9 NEIGHBOURHOOD THEME www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2016 RELAXED MUSIC Cuba Street is a bit of Wellington's Bohemia. It was named after an early settler ship, not the island in the Caribbean, but it hasn't stopped a few local institutions picking up the Cuban theme and running with it. Cuba Street is at the heart of the city's culture. A lot of my inspiration comes from this place ` the tuned-in vibe, the music and the late-night hangouts. Cuba Street is the first place I bring visitors from overseas. It says a lot about Wellington and a lot about me. Let me show you some of what makes this area so special. In this episode of Neighbourhood, we'll explore an icon of old Cuba Street. I think it's very special that after three generations we're still here working the business, and that family's still involved, and our uncles and my dad still come to the shop when they want to. And it's family-run. A Cypriot woman shares the tastes of home. Halloumi is the national cheese of Cyprus. Definitely it is. And we're very proud of it. And actually, this is fresh halloumi, which we eat like this as well. We just` We eat` Delicious. We'll meet a woman who volunteers with the most recent refugee arrivals. They come in with a problem, and sometimes they think there's nobody who can help them, and through just very basic stuff we help them out, and they realise that actually there is a solution to this problem. And they usually leave with a smile. And it's great to be part of that transformation. And a Chinese man practises an ancient art just off Cuba Mall. So, my friend specially carved this red stamp. The meaning of that is, 'Maybe this painting is not worth a cent, 'but I would not sell it for a thousand pieces of gold.' Hi, I'm Iva Lamkum, and this is my neighbourhood. RELAXED DUB MUSIC I once described my style to someone as 'edgy boardroom pin-up', so I do love a good vintage shop. MUSIC CONTINUES I'm Samoan with a Chinese great-grandad. I define myself as a Polynesian woman, and there's a whole cultural inheritance that goes with that ` church choir, youth group and preparing food for visitors. But we're not the only culture that values hospitality. We used to come here holidaying, and that's how I fell in love with NZ. I said to Derek, 'This is very much like Cyprus,' you know? All it needs is a few whitewashed houses, (LAUGHS) couple of, you know, churches, Orthodox churches to look the part and a bit of Cypriot food. Oh, completely` That completes the picture, you know? We're in Wellington Cuba Night Markets, and we're just setting up The Little Goat to start trading. It is actually linked back to Cyprus, because I used to get up early with Grandmother, with Yiayia. We used to milk the goats. That was one of my favourite, and so she taught me how to milk the goats. My sister would say, um, 'You've got it in your heart that you're a shepherdess,' you know, 'and you love growing the vegetables and having the animals around.' Yassou! (CHUCKLES) Hello, handsome. How are you? Good, mate. We're selling Mediterranean food. We have our delicious goat burgers, which is our (SPEAKS GREEK). We have a halloumi, goat sausage... How much is your halloumi? Um, $10. 'I love keeping our Cypriot tradition, cuisine, because it sort of stamps what I am. 'Um, and I like to share it with other people.' There we go. Sweet. Thank you. < Just grab it. Don't cut it or anything like that. < And just bite into it. That's the way. It's bloody good. I grew up in a little village called Marathovounos. This is one of the most beautiful times I had in my life, when I was growing up. Um, and I had Mum and Dad there, and they were happy and healthy at the time themselves, till Dad got injured. So we had a, you know, great life. Yeah, a great life in the villages. SOLEMN PIANO MUSIC In 1974, we got invaded, unfortunately, by the Turks, so we had to, um, flee our villages. I was 4�, going to 5, um, so I do remember quite a fair bit. Cos my grandmother, I remember her very vividly, shouting. She goes, 'Chrystalla, Chrystalla, move towards the wall. 'Protect yourself cos they're coming, they're coming.' SOLEMN MUSIC CONTINUES Getting goosebumps again and... Sorry, I get a bit teary. Um... And, yeah, so` Cos no one wanted to leave their village, you know? My father got hit by the shrapnel pretty severely. It nearly took the whole leg off. Even 40 years later, he's still suffering. But it's also a mental thing as well. So we all, kind of, suffered mentally from that. We became refugees, um, pretty much straight away. We couldn't return to our villages, and we went to the UK. And we ended up in London. Hopefully one day we will all return back to our own homes and have a good life again like we used to. But who knows? I do remember the food vividly. I used to cook with my grandmother and my mum. The dish that we're making today is actually called pilafi. My grandmother's pilafi, actually, which I used to make with her. This is what she taught me. And I still keep up the tradition. It's a very easy dish. She didn't have a lot of time, basically, to do complicated dishes. She was a shepherdess, so she had to make quick dishes