strengthens confidence, pride, and a sense of belonging. Children have the right to learn and read in their own language.’

 

The last word goes to the author, Rita Sørly, ‘The aim of the book is both clear and ambitious: to strengthen Lule Sámi and Māori, with English as a bridge. At the same time, it is intended to give children and young people access to new perspectives on language, culture, and identity.’

 

Source: Press Release by Bjørn Olav Leknes of Nord University, on Science Norway website: ttps://partner.sciencenorway.no/books-indigenous-people-language/this-unique-picture-book-features-two-indigenous-languages-and-english/2637304 [Accessed 5 Jun 2026]

 

Trevor Agnew 6 June 2026

[Review 3834]