Empower Hawaiʻi Keiki: Fund Tara's Multi-Sensory Books

My name is Tara Gumapac and I am the illustrator of the childrenʻs books "The Adventures of Eva and Duke", "Nā Huakaʻi a Eva lauā ʻo Duke" which is a multi-sensory book for children. This book was written by my mom Carleen Gumapac, who has now passed since we started this book project. This book is is in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian Language), English, ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi braille and English braille. This book has a QR code so you can follow along with the book and listen to the language along with raised images to feel the pictures in the book and comes with optional scented stickers to appeal to all senses and learners.

This book started as a project to create equity and accessibility to language and literacy for indigenous children with special needs. Both my children, Eva and Duke were born at 1 pound and were born at 23 and 22 weeks gestation. They were micro-preemie babies who had less than 12% chances of survival. Both children were in the hospital for over 6 months in the NICU and because they were preemies, they both have visual impairments and are considered blind.

While educating them, we were teaching them braille and we wanted them to learn the Hawaiian language, but noticed no books were in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi braille. So being an artist, I decided to create them myself.

I had a lot of help from family, friends, my mom wrote the stories. I consulted my daughterʻs braille teacher and he helped me with the braille. It really was a community effort.