so she could go and look after the animals. When I make this, I actually think of her standing next to me, which I absolutely love as well. So, it's a delicious dish. She was very unique in making it. She used to add halloumi cheese in it. Cos we used to make halloumi cheese. Halloumi is the national cheese of Cyprus. Definitely it is. And we're very proud of it. And actually, this is fresh halloumi, which we eat like this as well. We eat` Delicious. And` But we also pan-fry it. Oh, this is coming together nicely. Beautiful. I can smell it. Nothing beats Grandma's. But close enough. I think she'd be proud of me, eh. We're sharing the meal with a couple of friends. My two boys live in Brisbane. So I really don't have anyone here. We are all by ourselves here, Derek and I. (SPEAKS CYPRIOT GREEK) ALL RESPOND, GLASSES CLINK Love NZ. NZ is home, honestly. I absolutely love it. The old peasant food has still got... got legs. Lovely. LAUGHTER Love to be a shepherdess like the way my old grandmother used to do it, and just live off the grid as well and make my own halloumi and just cook from scratch, you know, from healthy, organic fruit and vegetables like we used to do it. Bring those memories, yeah, back to life. LAID-BACK MUSIC I grew up with a lot of church music. It's only when I left the family church I discovered a whole lot of other music. You think you're leaving something behind, but instead you learn a whole lot more about the place you came from than you have expected. GENTLE PIANO MUSIC My name is Stan Chan, born in Guangdong in China. Now, I grew up in Hong Kong. I came over to NZ in 1972. When I first came over here, I was visiting my sister. My sister married in NZ in the '60s. And the most important thing is trying to find my grandfather's grave. My mother told me my grandfather was in NZ. He came over probably early in the '20s. So my mother said, 'See if you can find your grandfather's grave.' So that is my mission to come over here. GENTLE PIANO MUSIC CONTINUES His name's called Low Jay Tong. Um, just come and pay him a visit today. He actually passed away some 16 years before I was born. He passed away in 1933. So he was in here in the early '20s. And he went back, as I know, a couple of times, married my grandmother and fathered my mother. But he returned back to NZ to work. I would say that would be hard for my grandfather to separate with my grandmother and my mother. And, uh, he probably choose here to be his home, and he passed away here. I'm just so emotionally so attached to him. And when I wrote to my mother, told her that I found the grave, and she was very pleased as well, very relieved. Yes. Studied hard in Hong Kong. So I was working as an artist. So I came over here and looked for a place to extend my view of the arts. Now, I love Cuba Street and Cuba Mall. To me, it's a very arty place. I love a lot of cafes, art gallery, a lot of artists around here and there. So I decide that I would like to be part of it. So when I found this little space, the Left Bank of Cuba Mall, I'm so glad. I like all sorts of art, Asian or non-Asian or Western art. Because I was following my art teacher's step. He paint the Oriental way ` brush paintings, calligraphy, as well as watercolour, oil, charcoal, pencil. So I followed his footsteps. So now I like both art forms. This is the ink stick we have. So this is what we call the ink stone. So what we're doing there, we put a bit of water. Just normal water into there. And then what we're doing is we're just grinding the ink like this. Grinding` The way of grinding the ink is actually to relax my mind, thinking what I'm going to paint. So quite often my student asks me, 'When is the ink ready, Mr Chan?' The answer is when the artist is ready, the ink will be ready. I love to paint animals and people. The reason is I just like to actually try to get the spirit of the animal. I remember a lady came in to write on to my guest book. She put down, 'A lot of people can paint beautiful animals. 'Stan, I know your animals, the eyes. I can see the spirit. I can see the personality of the animal.' So it made me feel really proud. So that is the panda. And that becomes like a little simple painting of a panda. It's the way` How we call this style of painting, we call them painting ideas. Painting idea is just what's in the artist's mind, put down as it is. REFLECTIVE MUSIC Now, this is one of my longest paintings. I would say once in a lifetime. And that painting is 15m long. And that painting is like a little story of how our Chinese nation, about 150 years ago, came to NZ for the gold mining. This painting is actually in three sections. The first section, here, is men leaving the homeland. The painting here I illustrated is the men saying goodbye to their children and their wives and get on to the boat and come to NZ. Then you come into a second section, which we call a real life. The real life is just because the gold is finished now, so they start learning English, making some NZ friends. Come to this section here, that actually means the contemporary life, our today's life. That's in 1990. The dragon's symbolic of Chinese, congratulating NZ for the 150-year