www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2015 SMOOTH MUSIC LAUGHTER Welcome to Piha, NZ's most famous surf beach, on the wild west coast of the North Island, 40km from Auckland. Piha can be wild, wet, windswept, lashed by storms rolling in from the Tasman Sea ` roads get blocked, power goes down, phones get cut off. You have to have something of the pioneering spirit to settle here. I moved to NZ from the UK when I was 8 years old but headed back to England to study acting, before being drawn back to NZ because,... well,... because of this. SMOOTH MUSIC I've lived in Piha since 2002, part of a diverse community of Kiwis and migrants that make up a permanent population of 800 people. Let me introduce you to some of the other folk from all over the world who call Piha home. We'll meet an artist whose jewellery melds influences from her native Argentina with those of her adopted home. Being in NZ has influenced my work as well. It is the people you meet. It is the new words, the new languages that you come across. A local woman tells the story of her mother's journey to America after the Korean War. So, they fled down south there, she and her five brothers. I think they all had typhoid. The mother and the grandmother died, and the children survived. A Piha man reveals the treasures he's collected as a boy in the hills of New Mexico. I discovered that they were everywhere on the surface of the land. They clearly were made by humans that were of an ancient origin, and that just fascinated me as a child, to know that these things had been there for potentially thousands of years. And a fellow Brit shares her recipe for Victoria sponge, using her grandmother's magic cake tins. It's really nice that I can` that I have these, that, um` and it's something that she used all the time to make her cakes with. They've never made, um, a bad Victoria sponge. I'm Mark Mitchinson, and this is my neighbourhood. RELAXED MUSIC My father is an Anglican priest, and he was asked to join a ministry in NZ in the '70s, so he packed us up and off we went. 1976 Rotorua was quite a culture shock from the genteel surroundings of Oxfordshire, I can tell you. There was steam coming out of the ground, a smell of sulphur everywhere and a town steeped in Maori culture. I was 8 years old. It was an adventure, and I loved it. I went back to the UK at 16 and ended up studying acting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, which is how I earn my living now. But those formative years in NZ, growing up here, had a huge impression on me, and I couldn't stay away for long. Local man Jordan Alexander has strong childhood memories of roaming the hills in New Mexico, and he's brought treasures that he's found as a kid all the way here to Piha. PEACEFUL MUSIC I actually grew up on a commune called the Magic Tortoise, and it's in northern New Mexico, and, uh, it was a group of about five families at the time ` a lot of them coming from the East Coast ` and, um, they, my folks and their` and their friends, didn't want to participate in the Vietnam War, so they decided to go out west and try to live more like Native Americans. I call myself a New Mexican because that's really where I grew up. Living on the commune was a counterculture, but I didn't recognise that, right, cos I was just growing up in it. That was just` That was how the rest of the world was, wasn't it? We` We all ate together in the beginning, and we all worked on our` worked on the gardens together, and we did a lot of projects together, and there was not all this, like, separation between people. SIGHS: Yeah, this is a great picture. Uh, this is a picture of my mother, stepfather and my brother and I, and, uh, I dunno. I really connect with that picture, just because it reminds me of how it was and how we dressed and how we looked and the smiles that everyone has there. I would describe it as idyllic. Like, I've never had an experience like it since, you know, and I just kinda cherish all these memories of just, you know, groups of us kids just, you know, ranging all over the mountain, and we'd be out there for hours and hours, you know, camping, hiking, um, you know, jumping off rocks into, you know` into big big pools of water. NOSTALGIC MUSIC I became interested in arrowheads because I discovered that they were everywhere on the surface of the land where I was growing up in northern New Mexico. And they were very curious and beautiful and oftentimes very symmetric, and, um, they clearly were made by humans who were of an ancient origin, and that just fascinated me as a child, to know that these things had been there for potentially thousands of years, and here I was, you know, one of the first to come along and pick this particular one up. When I hold these, what goes through my mind is vast stretches of time, the cultures before me that were there on this land that I was growing up on, living on, raising other children and families and hunting for their food. So it just reminds me that there were many, many cultures, uh, before me, or many, many generations of human beings before me, living on this land, going back, um, tens of thousands of