(UPBEAT MUSIC) Captions by James Brown. Edited by Alex Walker. www.able.co.nz Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2017 Golflands is a relaxed residential neighbourhood based in Auckland's eastern suburbs between a bustling Botany and, yes, a golf course. Even a street sign leaves you in no doubt as to how the suburb got its name. Now, Golflands is a very, very small suburb ` only a K and a half in length ` but it's incredibly diverse. More than half the population here were born overseas, many in Asia. I was born in Macau, a former Portuguese colony in mainland China. I love the diversity here. To the left of our home, we have Indian neighbours; to the right, we have South Africans. Let's meet some other people who give my neighbourhood its distinct character. In this episode of Neighbourhood, we'll sample some Dutch treats. It's very much a staple thing in Holland. You know, if you go and buy a packet of gingernuts in New Zealand, a Dutch person might go and buy a packet of speculaas. It's that type of thing that you have in your pantry. A couple from China respond to the local landscape through their art. New Zealand has such beautiful scenery, and it has given me so many new ideas and solutions for my paintings. (PLAYERS CLAMOUR) Young Muslim women hit the court in the run-up to the Islamic Women's Council netball tournament. People would assume that, as Muslim women, we wouldn't be so involved in the sports, etc, but we really are, and we do quite well, both academically and sports-wise. I think that's something that should really be recognised. And a Golflands resident tells us why she loves to share her Peranakan culture. Cooking, to me, is a sharing of food and a chance to share part of my culture. And when I cook, I cook my food with love. I'm Yoson An, and this is my neighbourhood. (UPBEAT MUSIC) (WHIMSICAL MUSIC) The membership here at the local golf club costs about $800 a year, and it includes a $100 bar tab. Now, this stacks up pretty well compared to the country club in Macau, which costs $1.6 million to join and another $23,000 a year. But then, Macau does have more than 650,000 people living in just over 30km2, so land is at a premium. The sense of space here is one of the things new migrants love about New Zealand. There's more than enough room here to create the person you wanna be. We both born in Jiangsu, China. We also live in Nanjing maybe over 20 years. When I in Nanjing, we built a new house, and... when we finish that work, we find the two pieces of wood. We think maybe we do something remember these things, so we do each other. Qiuwang do this one; I do this one. (LAUGHS) We are both artists. He use oils and, um, have a big smile. (LAUGHS) I think maybe Qiuwang painter become... bright. When moving New Zealand, the colour become bright. I just use Chinese ink and Chinese colours. (REFLECTIVE MUSIC) In Nanjing, we have a design corporation. We have to do a lot of work. Yeah, very, very busy. But in New Zealand, we can do the artwork, and just` we like it. So... when we do the artwork, we is happiness. When I was... a small girl, I just started to learn Chinese painting. I love it. I think painting is a very important thing in my life. Yeah. Painting,... when I happy, when I lonely and when I want to do something but can't, painting can tell me the answer. (CHUCKLES) Yes. This painting I do about... hmm... two months. I think maybe I have another half` half month, I will finish it. In China, he is a very famous Buddha. Yeah. All the Chinese people think this Buddha can get the luck to them. Maybe next month, I will sell it to China. (WHIMSICAL MUSIC) (SPEAKS MANDARIN) TRANSLATOR: Nanjing has a very ancient history and was the capital city of many Chinese dynasties. My father looks after the city's art antiques. He's also a well-known artist. So that's what inspired me to do art. I started painting when I was very young, and studied at the Nanjing Arts Institute. My wife studied there too, and that's where we met. I like to find the beauty in everything. I try to portray life, love and happiness. People have complicated emotions, and I try to represent these moods through my paintings and sometimes offer joy and hope. (SPEAKS MANDARIN) This painting was inspired by a trip to Piha. And it's about the relationship between people and nature. New Zealand has such beautiful scenery, and it has given me so many new ideas and solutions for my paintings. (SPEAKS MANDARIN) I painted this in New Zealand. It's called Rainy Night. I wanted to see the world through the eyes of birds. The bigger bird is an adult. The younger is like a kid. Everything feels strange to the little bird, but the adult bird is very confident and content. We moving to New Zealand 2014 ` I, my husband and my daughter. (CHUCKLES) Then my daughter very, very younger ` just 7 years old. Yeah. The very hard thing is, maybe, language. We... should have more time to learning English... (CHUCKLES) with my daughter, yeah. I spend a lot of time with my family, because my family, anyone is a good painter ` (LAUGHS) my husband and my daughter. Doing art as a family brings us closer together and helps us connect with the community and nature. We have all struggled learning English, but art does help to break down those barriers. Our