celebration. So, my friend specially carved this little red stamp. The meaning of that is, 'Maybe this painting is not worth a cent, 'but I would not sell it for a thousand pieces of gold.' So that painting will become like my little souvenir for my children. I came over in 1972 from Hong Kong ` 43 years ago now, 44 years ago. Now, I felt very much like when I went back to Hong Kong and returned to NZ, step off the plane, I feel that I'm home. I feel that NZ is more home than Hong Kong or China. My roots, my children, my grandchildren, they're all in NZ, born in NZ. Even my mother and my father came over to stay with us for more than 10 years, and they're actually buried in NZ as well. So that became very much my home now. (PLAYS ACOUSTIC TUNE) # Countin' all my days, calling out the microphone. # Turn it up, tell the world what I got to do. # Mm, colourin' the world black and white, # see a picture with a house. Is it gonna be you? # (VOCALISES) I remember sitting in a courtyard at school, jamming on my guitar. But it was songwriting that really got to me. My mother was a huge inspiration to my sisters and I growing up. As a solo mother, she worked two jobs seven days a week just to provide for us. And we feel so very lucky. It makes me count my blessings when I think about the challenges people face to provide for their families, particularly as refugees. EMOTIVE PIANO MUSIC So, I was born in a city called Tabriz, which is located in the north-west of Iran. It's very close to the Turkish border and to the border of Azerbaijan. My husband and I moved to NZ in November 2012, mainly so that I could pursue my PhD degree at Victoria University of Wellington in the field of linguistics. I think that humans have a shared commitment to equality and to human dignity, and considering that my PhD topic is on immigration, I was following the refugee situation in the Middle East and in Europe very carefully. And I think that living in NZ, which is so far away, it's quite easy to turn a blind eye on what's going on on the other side of the world. I've been volunteering with ChangeMakers Refugee Forum for over a year now. ChangeMakers Refugee Forum is where former refugees come in to get advice or information about the services available for them. Up to now, I think we've had around 3000 former refugees who've either contacted us or have come to ChangeMakers here, personally, to the centre. So, every week we have a meeting, and these meetings basically give the volunteers an opportunity to catch up on what's been happening throughout the week. One of the cases is around an application for family reunification and just supporting the person to be able to do their application. And the other is actually a housing issue, so we're trying to support them in terms of finding appropriate housing. 'The people who are at the meeting, they come from such different backgrounds.' Just recently, we've recruited a Cambodian volunteer who has been in NZ for over 30 years. My challenge when I first came here ` the language problem was very challenging. I have very limited English when I come here. Just yes and no. He has experienced being a refugee first-hand, so he is going to bring in a different perspective that I wouldn't be able to bring to the team. You know, we're trying to find solutions for people who are really at the brink of losing hope. Um, and we try and connect them to the wider services that are available to them and just, kind of, be there with them alongside their journey, however difficult it is. So Neda is an exceptional example of someone who does that very patiently. So, I've got a meeting with a former refugee, and apparently her grandmother is very sick. And so we're just going to see what kind of support we can provide for her grandmother. We usually welcome the former refugees with a cup of tea or coffee. Um, in Iranian culture, tea is very pivotal. It's the first thing we serve guests when they come to our house. OK. Um, thank you so much for coming in today. So from what I see, your grandmother is sick and, um, she's going through chemotherapy. Is that right? < Yeah. OK. I'm very sorry to hear about that. We were thinking of maybe asking one of our volunteers to come by your house and to give your grandmother and yourself a lift to the hospital, and we're just wondering would you be comfortable with this? Is that something that you would be happy for us to do for you? That` That would be great. Thank you. Excellent. In a way, I think that volunteering at ChangeMakers provided me the opportunity to not only connect with former refugees who live in Wellington but also to` through their narratives and through their stories, to be able to connect to the experiences that refugees are going through. The best part of the job is actually seeing the smile on the faces of these former refugees when they leave the room. So they come in with a problem, and sometimes they think there's nobody who can help them. And through just very basic stuff, we help them out, and they realise that actually there is a solution to this problem. And they usually leave with a smile, and it's great to be part of that transformation. # Check. # La-la