Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Authors

The Dawnhounds

By: Sascha Stronach

Narrated by: Anna Coddington

Length: 9 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

Gideon the Ninth meets Black Sun in this queer, Māori-inspired debut fantasy about a police officer who is murdered, brought back to life with a mysterious new power, and tasked with protecting her city from an insidious evil threatening to destroy it.

The port city of Hainak is alive: its buildings, its fashion, even its weapons. But, after a... Read more

Loud

By: Drew Afualo

Narrated by: Drew Afualo

Length: 6 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: No

This program is read by the author.

The empowering, inspiring, patriarchy-smashing first book by podcast star Drew Afualo.

Drew Afualo is best known as the internet’s “Crusader for Women” and is at the head of a new generation of entertainment’s rising stars. Loud is part manual, part manifesto, and part memoir. It makes it clear that behind her... Read more

The Bone People

By: Keri Hulme

Length: 19 hours 29 minutes

Abridged: No

Available in audio for the first time is Aotearoa New Zealand's first Booker Prize-winning novel, The Bone People by Keri Hulme.

With narration and original taonga puoro music by Ruby Solly, this powerful and mesmerising book tracks the complicated relationships between three outcasts: Kerewin, an artist estranged from her family and art; a mute... Read more

Better the Blood

By: Michael Bennett

Narrated by: Miriama McDowell & Richard Te Are

Length: 9 hours 10 minutes

Abridged: No

An absorbing, clever debut thriller that speaks to the longstanding injustices faced by New Zealand’s indigenous peoples, by an acclaimed Maori screenwriter and director

A tenacious Maori detective, Hana Westerman is juggling single motherhood, endemic prejudice, and the pressures of her career in Auckland CIB. Led to a crime scene by a... Read more

Maori Made Easy Pocket Guide

By: Scotty Morrison

Length: 5 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

This pocket-sized book is your guide to using te reo Maori in everyday situations, from introductions to conversations, online and in person. Carry the essentials with you, and develop confidence in:

* Basic pronunciation
* Greetings
* Dates and times
* Meetings
* Pepeha
* Protocol
* Whakatauki
* Karakia
* Iwi names
* and much more!

From Scotty Morrison,... Read more

Kapaemahu

By: Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Dean Hamer & Joe Wilson

Narrated by: Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu

Length: 23 minutes

Abridged: No

An Indigenous legend about how four extraordinary individuals of dual male and female spirit, or Mahu, brought healing arts from Tahiti to Hawaii, based on the Academy Award–contending short film.

In the 15th century, four Mahu sail from Tahiti to Hawaii and share their gifts of science and healing with the people of Waikiki. The islanders return... Read more

Aloha Betrayed

By: Noenoe K. Silva

Narrated by: Kaipo Schwab

Length: 8 hours 57 minutes

Abridged: No

In 1897, as a white oligarchy made plans to allow the United States to annex Hawai'i, native Hawaiians organized a massive petition drive to protest. Ninety-five percent of the native population signed the petition, causing the annexation treaty to fail in the US Senate.



This event was unknown to many contemporary Hawaiians until Noenoe K. Silva... Read more

Poukahangatus

By: Tayi Tibble

Narrated by: Tayi Tibble

Length: 1 hour 18 minutes

Abridged: No

The American debut of an acclaimed young poet as she explores her identity as a twenty-first-century Indigenous woman. Poem by poem, Tibble carves out a bold new way of engaging history, of straddling modernity and ancestry, desire and exploitation.

Intimate, moving, virtuosic, and hilarious, Tayi Tibble is one of the most exciting new voices in... Read more

Dawn Raid

By: Pauline Vaeluaga Smith

Narrated by: Tameka Sowman Vahatau

Length: 3 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

Sofia is like most twelve-year-old girls in New Zealand. How is she going to earn enough money for those boots? WHY does she have to give that speech at school? Who is she going to be friends with this year? It comes as a surprise to Sofia and her family when her big brother, Lenny, starts talking about protests, overstayers, and injustices... Read more

No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies

By: Julian Aguon

Narrated by: Michael Ignacio

Length: 2 hours 22 minutes

Abridged: No

Part memoir, part manifesto, Chamorro climate activist Julian Aguon's No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies is a coming-of-age story and a call for justice—for everyone, but in particular, for Indigenous peoples.



In bracing poetry and compelling prose, Aguon weaves together stories from his childhood in the villages of Guam with searing political... Read more

Lei and the Fire Goddess

By: Malia Maunakea

Narrated by: Jennifer Robideau

Length: 7 hours 51 minutes

Abridged: No

"Lei and the Fire Goddess blends preteen angst and beloved Hawaiian moʻolelo in a way that hasn't been done before." —Auliʻi Cravalho, actress and voice of Disney's Princess Moana

Curses aren't real.

At least, that's what twelve-year-old, part-Hawaiian Anna Leilani Kamaʻehu thinks when she listens to her grandmother's folktales about sacred... Read more

She Is Not Your Rehab

By: Matt Brown

Length: 9 hours 25 minutes

Abridged: No

Mataio (Matt) Faafetai Malietoa Brown offers the men in his barbershop a haircut with a difference: a safe space to be seen and heard without judgement.