family often do these scenes. I think maybe this is a good happiness time to mind, yeah ` drawing anything you want. We... love here much better and better. There... have good views. It, I think, just, like, spring to the artist. The local people very, very kind. They're so kind to... our new immigrants. My daughter have a... very happiness childhood here. We hope our family can live here a long time. (GENTLE MUSIC) I've always been fascinated with the film industry, and since I've started as an actor, I've been lucky enough to be involved in some really cool projects ` some TV shows and movies shot overseas and in New Zealand. But it all started for me with this movie that was directed by David Blyth in 2013. No. No, no, no, Mum, please. Mum. (SOBS) What have I done? But recently, I've been really drawn into directing, and this is a short film that I directed called Between the Parallel. It's about a girl who suffers from social anxiety and depression, and it's set in both modern New Zealand and ancient China. I've seen the impact that being isolated in a new country can have for young people. But I believe, with the right support, there can be a happy ending. (PEACEFUL MUSIC) I'm Munira Khanum. So, I've been involved in community work on and off for a while now. But the last 10 years, I've been involved with the Islamic Women's Council. Islamic Women's Council represents all Muslim women in New Zealand. I look after the financial side of it, and I've been the treasurer for the last five, six years plus. All right, spread out. (GIRLS SHOUT) So, netball is part of a wider project that Islamic Women's Council have, and sports activities and other education, and settling in in New Zealand ` that's all part of focus for Islamic Women's New Zealand. So, our school, Zayed College, is the only Muslim girls school. So, we have a netball tournament coming up. Yeah, it's just, like, an opportunity for us Muslim girls to get together, just to play some sports, to have some fun together. People would assume that, as Muslim women, we wouldn't be so involved in the sports, etc, but we really are, and we do quite well, both academically and sports-wise. I think that's something that should really be recognised. As you can see today, the girls are having so much fun out there. And it gives you, really, a lot of satisfaction that the young girls are actually out there doing things, connecting and playing. And that's what life is all about. So it's really heartening, to be honest. (GENTLE MUSIC) I am born in Ba, Fiji, which is a township about one hour away, on the western side, from Nadi. My husband's from Suva. Our marriage is an arranged marriage; my dad arranged it, and then I lived with my in-laws and his family for about two years after that, and then, finally, we migrated here in 1986. That's the family house. 'I grew up on a farm ` a sugar-cane farm.' I helped build the house. We used to remember, when the builders used to work on it, we would actually water` we had to water the cement, because it was so hot, and we needed to do it. Mum did the housework. The ladies, the sisters did the housework. Dad and brothers used to work on the farm. The boys were seen to be, 'OK, yes, you need to get an education.' But for girls, it was quite different. And my dad was of the attitude that, at the end of the day, with the way the society was at that time, the girls needed to do housework, so there was no need to go further. So that's why I only went up to form four. When we came from Fiji to New Zealand, it was definitely the right decision. I was a dutiful housewife at that stage. Because I hadn't worked before, it was important for me to upskill myself. So I enrolled myself for evening classes at Manukau Polytech. And that's were I did my management diploma. And then there was an opportunity to do my financial post-grad, and I completed that in 2003. When I actually graduated through Massey University, the chancellor at that time said once you've graduated, it's important to give back to society, and that's why we actually do community work as well, to help the others, because I know what it's like being on the other side, starting the journey, and settling in a new country. And that's what gives me confidence to say, hey, it is possible; they just need a little support. All our tournaments are held at Zayed College at the moment. (PLAYERS CLAMOUR) Smile. (WHISTLE BLOWS) As-salam alaikum. GIRLS: Wa alaikum as-salam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Wow. You're full of energy today, eh? 