years and further. These arrowheads, they were used primarily for hunting, for taking down small animals, like birds and rabbits, and larger arrowheads would be used for deer. And then spearheads, uh, would be used for larger animals like, um, bison, possibly even bear. The tribe that is most prominent in the place that I grew up are called the Taos Pueblo Indian. These people actually invited my family and` and other people on the commune to come to the Pueblo when I was a kid to participate in their` in their, um, ceremonies, and it was really an amazing experience, and I remember one where we would come into this giant tepee. You know, the tepee, you know, the diameter of it was probably, like, 20m diameter, and all of us people` all the people were sitting around on the edge on the inside, and there was a giant fire going on in the centre, and food is being passed around, and us kids were just playing in the middle, and the parents were there, probably having a peyote meeting. (CHUCKLES) Yeah, I get very humbled when I think about, um, these arrowheads, because they make me understand that life here on this planet is just this brief little moment, and yet` yet it's everything for us. PENSIVE MUSIC Although there are probably still things that are quite English about me, like my accent, and, uh, my love of warm beer, I like to think my culture comes from a range of places. Yes, our family still celebrate Christmas and Easter, but more recently, after a family trip to Mexico, we now celebrate Day of the Dead. Day of the Dead is a Mexican celebration of family ` of those living and those who have passed on. The living cook a huge feast and invite the ancestors to the table. I'd like to think that this could be part of my family's cultural heritage from now on. Piha resident Ellie White also hails from the UK, and she's serving up a slice of her cultural heritage to her new community, courtesy of her much-loved grandmother. GULLS SQUAWK GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC I love Piha as a place to live. We weren't actually supposed to live here, but we came out here for a few days' retreat when we first moved to NZ and, um, instantly fell in love with it after one day, and then just decided to stay, really, and, um, two years on, we're still here. The people here are amazing. They welcomed us so much as well. My name is Eloise White. My childhood in England was, um` was great, because I'm from Somerset, I'm from rural Somerset, so from the countryside, and, um, it's beautiful. There's lots of open fields. It's very lush, and it's very green, and, um, it was great. It was a great place to play and a great place to grow up. This is my grandmother on the beach with her children. This is my dad right here. (CHUCKLES) My family is, um` is` is quite large. My, um` My gran and grandad had eight children, and so, um` and she has in total 11 grandchildren, so there's quite a lot of us. And we're` we're all quite close as well, and we would all get together in, uh, my grandparents' house, which was, um, a semi-detached council house in the middle of the countryside. (LAUGHS) So it was quite cosy, yeah. For a person who had a very small kitchen, um, my grandmother always managed to feed the whole family, and there would always be, um, a great array of cakes, um, and especially an assortment of Victoria sponges as well, which she was, um, well renowned for making. These are actually my, um, grandmother's cake tins that were passed down to me. It's really nice that I can` that I have these, that, um` And it's something that she used all the time to make her cakes with. I consider these to be my magic cake tins, just because they've never made, um, a bad Victoria sponge since I've been making Victoria sponges. So I don't know if it's the cake tins or, um` or the cake recipe or just maybe the combination of the two, but, yeah, I feel very special to have these. RELAXED MUSIC My favourite dish that my grandmother used to bake would be her Victoria sponge. Yeah, it was something she always used to do, and it's something that I like to... to bake for when I have people round as well for tea. It's a little memory of her. Um, so, how I make my Victoria sponge is, um, you get the really softened butter. I've actually weighed my four eggs previously, so I'm matching the weight of my sugar to the eggs and also the weight of my butter. And then we cream this. I also prefer to use a wooden spoon just for authenticity. I think when you get to the final product, you can definitely tell the difference. There's more chance of maybe a little imperfections, but I think that's what makes it more home-made and, um, some people might say, a little bit more rustic. (CHUCKLES) So, we've made quite a few friends in Piha since we've been here, and, um` which equates to quite a few birthdays, so people have actually started requesting cakes now for their birthdays. PEOPLE LAUGH, CHATTER We have a lot of friends come over. It's a very big community of friends that we have here in Piha. Pretty much every week people will get together and all come over and have dinner and eat cake. < That looks amazing. Normally, it