Captions by Amy Park. Edited by Ashlee Scholefield. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2015 CHILLED MUSIC CHILLED MUSIC CONTINUES Mission Bay is a lovely bit of Auckland ` inner-city beach lined with cafes and restaurants with a pocket of houses stretching inland. It's not a large suburb, but it is a diverse community nonetheless. I think of myself as a NZer. I've been here since I was 6. But I'm also Fiji Indian. It's a fundamental part of my make-up. My sense of self can come from something as significant as knowing the customs of a formal celebration or something as small as knowing an old wives' tale. Those things make up who I am. Mission Bay is home to a lot of people that were once new to NZ, and their diversity lends richness to this community that I really value. Let me introduce you to some of them. We will meet an American woman who treasures the stories of her pioneering forebears. It's a great story. Um, besides the fact that it's about my family, she wrote it so well that I feel like I'm actually part of the` part of the story. A man who survived the Holocaust tells us why it is important that we never forget what took place. The feelings which this brings is one of, really, sadness, when I consider how people wore a similar one and they are not able now to talk about it. ALL SING IN PORTUGUESE A Mission Bay resident shares the reasons she wants her son to grow up connected to his Brazilian culture. When I start going to the playgroup, I made lots of friends over there. And they are friends that we help each other a lot. And a local man dishes up some traditional Indian fair. When I go back to Bombay, while I'm being driven from the airport back to my mum's place, they'd call up the restaurant and order butter chicken. My name is Anjula Prakash, and this is my neighbourhood. 'NEIGHBOURHOOD' THEME POIGNANT MUSIC SEAGULLS SQUAWK Both my parents are Fiji-Indians born in Fiji. The coup in 1987 had a lot to do with their decision to leave. They felt that there were more opportunities for my sister and me here. Since the coup, the political tension between the native Fijians and the Indian communities has sometimes eclipsed the positive interactions between the two groups. Our history is rich with stories about the sharing of cultures and language. It would be a shame for people to lose sight of that. Some lessons history teaches us are too important to forget, and no one knows that better than local man Bob Narev. We feel very fortunate to be where we are, what we've been able to do and what we can do now. We live in a free country, where we can do what we like, speak about what we like ` as long as it doesn't harm others ` and it's a freedom which we very much appreciate after what we've been through. My name is Bob Narev. And mine's Freda Narev. I was born in a little town in Germany called Eschwege. I was in a little village in Poland called... Widze. POIGNANT MUSIC Families on both sides were and still are Jewish. We weren't particularly observant but traditional Jewish family. We shifted to Frankfurt in 1936 until 1942, and at that point my parents got a notice from the authorities to report with the whole of the family at the local railway station, and that was the beginning of our transport to a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. The camp in German was Theresienstadt. Czech name was Terezin. I remember very little of the actual trip from Frankfurt to the camp, uh, except that at the railway station, where we were with a thousand other Jewish people who were being transported at the same time, a Nazi officer came up to my father, and my father was asked whether he had any money on him. He said no. He was searched. They found the equivalent of a 50c coin in his pocket, and the Nazi officer hit him across the face several times till his nose bled. And that's the one thing as a young child that I distinctly remember from that episode. Treatment was tolerable in the camp, because it was a transit camp and people were not being murdered as they were in the extermination camps. But of course, we had to be very careful what we did. We couldn't attempt to escape. There was no possibility of that with armed guards and guard dogs and barbed wire and guns. SOMBRE PIANO MUSIC This became what was known as the Jewish star, which Jews both in Germany and in other parts of conquered Europe had to wear on the outside of their clothing. The feelings which this brings is one of, really, sadness, when I consider how many people wore a similar one and they are not able now to talk about it. After the war, my mother and father were gone, and, uh, I guess I just saw I was one of the lucky ones, because I still had a relative looking after