'The netball tournament is quite positive.' (SINGS PRAYER IN ARABIC) 'Yes, the teenagers can be isolated.' So it's giving that support and building the networks. And with a Muslim tournament, we're not necessarily one nationality. We could be United Nations in a room. There's different ethnicities, different cultures ` they're all in coming together. And that, on its own, is actually quite beneficial to watch and see and experience. (GIRLS SHOUT ENCOURAGEMENT) (PLAYERS CLAMOUR) (GIRLS CHEER) The Muslim societies, the women are always playing sport. It's never been forbidden. It's not promoted, as such, by the media, but we do play sport. And, like, today, you can see there's so many girls out here. I definitely believe that by playing netball, I challenge the Muslim stereotype that Muslim women are just sitting in the house and doing housework and chores and whatever. We are fit. We do things. We're active in the community and within ourselves. It's always amazing to play with your friends, and it's a way in which we bond, and we have healthy competition between us. It's just amazing. Well, I hope they carry on doing the netball tournaments or leading an active life, because that's important. It's important to look after yourself, mentally and physically as well. And also it gives them confidence and keeps them motivated. We'd like to thank the organisation and the entire community for coming together... ...and New Zealand for supporting us and being a peaceful country where we can actually... Oh my God ` peaceful. ...release our dreams, our` what we wanna do as Muslim young girls... Aspirations. ...in New Zealand. (INTRIGUING MUSIC) Before we moved to Golflands, my mum used to run a Chinese restaurant in Wellington that was really popular with the locals. Unfortunately, though, I didn't quite inherit the cooking genes from her. Dumplings. Oh, thank you. Thanks very much. You're welcome. So, I remember, we always looked forward to the start of every new year, because we'd go shopping for new clothes. It was something my family did, and it's almost like welcoming the new year with a fresh start, right? But as we arrived to New Zealand, it kind of petered out a little bit. So in a way, food is... one of the closest connections I have to my culture. And I feel like it's like that for a lot of migrants, because a good family recipe can be passed down to generations. (GENTLE MUSIC) I was born in Aalst in the Netherlands. I remember the farmhouse that we lived in, that my parents bought it and spent a lot of time doing it up. I remember having a big property where we had a Shetland pony and just had great times, really, as a family. My parents left Holland because the job opportunities were better here. I was 5, nearly 6, yeah. That's when we arrived. And that's the crate with all our belongings. Very small. I don't really remember a lot of the move, as in leaving. I do remember arriving. It was all very exciting, coming to this new country where the sun was shining. And when we came out, you integrated really quickly. People weren't as accepting of immigrants as they are now. At school, we were the only ones. So you very quickly learned English, and you very quickly made yourself, um, fit in. My parents did still talk to each other quite a lot in Dutch, and Mum would still cook all the Dutch dinners and things like that, and baking, when we were kids. She still bakes a lot of the Dutch things now at Christmastime. And Neske and I bake together sometimes. I'm making speculaas today, which is a Dutch biscuit with spices in it ` cinnamon and mixed spice. I use my mum's speculaas recipe. It's the only one we have. The recipe my mum has is pretty close to the one that you buy. I really like the speculaas, cos I like all the spices. It's very much a staple thing in Holland. You know, if you go and buy a packet of gingernuts in New Zealand, a Dutch person might go and buy a packet of speculaas ` it's that type of thing that you have in your pantry, so it's quite an easy, simple recipe. OK, and now you've gotta kind of knead it into a ball shape. Do you know how to do that? Squash it all together. There's quite a lot of mixed spice in there ` there's 2 tablespoons of mixed spice and a teaspoon of cinnamon, so they are quite strong-tasting. They smell amazing when they come out of the oven. Yeah, I think pretty much it's always a reminder that you're Dutch. You know, it's one of those foods. It does bring back childhood memories. We used to have it in our school lunchboxes when we were kids. So, yeah, it's one of those staple things that you have. I like baking in particular. Um,... I don't like cooking as much as baking. I prefer to bake. I just like it a lot more. Eating the end product, is it? Yeah. Ones that you buy from the shops are beautiful shapes. I think they come from moulds. But, um, my kids just like to get the cookie cutters out and do any old shapes. We have got a windmill cutter, but it's not always successful. (CHUCKLES) I don't think my friends have had the speculaas before. Oh. It is gonna be a new thing for them. I'm really not sure what they'll think of them. Hopefully they'll like them. My daughter wanted to do an after-school activity, so she said, 'I'd like to do tap dancing or ice skating.' And I just couldn't stand the thought of listening to tap dancing non-stop, so we went with ice skating. Yeah, she's passionate about it. She's` you know, trains five times a week with her solo and synchro, so it's just` I never have to ask her to get up in the morning. She just... If anything, she wants to be there more. Back in Holland, I think they used to skate on the lakes when they were frozen over. I believe my mum broke her leg doing that. But no, I've never done it, so I'll leave that to Neske. We` Often, if there's a birthday, we might get together and someone will bring a cake or something like that. Yeah, there's always different foods around. The girls like getting together for things like that. And if we have a team building, we often` the girls bring a