Avast! Pirate Stories from Transgender Authors

This series of short stories are written by transgender authors. There are seven different stories based around the idea of pirates. According to the editors, pirates can symbolise living outside the law which can represent how many transgender people can feel. The anthology gives transgender writers the chance to write without barriers and use their voices to challenge ideas.

At times, I did find the language hard to understand but once I realised they were using different pronouns, it started to make more sense. Being able to read and see your identity through books and characters like these is essential for tamariki and using pronouns will make everyone feel included.

Hunger by Vika Mana was a stand out story for me, mainly because I am from Whakatōhea so it was interesting to see my small relatively unknown iwi mentioned. This story resonated with me as the structure of the story was dynamic and intricate. The themes of colonisation and the need to look after Papatūānuku were prevalent. I would use this story in a level one class focusing on ‘looking after our whenua’. It could suit the new 1.2 - demonstrate understanding of specific aspects of a studied text - standard in conjunction with other works such as For Papatūānuku – Mother Earth by Nadine Anne Hura, where students can form personal responses and understanding from how these pieces of work reflect the society we live in.