me. Some people didn't have anybody and finished up in a children's home. I have since found out that during the time that I was there, there were between 10,000 and 15,000 children in the camp of whom a hundred survived. So you can work out the percentage rate of survival. POIGNANT MUSIC I'm just looking at a photo of my father and mother on their wedding day in 1934. Above them is my aunt, who was one of the people responsible for bringing us here. I'll move on to a photograph of my mother, who was the only other survivor from Terezin. We came to NZ together in 1947. We felt that the reception here was such that we really had to give something back, and we did. We are asked quite frequently by various schools to speak of our experiences, which we are quite prepared to do, because we feel that, uh,... as much as possible of what happened should be out in the public so that hopefully a lesson is learned from it and that it mightn't happen again. In April 2008, the Listener published an article about the Holocaust, and the cover of that particular issue shows a photograph of Hitler, and on the side of Hitler there are two photographs, which happen to be passport photographs of Freda and myself. And we're asked what our feeling was when we saw ourselves on the cover of a national magazine with Hitler, and our simple answer always has been, 'He is gone, and we are here.' Today we're at the Auckland War Memorial Museum. It's the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz ghetto. The United Nations passed the resolution in November 2005 that this day should be commemorated as the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. And this is you aged 4. That was around the time you were hidden by the... Yes. That's right. ...Catholic family. Then my story's in the corner. That's a passport photo of me as a young boy. That must have taken in Switzerland after we'd been liberated from Theresienstadt. So, uh, brings back memories, doesn't it? It's important for our stories to be told at this stage, firstly because we're probably among the youngest survivors and I'm nearly 80, so there won't be many of us left. And it's very important for particularly younger people to know what happened during the Holocaust, the persecution that took place. And secondly, we feel that by telling our stories, we not only inform the people who listen to us but also, perhaps, build a slight opportunity for future prevention. We both joined a Jewish youth movement in NZ. I met Freda there. And the first time I saw her, I was in my late teens. Uh, I said, 'That's the one for me.' And here we are, 56 years later, still together. GROOVY MUSIC A trip to Mission Bay isn't complete without a vanilla brownie ice cream with some chopped nuts, some caramel sauce and whipped cream. Yum. I was only 6 years old when I moved to NZ, and I remember finding out that certain things were done differently here and that I needed to learn those things to fit in. In Fiji, being modestly dressed is very important. So if you went swimming, you would wear a T-shirt to cover up. I got my first pair of togs when I came to NZ. In fact, my parents only knew I needed togs because it was written on a consent form for a school trip. Vinay Gupta arrived in NZ from India with his young family, and he was unsure of what to expect. But if there's one thing he has learnt, it is that a home-cooked meal is a great way to keep a family together. I grew up in an industrial family, so it's a business family. Went to private school. We started getting exposed to work since we are 14 years old. And by 16, we're full-time working in the office. We wanted to leave because we wanted to have a real family life. In India, that wasn't possible cos I'm working morning to night. My wife was working, and the kids go to school, and there was no life for them. We just said, 'Enough.' You know, 'That's it.' We arrived in NZ in July 2000, and it was me, my wife, Nanda, my two daughters, Avantika and Aakriti. We just were here, bag and baggage; all four of us, 150 kilos of luggage. It was ridiculous, cos as we started walking out of the airport with our trolleys, we suddenly stopped and said, 'Oh my God. Where are we going?' Outside those doors, there's no one. We don't know anyone here. There's no one here to pick us up. We sat down, had a cup of tea, got a phone card, started calling the motels. And then, similarly, step by step, we just settled into life. It's an adventure. And that's what I love. FUNKY MUSIC I finally retired about six years ago. I started realising that I love to cook. I teach friends how to cook. And so we have wonderful cooking sessions out here where everyone comes. Butter chicken is one of the things that we always