plate. Yeah, there's lots of different things to try. I like Dutch biscuits. They're yum! They're sort of gingerbread-y. They're good. They're really nice. It's a special Dutch biscuit. Really? Yeah. And Neske made them. Yeah. Good, eh? Well done, girl! Yeah, exactly. You did good, Debbie. You did well, Debbie! Thanks, girls. I'm very proud of my Dutch heritage, but I'm very much a Kiwi. I feel this is home. I wouldn't want to live back in Holland, but I do feel I have ties to it, and I do feel very proud of my Dutch heritage. (WHIMSICAL MUSIC) Although I went to an international school in China, my English was still pretty average when we first arrived here in New Zealand. So of course, I got bullied as the new kid on the block. But since then, I learned that people only judge you when there's an aspect of themselves they haven't accepted yet. From my life experiences so far, I've learned that it comes down to two things ` love and acceptance, a warm welcome, no matter where you're from. (GENTLE MUSIC) I first visited New Zealand as a tourist, and I fell in love with the serenity, the beautiful landscapes and the cool weather. And then I decided that that's the place that I'm gonna send my daughter to further her studies. And a year later, I decided that I've had enough of my demanding career back in Malaysia, and I thought that it's time for an early retirement. Hence, I came to New Zealand. Golflands is a beautiful place. It is good for me and my dog; I've got a dog called Toby. And there are so many walkways here, and also going to the beach, going to Eastern Beach is just a 10-minute drive. I was born in Kuching. It's the capital city of East Malaysia. Yeah, it's in the island of Borneo. I'm a Malaysian-born Chinese. And my grandmother, she's a Nyonya. A Nyonya is a female of the Peranakan culture. And Peranakans are Chinese immigrants that go through the Straits of Malacca, Singapore and Indonesia that marry the local Malays. I'm proud of my rich heritage. I now blog on littlegirlstory.wordpress.com hoping to keep my culture alive, that my future generations will be able to read and know their true heritage. Yeah, this piece of sarong was brought back from Kuching. It was given to me by my aunt. That's how that Nyonyas, the female of the Peranakan family, how they are dressed. I feel, first of all, very feminine. I seldom wear dresses, and this makes me feel like a real lady. I feel loved, because it's given to me with love, and it's part of my culture too. When I came over to New Zealand, I brought along with me two valuable items; the other one is a Pua Kumbu. A Pua Kumbu is a material which is woven together by the Ibans, which one of the ethnic groups of Sarawak. They use it for community events, for ceremony. And to me, it depicts where I come from, from the island of Borneo. So any guests or anyone that comes in here can see my culture and my heritage in front of them, and especially so when you are dining. So, when my kids left home, I formed a friendship group. It's a local friendship group. Mostly the people that joined were ladies. And then we have events like dining at home. I call myself a fusion home chef, and I open up my home for people that look for dining with a difference. My dine-in is usually a sampling or a tasting of five or six courses that the diners get to taste the chef's signature dishes at one sitting. (SWEET MUSIC) Help yourself to the food. Start off with the curry puffs, spring rolls, and Joanne has kindly made the taro cake. That's the Marmite chicken. And this is the fish pie. Cooking, to me, is a sharing of food and a chance to share part of my culture. And when I cook, I cook my food with love. It's so different from just Malaysian or Chinese cooking, because Nyonya cooking is actually an early fusion cooking. It means that it is a blend of Chinese, Malays and the colonial countries like Portugal, the Netherlands and England. No, yeah, I love Mum's cooking. She's actually quite a good cook, that she doesn't just cook one cuisine. She... She just puts stuff together, and then I guess it comes out good. Golflands is such a beautiful, close-knit community. And when you come around, it's not just about food; it's about connection and sharing a conversation. And even as a stranger, you may walk away as an acquaintance or even a friend. It doesn't matter whether I live in Kuching or Auckland. It isn't about which country makes me feel most at home. Oh, cheers. (GLASSES CLINK) Home equates people around you, people that are close to you. And I found my place where I call home. (CHEERFUL MUSIC) You know, there's a really famous ancient Chinese philosopher called Lao-Tzu, and one of his quotes has really influenced the way I view life. The quote goes, 'Care about what people think, and you will forever be their prisoner.' So this quote has really allowed me to give myself the opportunity to be myself. Like, sure, we may all look different ` like, have different cultures and beliefs and upbringings ` but the truth is we all live on the same planet, under the same sky, in the same ever-expanding universe. So I believe we're actually a lot more similar than we may have been taught. Captions by James Brown. Edited by Alex Walker. www.able.co.nz Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2017