should just be, like, cream, jam and the two sponges, with icing sugar on top. < So, what's that called? < So, what's that called? It's one of my favourite cakes. < So, what's that called? It's one of my favourite cakes. Really? (LAUGHS) Victoria sponge ` made for Queen Victoria. < (LAUGHS) < Be a bit thick. < Be a bit thick. < No wonder she was hefty, eh? < Be a bit thick. < No wonder she was hefty, eh? Yeah. (LAUGHS) LAUGHS: Exactly. Sharing my grandmother's tradition of cake baking and cooking, bringing it to the other side of the world, I think is me holding on to that little bit of my English tradition, and I think it's nice to hold on to that. I'm very proud of where I come from, and I like sharing that with people as well. RELAXED PIANO MUSIC BIRDS CHIRP Sometimes my Englishness has felt more like a badge of shame than something I'm really proud of, especially when you look back at the relationship between Maori and the English in this country. I guess that's why I relate more to my Celtic roots. My father is English, but the history of our family are from Ireland ` the Lynches from County Kerry ` and if you scrape a little further and a little deeper with my mother, who is also English, you'll find a Morgan from Wales. In moving to NZ, I realised there was a close connection between Maori and the Celts ` a generosity of spirit ` manaakitanga ` and a continuity with the past that helped me feel very much at home. Local resident Julia Marin has also found her creativity influenced by her birthplace. Her jewellery is inspired by the Mapuche people of her native Argentina, mixed in with a little bit of Piha magic. PEACEFUL PIANO MUSIC One of my first days in Auckland, I remember walking on the streets and just seeing people from everywhere in the world, like Indian people, Chinese people. The cultural diversity was something that I'd never experienced in Argentina, and, yeah, it might sound funny, but we're close to Chile ` we're neighbour countries ` but I made my first Chilean friends in NZ. (CHUCKLES) That was one of the first things that, yeah, make me think, 'Wow, this is a really interesting place to be.' I live in Piha with my little dog, Marco. I came to NZ first travelling and just trying to do a different experience and trying to learn the language a little bit better, and I just fell in love with NZ. I love living in Piha, because as a jeweller, I find that there's so much inspiration around. I feel that my work is almost like making little sculptures. The piece I'm wearing today is one of the latest pieces I made. It's got a very strong influence of the Maori type of construction in the chain, and also the motif of it, the little people and the word, is things that you get inspired by while you're making something. Recently I had a visit from my parents, and so the whole family idea and concept of family was quite fresh lately ` and it's five little people, so I guess it's my family, my mum, my dad, my sister, my brother and me ` that we're not together, but in a way we are. DOOR CREAKS There are several types of jewellery in Argentina, and the one I was most inspired by was the Mapuche style. It's large pieces, so that the size of the pieces is really big, so that creates a really` a visual impact. And the motifs they use, which is birds and little people and little animals, has got a very strong connection with spirituality and the relation to Pachamama, which is the earth, and, in general, the whole concept of it was beautiful. I like the contemporary side of showing a little bit more of your craft, and not in the sense of it being rough, but in the sense of it being not perfect, just as it comes. So, I have some of the elements I'll be using, but I'm not sure yet how it's gonna to end up, so ideally what I'm imagining` imagining it would have is, um, some people... hanging,... and I have incorporating... this member of the family now, and it's gonna be, um, some words written in there, punched. MELLOW ELECTRONIC MUSIC Being in NZ has influenced my work as well for different things, not just geographical situation. It is the people you meet. It is the new words, the new languages that you come across. So now I will represent things more like a fantail or a flower that I see and inspires me or the Maori culture as well that is very strong and unique in mainly the words. So I think now I have a bit of a mix in between the` all the cultures. One of the things I like the most in my life in Piha is that I connected to the gallery in the same week I moved to Piha. This is our local gallery, the West Coast Gallery of Piha, and as, um` It's a great thing for community, because it's a trust; it's a non-profit organisation created by local artists for everyone, um, and for the artists of the west coast to feature their work. It's probably a cliche phrase, but I do feel at home far away from home, so I think I'm lucky I get to feel I'm at home in more than one place. (LAUGHS) FUNKY MUSIC Piha is the birthplace of board riding in NZ. In 1958 two surfers came here from California and changed everything, and the amazing waves have been drawing surfers from all over the world