had. Uh, it is a North Indian dish. It is where we come from. I guess as a non-vegetarian dish at home, butter chicken would have been the one to always have had. And even now when we` when I go back to Bombay, while I'm being driven from the airport back to my mum's place, even before we reach, I call up the place, the restaurant, and order butter chicken. So by the time we're home, uh, the butter chicken's delivered and we're ready to eat ` literally. We'll get the gravy going, and we'll get that all working, and then combine the cooked chicken with the cooked gravy and just allow it to get to know each other, get it to say hello for a few minutes on a very low simmer. For a butter chicken, the main ingredient is the chicken, which I marinate overnight. It is marinated with some yoghurt, with some dried fenugreek leaves. There's a bit of red chilli powder in there, cumin powder, some coriander powder, a bit of turmeric powder and yoghurt. I was never exposed to cooking by the family, but I used to love to eat, the more I thought about it. And the more I thought about it, analysing ingredients and flavours, and I started putting them together, and there was no turning back from there. VIBRANT, FUNKY MUSIC It just, sort of, sits for about half an hour, and` see, my mouth's watering again. This is what I happens when I think about the flavours. This is some of our family recipe garam masala. You can't get this for love or for money. You have to get it from me. Oh yeah. Yeah. You can` You can feel the flavours coming in. CHILLED MUSIC So, the finishing touches ` just some butter, some cream and a good sprinkling of coriander. And there's` there's your dish. There's you butter chicken. SOOTHING EMOTIVE MUSIC To cook for my family is very important. It brings us together, I guess. It's` It's an opportunity` My daughters have moved out, and so it is an opportunity for them to come back. The butter chicken is my favourite. It's definitely worth coming around for. Just taking a sampler to begin, and then I go back for more. See how I feel for round two. Gotta say the chicken wins out just about every time. (CHUCKLES) There's a` There's a little bit of heat behind it, which I quite` I quite enjoy, yeah. Love Vinay's food, and it's` I'm very lucky, because I don't need to cook now. LIGHT LAUGHTER But it's great food. It's delicious. VINAY: We love quiz nights, and we've, sort of, become a formal team, with seven or eight of us. We go to quiz night at Rickshaw Eddy's on Mission Bay. It keeps the mind active. Our team are The Prodigals Return. Quietly confident, I'd say. We've got eight rounds. We've doubled on pot luck and pop culture today, because we've got a full house of youngsters. So we're feeling confident about that. Here is question number one ` so, which country is that stamp from? The quiz is a beautiful way of keeping the family bond. It` My daughters and their fiance come for dinner; friends and other team members come for dinner. It's not only family. It's also bringing community and friends together, you know. Oh yeah! Yeah! QUIZMASTER SPEAKS IN BACKGROUND Oh! CHATTER, LAUGHTER Hi, mama. What are you cooking? Well, I'm doing curry fish today. Do you want to give me a hand? Yeah, sure. Come on. This is my mum, Suman. My mum's side of the family is Christian, so we celebrated Christmas. I remember learning what a chimney was from watching movies, and I figured that my parents must have left Santa the key under the doormat, seeing as how they were clearly no chimneys in Fiji. That is crushed garlic, ginger. Put one teaspoon of masala paste in it. See, what I've done here now, we're gonna fry this. I think one of the main challenges for migrants in NZ is finding a balance between preserving your own culture and assimilating into NZ society. Holding on to your identity is so important. But it can be a bit hard when there aren't others like you around. A Mission Bay resident has found the perfect way to ensure that her son grows up immersed in her Brazilian culture. AMBIENT MUSIC So, when I first arrived in NZ, I had a friend from Brazil, and she told me, 'Look, Dani, there's a friend of mine. He works in a restaurant. 