Clare Bradford - The story teller helping Indigenous people to tell their stories

When she was a little girl growing up in New Zealand, Professor Clare Bradford could see that the Maori children in her class at school were different.

They didn’t wear shoes, even in the middle of winter.

They lived in houses in low-lying parts of her town that were frequently flooded, while she lived in a drier, warmer area.

Understanding those differences, especially how the stories behind them are recorded – or are not recorded - in modern children’s literature, has now become Clare’s life work.

“Traditionally, settler nations like New Zealand and Australia, Canada and the United States, haven’t been very good at telling the stories of their Indigenous people in a way that gives a better understanding of those communities,â€