la, la, la. (PLAYS FUNKY TUNE, VOCALISES) # Blue, blue butterflies lost in Moscow. # They telling me how why am I suppose to go back home. (VOCALISES) # Blue, blue butterflies lost in Moscow. # They telling me how why am I suppose to go back home. # Back in the '80s and '90s, people were worried that the motorway extension at the top of Cuba Street would rip the heart out of the community here. Band practice rooms, artists' studios got lost in the process, and a lot of the locals had to move out. But the neighbourhood bounced back stronger than ever. There's no better example of that than a long-running family business. GENTLE, ECHOEY PIANO MUSIC I'm Wally, I'm the oldest, and I was born in India. I'm the youngest of the three. My name is Lakhu Dayal. I also was born in the village of Dhari in the Gujarat state in India. And my other brother is Magan Dayal. My father, Dayal Makan, first came to NZ in the 1920s to look for labour, for work. Dad used to say the only thing you required to land in NZ was if you can write your name in English, you could more or less be a citizen of NZ in those days. In 1956 Dad got an offer for a job in the shop just loading veggies and trimming veggies. So all three of us and Dad came to Cuba Street, the Cuba Fruit Mart shop. We stayed upstairs in the building. And then once we'd finished school, we all started working in the shop. We've been in the shop for approximately 60 years, but we've owned the business for approximately 55 years. RELAXED ELECTRONIC MUSIC In the shop now we've had three generations working. My father was the first, then us, and now Magan's son, Sanjay, and daughter, Joshna, have taken over the business. They are running it very successfully, and a lot busier than what we ever were. We run the day-to-day operations, but my uncles and that come in whenever they choose. They're all retired now. And they'll come in some mornings and basically tell me off for what I've bought, and not doing something right, or 'That's too pricey', you know? But that's` that's just the way it is. You learn` I take it on my chin, you know? I get defensive at times, but (CHUCKLES). Ultimately, I like to think that I know what I'm doing now, after this much time. OVERLAPPING CONVERSATIONS It's an industry which has no education but experience, and that's what makes it so beautiful is that it's actually a bit of a closed book. The same people I've dealt with in 15 years are still in the industry. Very few leave it once they're in. So, um, I first started working in the shop probably when I was 14, maybe 15. And I'd come from school. There were lots of fruit shops on Cuba Street, and there were also lots of, like, butchers and I think fish shops and other shops like that. But I think they just slowly all closed and had to go away. As soon as the supermarkets started, Dad and my uncles said that within two or three weeks they noticed, like, sort of, a big downturn in retail trade. And, um, I think if they didn't move into the wholesale business, they would've closed years and years ago. It's really just the wholesale and the cafe and restaurant business that probably kept them going. Hey, buddy. Can I grab two boxes of flat mushrooms, please? No worries. Sweet. Cheers, mate. 2 seconds. Lovely! That's the beauty of being a small business, as well. You can double the size if you want, you can go out and get sales reps, you can go out and get four vans, five vans on the road. But then you don't know anyone. There you go, mate. Right size? Yeah, perfect. All good. Have a good day. See ya. You too. I think the beauty about Cuba Street is that you're someone, you know? You know everyone around. Thank you. You've got friends. We know their kids now. Dad and them know the grandkids. So it is a community. And I've always said about Cuba Street that it's not Courtenay Place or Lambton Quay. It's, um` Someone knows your name. I think it's very special that after three generations we're still here working the business, and that family's still involved and that our uncles and my dad still come to the shop when they want to. And that it's family-run. And it is, it's very special to be part of that. And I don't think there's many people that can say that. SANJAY: Dad and them came with nothing. They worked out how to turn a dollar and then purchased houses. They've given 25 cousins of mine, or whatever, education. And I'd say from this place here is what's` that's been the heart of the whole family. Dad would be very proud that it's still going. He really would. And the main thing is not just the business, but it's kept all the three families together. We're a very close family. This is the reason why the business has been going on for three generations. LAID-BACK ELECTRONIC MUSIC I've travelled all over the world with my music, and it makes me more and more grateful that NZ is as diverse and accepting as it is. I think we're on the right track, but I think we can grow what we've got. I believe Cuba Street is a great model for what we can achieve ` the people, the energy, the inspiration. Bring it on. Captions by Tracey Dawson. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2016