As the creator of My Fathers Barbers, Matt has inspired a new generation of New Zealand men to break free from the cycle of abuse - and those men have in turn inspired Matt and his wife, Sarah,... Read more

How to Loiter In a Turf War

By: Coco Solid

Narrated by: Coco Solid

Length: 2 hours 24 minutes

Abridged: No

Like nothing you've heard before, How to Loiter in a Turf War is a lucid, genre-bending, cinematic work of fiction from one of Aotearoa's most versatile artists, read by the author herself. It's a day in the life of three friends beefing with their own city, Tamaki Makaurau. With gentrification closing in and racial tensions sweltering, the... Read more

Return to Blood

By: Michael Bennett

Narrated by: Miriama McDowell

Length: 7 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

From the author of Better the Blood, the gripping second novel in a crime series starring Maori detective Hana Westerman, in which the discovery of human bones in the dunes of New Zealand upends a long-ago murder conviction

After the perils of a case that landed much too close to home, Hana Westerman turned in her badge and abandoned her career... Read more

Dragonfruit

By: Makiia Lucier

Narrated by: Mapuana Makia

Length: 8 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

An Asian/Pacific American Award Honor Book A USA TODAY bestseller One of NPR's 2024 ""Books We Love"" A Kirkus Best Book of 2024 A School Library Journal Best Book of 2024 A New York Public Library Best Book of 2024 From acclaimed author Makiia Lucier, a dazzling, romantic fantasy inspired by Pacific Island mythology. In the old tales, it is... Read more

Rangikura

By: Tayi Tibble

Narrated by: Tayi Tibble

Length: 1 hour 15 minutes

Abridged: No

A fiery second collection of poetry from the acclaimed Indigenous New Zealand writer that U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo calls, “One of the most startling and original poets of her generation.”

Tayi Tibble returns on the heels of her incendiary debut with a bold new follow-up. Barbed and erotic, vulnerable and searching, Rangikura asks readers to... Read more

Lei and the Invisible Island

By: Malia Maunakea

Narrated by: Jennifer Robideau

Length: 8 hours 49 minutes

Abridged: No

An exciting follow-up to Lei and the Fire Goddess features a mysterious, invisible island, dangerous spirits, and a newcomer who does not need Lei's help...or does she?

It turns out that curses are real.

After saving her best friend and ancestral guardian, Kaipo, from Pele the fire goddess’s traps and successfully preventing lava from destroying... Read more

Tala Learns to Siva

By: Kealani Netane

Narrated by: Tiana Masaniai

Length: 17 minutes

Abridged: No

A lovingly empowering story about finding courage and strength in your family, history, and community through a traditional and cherished Samoan dance, taualuga. Written by debut author, Kealani Netane.Tala wishes that she could dance the traditional Samoan dance, the taualuga, just like her Aunty Sina. But Tala's legs are too bouncy, her arms... Read more

Mani Semilla Finds Her Quetzal Voice

By: Anna Lapera

Narrated by: Allison Aguilar

Length: 8 hours 52 minutes

Abridged: No

Life sucks when you’re twelve. You’re not a little kid, but you’re also not an adult, and all the grown-ups in your life talk about your body the minute it starts getting a shape. And what sucks even more than being a Chinese-Filipino-American-Guatemalan who can’t speak any ancestral language well? When almost every other girl in school has... Read more

Every Drop Is a Man's Nightmare

By: Megan Kamalei Kakimoto

Narrated by: Michelle Sekine

Length: 6 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

Bloomsbury presents Every Drop Is a Man's Nightmare by Megan Kamalei Kakimoto, read by Michelle Sekine.

USA Today Bestseller
A Debutiful “Best Debuts of the Year”
“Rich and wise, humming with confidence.” —New York Times Book Review
“A knockout. Eleven knockouts. One KO for every story.”—Elizabeth McCracken
“Every Drop Is a Man’s Nightmare is a... Read more

Local

By: Jessica Machado

Narrated by: Mapuana Makia

Length: 6 hours 54 minutes

Abridged: No

A powerful, lush memoir about a Hawaiian woman who ran away from paradise to discover who she is and where she belongs.Born and raised in Hawai‘i by a father whose ancestors are indigenous to the land and a mother from the American South, Jessica Machado wrestles with what it means to be “local.” Feeling separate from the history and tenets of... Read more

The Sunforge

By: Sascha Stronach

Narrated by: Janaye Henry

Length: 8 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

Sascha Stronach’s queer, Maori-inspired Endsong trilogy reopens on a city in flames, where a magic-wielding pirate crew uncovers an age-old fight between the gods that threatens their world.

The steel city of Radovan is consumed by fire between. Stranded in its harbor is the crew of the Kopek, the survivors of a bioterror attack overseas. But... Read more

Hine Toa

By: Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku

Narrated by: Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku

Length: 13 hours 36 minutes

Abridged: No

An incredible memoir by a trailblazing voice in women's, queer and Māori liberation movementsShortlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards 2025
'Remarkable. At once heartbreaking and triumphant' Patricia GraceIn the 1950s, a young Ngāhuia is fostered by a family who believe in hard work and community. Although close to her kuia, she craves... Read more

Atua Wāhine

By: Hana Tapiata

Narrated by: Hana Tapiata

Length: TBA

Abridged: No

Ancient wisdom of the Māori goddesses to help you navigate the modern world
Atua wāhine are the Māori goddesses who make up the world around us: earth, fire, water, the moon and more. From the earth mother, Papatūānuku, who sustains and nurtures us to the goddess of peace, Hinepūtehue, who transformed pain into beauty, and the misunderstood... Read more