Discovery and exploration of New Zealand told through braille: Paul Moon’s The Voyagers
History lovers who are blind or have low vision will have another book to add to their list with the introduction of AUT University Professor Paul Moon’s book, The Voyagers, to the Blind Foundation’s braille library this month.
The Voyagers tells dramatic stories of Europeans discovering and exploring New Zealand during the first half of the 1800s. Ocean adventures, cross-country trekking, imperial and spiritual conquests, first contacts with Māori, artists seeking the 'sublime', scientific discovery and commercial pursuits all feature in the book.
Moon, a Professor of History in AUT’s Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Development/Te Ara Poutama, says he is pleased to have had his book selected for translation into braille.
“It’s fantastic that more people will be able to discover more and more about the country they live in: the expeditions of Jules Dumont d'Urville, Samuel Marsden, Ferdinand von Hochstetter and Charles Heaphy, as well as an array of lesser-known but no less intrepid explorers - soldiers and sailors, travellers and settlers, missionaries, artists and officials - all of whom ventured from their homelands in search of new horizons in frontier New Zealand,” says Moon.
The Blind Foundation is New Zealand’s main provider of practical and emotional support for the 11,700 Kiwis who are blind or have low vision.
Blind Foundation Library Collections & Access manager Marianne Kraack says the Foundation is thrilled to be able to offer The Voyagers for its clients.
“New Zealand history is always a popular topic in our library and I am sure this will be a popular addition to our collection.”
The Blind Foundation Library offers a range of fiction and non-fiction audio books, braille books, audio magazines and electronic texts (etexts) to people around the country, through a door-to-door mailbox service as well as by email and direct download. More than 50,000 items are issued each month.
The Voyagers is available in braille from the Blind Foundation’s Parnell library as of today.