ever since. The population in the summer trebles, when holidaymakers come from all over the place, but the core population of 800 who live here all year round are culturally quite diverse. Sometimes it's a contrast to their homeland that appeals, sometimes it's the echo of something they loved growing up, but each has their own reason for making their journey here. But few journeys are comparable to that made by Anne Bilek's mother when she left Korea at just 18 years old. PENSIVE MUSIC This trunk is the same trunk that my mother brought all her belongings with her from Korea originally to North Carolina, and when I came here, I packed all my stuff into this trunk, and I shipped it over via sea freight, like my mom did. You know, when I look at it, it reminds me of how I've sorta carried on this female tradition of fleeing my home country to go to a diff` to go to a better place, um, and I do think NZ is a better place. I was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the United States. My mother is Korean, and my father is Caucasian, I guess, and Swedish extraction. In the '70s it was pretty white in Minnesota. Um, there was a small Korean community. We associated with them quite a bit, but for the most part it was a white-bread, Midwestern upbringing. RELAXED GUITAR MUSIC BIRDS SING, INSECTS CHIRP You know, kids, your grandma's a pretty amazing lady. She came from Korea to the US at the age of 18, speaking no English, and she got a degree from Guilford College, North Carolina. Four years. Pretty amazing when you think about it. My mother is named, uh, Mary Kim. Her original name was Hyo-Hyung Kim. My understanding of the Korean War was that the Chinese were advancing, and the North Koreans were advancing down the peninsula, and they were gonna take over Korea, and similar to the Vietnam conflict. So it pushed my mother out of her family's land near Pyongyang, and they had to flee south, and they went to this island called Jeju Island, which is this little scrap of volcanic rock off the south` southern tip of Korea. So they fled down south there, uh, she and her five brothers and her mother and her grandmother. I think they all had typhoid, and, um, the mother and the grandmother died, and the children survived. At the time, my mom had a pen pal from North Carolina named Margaret Dumas, and she wrote to Margaret and mentioned all the` the problems that they were having, and Margaret showed the letter to her folks and her parents amazingly said, 'Well, we need to do something about that,' and they sponsored her, and that's how she came to America. LIGHT-HEARTED MUSIC I talk once a week to my mother on Skype. Hey, Mom, how are you doing? Hey, Mom, how are you doing? I'm OK. Uh, can you turn on your video? There you go. Can you see me? Uh, can you turn on your video? There you go. Can you see me? Yes. Yep. So what was it like going to the USA? Coming from a very poor country with no money, and I struggled quite bad, but I had a working scholarship, so I worked three hours a day while I was going to college, and somehow I didn't flunk out. Not only I had to support myself, but I had to support my family back at home. > So you were sending money back all the time? I did all kinds of things to make some money and so I could send it back to my father, who was ill that time, so he can buy some medicine, and then after my father passed away, I brought all my brothers one by one, and then I had to send them to college, and so it was quite a struggle, but this is a wonderful country. We all made it one way or the other. Mom really does believe in the American dream, but for me, um, the level of violence and anger in the country and the fact that people carry guns ` a lot of school shootings ` just didn't want to deal with that with my kids, and, uh, I guess we both took risks going overseas, but the pay-off for both of us was pretty big. RELAXED GUITAR MUSIC Piha is beautiful. You know, I still sometimes pinch myself when I wake up in the morning and look out the` look out the window. You'd have to be a multi-millionaire, I think, in the States to get a view like that. I'll probably get in trouble for saying this, but, um, I think there's something a little bit off with... (LAUGHS) everyone who lives in Piha, including myself, so something a little weird, and I like that weirdness. There are a lot of artists and creative people out here, um,... which I also enjoy. PENSIVE MUSIC There's so much that I love about living in Piha ` walking this incredible beach in all kinds of weather, celebrating at home with family and friends and food and wine, the strong winds, the storms, the strong sense of community that we have to organise events such as the Piha Market Day, where we lay down a hangi and feed everyone. Moving to NZ when I was very young and then back to England and then back here again has made me realise that I'm not the product of just one environment. Yes, I'm a NZer, but I'm also my Celtic heritage, my English upbringing. This place, it's part of my DNA. It's me. It's home. Captions by Antony Vlug. Edited by Ashlee Scholefield. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2015