'You can go there and just have an interview and see if you can get the job.' And I thought he was quite good-looking, so I was, like, 'Hmm.' (LAUGHS) You know? And` And he invited us for a Brazilian party that was going to happen on Saturday that week. So then we went there, and then we start going out afterwards. And after two weeks, we were living together. Definitely the fact that he was Brazilian helped a lot. Told my dad that he was from the same city as me. He asked for his parents' phone number. And then my dad called them, and they had, like, a barbecue and they became friends. He saw the values of his family as well, so he thought` it was, like, 'Oh, yeah, he's a good guy. You know, you can go for it.' (LAUGHS) The NZ life is much quieter than it is in Brazil. I believe that it's very family-focused. Here, like, we have a chance of finishing our work early, and then we have time to still go into the park with the children and enjoy or have a picnic at the beach. It's not as often that happens in Brazil. GENTLE MUSIC I think it's very important for me that Vinnie, my son, he learns Portuguese and he learns about the Brazilian culture. LAUGHTER MOTHERS SHOUT IN PORTUGUESE So, today we are at the Brazilian playgroup. It's called Brasileirinho. SINGING IN PORTUGUESE It's a class to try to encourage the students' appreciation for the Brazilian culture. Even though they were born here and their first language is going to be English, it's a way of getting them to learn more about our mother language, that they see how fun it is to speak Portuguese and, you know, all the different things about the language and the culture. SINGING IN PORTUGUESE Yay! CROWD APPLAUDS (EXCLAIMS IN PORTUGUESE) WOMEN LAUGH GENTLE MUSIC When I start going to the playgroup, I made lots of friends over there. And they are friends that we help each other a lot and we have a group on Facebook that we ask questions and we swap resources. And the Brazilian playgroup, they have a library. They just order, I think, around 500 books from Brazil. So it's all there for us to swap and read to our children. It's a very very good and strong community. So, I am one of the facilitators for the Brazilian playgroup. We meet Tuesday morning, and we've been having around 20 to 23 kids in average coming every week. We also add cultural aspects to the session. So, for example, if it's Brazilian Day in Brazil, we work that here. We have carnival. So that's why we asked all the kids present today to come dressed up, because in carnival, the young kids, they do get dressed up and they go to small parties. So we try to incorporate whatever's happening in Brazil, whatever's part of our culture into the sessions. CHILLED MUSIC So, today, it's the very first Brazilian Day festival here in Auckland. So we've got music,... a lot of food, very great kids' zone. So the idea is to bring the community together to show NZ community what Brazil is about. We love to be with people. We love to get together. We've got big families and we've got big get-togethers. So it's part of our culture. For the kids from our group, they're gonna present three little songs. So the idea is to` obviously for them to learn the language, Portuguese, and for them on a stage and to show the community what we do with them as a group. SINGING IN PORTUGUESE GENTLE MUSIC It was really fun. It was really fun. It was really fun. GIRLS: We love Brazil. The performance was great. Vinnie was a bit shy in the beginning, and then after the second song, he was doing the actions and he was really into it. It was quite good. I enrolled him in the Brazilian Portuguese classes now. And then he'll definitely be doing more of this performance in the future. It is important to have occasions like this so Vinnie has a little taste of what it is back home. AMBIENT MUSIC I'm at Mission Bay Bowling Club, and I know from personal experience that they are very friendly to newcomers. Welcome to Mission Bay Bowling Club. Thank you. Who's playing today? We're playing St Heliers today. In Indian culture, it is important to treat your elders with respect. This includes anyone older than you. We use specific names to address others. For example, I would address my father's older sister differently to his younger sister. Sometimes those cultural differences were a source of frustration for me when I was young, I guess what you would call a culture clash. My friends were confused as to why I would appear to act very formal around my teachers and parents. An American-born local has an enduring respect for her forebears ` a strong woman with a pioneering spirit. TRANQUIL MUSIC We're in Mission Bay, and we're at my business, Mission Bay Watersports, where we have kayaking and stand-up paddleboarding. My name is Rebecca Paley-Williams. I was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I came to NZ because I met my fiance, Marius Lina, when we were travelling around in Italy. Brought him back to the US first, and then we moved here shortly after. Oh, I've been surfing for about 15 years, um, in California. And then coming over here, I got into kayaking and then stand-up paddleboarding. Just a natural progression to keep instructing and, um, yeah, keep progressing with the sports. There seems to be a theme in my family with moving west. Uh, you know, starting in England, coming on over, moving west that way, and then slowly working their way across the country, eventually settling in California. And then here I am, continuing that tradition in moving west across the world. (LAUGHS) Family history was pretty deep in American history. Uh, we've had ancestors coming over on the boats, the Mayflower, so the original boats coming over from England. Uh, they set some of the first settlers on the East Coast in Medford, Massachusetts. In the 1600s, one of my great-great-great-great-great, many greats-grandfather was one of the first 13 families to settle in that area. My great-grandmother, Constance Allen Jennings ` or we know her as Deedee ` was an amazing record keeper. She's kept the stories of her mother's childhood, her own childhood, and she's written out these stories, so we really have a great understanding of what it was like for her life and her mother's life. So here I've got my family treasures. Um, we have a story called 'When Deedee Was a Little Girl ` Written Especially for my Great Grandchildren' that she's written for us ` myself and my cousins. It starts out, um,... (READS) 'Things were quite different when I was a little girl 80 years ago. 'Of course, the sun came up every morning and set every night, so nature was much the same. 'But people had not gotten around to inventing some of our important necessities 'we take for granted these days.' My great-grandmother lived all the way through until 1990s. I was quite young, but I do remember her very clearly. She was an adventurer, but an adventurer in the sense that she liked to write about different places. She liked to imagine different areas. Um, she had family that travelled all through the world. Um, she didn't move much, but she liked to experience that through her own words. READS: 'The automobile had only just been developed. The early ones were called horseless carriages. 'They even looked like high, flimsy carriages with a little motor and a crank in front to turn them. 'These cranks were so hard to turn that men sometimes broke their arms in the process. 'At the side of the driver's seat was a big round rubber horn which went "honk!" when pressed. 'Little boys often ran alongside these noisy, smelly contraptions, yelling, "Get a horse!" 'Horses did, in fact, seemed more dependable.' I laughed out loud many times. She was very funny in her writing, and the way she put explanations in there, you could actually picture somebody riding upside an automobile and shouting at them. When I first started reading this, it evoked quite a few emotions for me. It was a lot of pride in my family, feeling as though they'd pushed through some amazing experiences, pioneering out west, coming over in a covered wagon and settling in a very unknown land. Also, it's a great story. Um, besides the fact that it's about my family, she wrote it so well that it flows like a` a normal story, and I feel like I'm actually part of the` part of the story. I have a photo of my great-grandmother with my father and my mother. It must be the early '70s, based on how my father is dressed. Other photos that I have is the photo of all the women on my father's side. So we have my great-grandmothers in this photo. This photo's really special. This was taken in 1904, and it's the photo of the journey that my great-grandmother describes in her memoirs of her mother on their way to Yosemite for a vacation, camping in Antelope Valley, California. There's no roads. The wheels are bare wheels. It must have been a really, uh` really tough ride. Continuing the tradition of recording our my family history is something I definitely plan to do. I've already started speaking to my grandparents about their life and just starting to get a little bit more interested in that and making sure that I'm aware of what they've gone through. That way I can continue telling the stories. Well, the next adventures in our life are, um, well, getting married. We're definitely planning a family in the future. Um, I can guarantee that they'll be little adventurers as well. IDYLLIC MUSIC SEAGULLS SQUAWK We still have some extended family in Fiji. It is a breathtakingly beautiful place to visit but a hard place to live. The water isn't always safe to drink. People don't always adhere to road rules and it can be a little dangerous to drive, and the mosquito bites can give you dengue fever. So when I do go back there, it is an adventure mixed with feelings of nostalgia. But I would call NZ my home now. And what's not to love about Mission Bay? It's beachy, beautiful and pretty laid back. SEAGULLS SQUAWK Captions by Amy Park. Edited by Ashlee Scholefield. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2015