1 Captions by James Brown. Edited by Ingrid Lauder. www.able.co.nz Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2017 (RELAXED JAZZ FUSION MUSIC) In the '60s and '70s, Papatoetoe was a suburban dream ` tidy houses on massive sections. Since then, it's been labelled with all the negative stereotypes associated with South Auckland ` crime, violence and unemployment. (MUSIC CONTINUES) It's a very diverse population here. Less than quarter identify as European. And after English, the next most common language spoken is Hindi. I come from a Sikh family. Born in a small city in Punjab, India called Ludhiana, I moved here to Papatoetoe when I was 4 years old with my father, who's a doctor, and my mother, a teacher. I will always be proud of where I grew up. For me, to represent our country as a South Auckland Indian male in the Blackcaps cricket team is just one example of how people from Papatoe are knocking negative perceptions and stereotypes straight out of the park. In this episode of Neighbourhood, we'll share a meal at the local Hindu temple. So, looking around on a Sunday evening, you know, it's very rewarding, because what we took a big gamble on, in starting a Hindu temple, with the infrastructure that was required, seeing this happen to capacity is really, really comforting. A young Papatoetoe woman weaves poetry about identity. And taste the bittersweetness of the space between brown and white. (IMITATES SPITTING) Mud. That is how some have treated us. Slap some colour into us, cleanse culture into our pigments, as if skin soldiers invaded white into us. A priest from Iraq recounts the horrors of war. I found myself of the ground, because one of them, he... he kick me by his knee in my face. Only thing I was hearing was those words like, you know, 'infidel',... 'American spy'. And a young local whose family comes from Sierra Leone shares her vision for the future. We just want to be more engaged with our community. We wanna make sure that our voices are heard, in terms of decision-making, when it comes to the local board. I'm Ish Sodhi, and this is my neighbourhood. (PENSIVE MUSIC) Moving countries with two small children was a challenge for my parents. A new environment, new faces, new language. My father worked as an eye surgeon back in India, but while trying to establish a new career here, he worked as a labourer and a pizza delivery man. My mum, at the time, was studying to be an early-childhood-education teacher. So, at the time, it was four of us on a pretty small income, in a completely foreign world. The fact we had no family or friends to help was also tough, coming from a huge support base in India. It's made me realise how important community is. You have to stick together in a foreign environment when you've only got each other. (PENSIVE MUSIC) I was born in Herne Bay, in a fruit shop that my grandfather had started and my dad and uncle took over. (BELL JINGLES) Early memories were walking to school, walking everywhere. In the fruit shop, we'd go to school, um, come back home. And because we were one of the few Indian families here, in the fruit shop we were used as a stop ` you know, you arrived in the country, you knew there was someone here. It wouldn't be families that were coming, it would be young men that were venturing out, that would be staying with us for a week or so. I felt different in that I couldn't go to my friend's house ` they would have play dates ` and we were just expected to go home to help. But I think that's survival mode, and that's, you know, the work ethic that all seven children had drummed into them. It was an arranged marriage. He was a qualified doctor from India, but New Zealand's system wasn't recognising his qualification. So, when finally someone said, 'Sit this exam,' and he did and he passed with flying colours, then he got a job straight away, and he wanted to be a specialist. And a very wise specialist said to him, 'New Zealand's not ready for a coloured specialist with an accent. 'No one will refer to you. So you should go to an area where people sound like you and look like you.' And we started in '77 in Otara. Now, the mindset, you can imagine, being brought up in Herne Bay, and then going to Otara, which, you know, the '70s were the days of the machete murders in the town centre, the dawn raids for Immigration, so a very, very rough area of New Zealand. But that's where the opportunity came up, and so we moved into a house next to the clinic. We've grown with patient loyalty ` you know, three, four generations of people coming to us. And we've got 70% high needs, especially in Counties Manukau. I've been very lucky that I've been able to serve in many different capacities, purely because of what we've done, how we've done and our status in the community. You're at the international Swaminarayan Hindu Temple in Papatoe. We purchased a church on this site in 2003. It was a Seventh-Day Adventist Samoan church. And 2009 is when we opened the temple, so it took five years for us to build the temple, and the community here just grew so much in that period. I think it's very inspirational. I think, to me, it's a success because it's given people a place to come. It's providing pastoral care for a lot of the migrant community. 'Seva' is helping, doing things voluntarily for a good cause. So it can come in many different forms in the temple, whether it's sweeping outside or washing the dishes or folding the clothes or, you know` There's one particular gentleman that comes every morning at 6 o'clock and sweeps the whole temple before he goes off to work at 6.30. (WOMEN LAUGH) When we started, we were only cooking for 200 nine years ago. And it would still take us five, six hours. Then one particular gentleman took an interest, and he would google ev` Mr Google is excellent. He would google machines to do this and machines to do that. So from making the roti and the puri, which used to take us five, six hours for 200 people, it's now down to an hour and a half. (HINDU DEVOTIONAL MUSIC PLAYS) When I was growing up, there was about 100 Indian families in Auckland, and so we knew everybody. But there was no religious teaching. And I knew basic Hinduism, but I didn't know much more than that, I think until, even, 1986, when the Hindu temple in Balmoral was built. (PEOPLE CHATTER) So, looking around on a Sunday evening, you know, it's very rewarding, because what we took a big gamble on, in starting a Hindu temple, with the infrastructure that was required, seeing this happen to capacity is really, really comforting, and we know we did something right for the community. Quite often you feel, 'I want to do something for the community.' And you go ahead and do it because you think it's needed. Sometimes it's right, sometimes it's wrong. But I think my husband hit it on the nail when he said, 'Papatoe is ready for a Hindu temple,' back 10 years ago. (CHILDREN CHATTER EXCITEDLY) Charlie Faumuina went to my school, and I always thought, 'If he can be an All Black, 'why can't I be a Blackcap?' (CHILDREN CHEER) When I was a kid, I never really encountered too much racism ` maybe the odd word. But when I was made to feel different was when I would proudly tell people I was from South Auckland. I was given stereotypes about violence, crime and unemployment. I was made to feel to feel that we weren't as valuable to society as people from wealthier neighbourhoods. Look around me ` that couldn't be further from the truth. When I say 'Papa', you say 'toe'! - Papa! - ALL: Toe! - Papa! - ALL: Toe! - Papa! - ALL: Toe! (ALL CHEER) (REFLECTIVE MUSIC) So, these are all the poetry journals I've ever had, so since I was 14 years old. And, I mean, this one in particular is from 2013. So I'm a mum by this point. And, yeah, I just haven't read any of these. Most of them are just scribbles. Like, I'd say... 15% of what I write becomes poems... (LAUGHS) that get shared to the world. Um, yeah. Well, a lot of my early writing when I was a teenager was just teenage angst and stuff around, like, body image and things like that. And crushes and blah blah blah. But then it really evolved into looking at my identity. So in my 20s, a lot of my writing was around my afakasi heritage. So, 'afakasi' is the transliteration of 'half-caste'. It's very loaded. It's a loaded term, and different generations of Samoans have different feelings towards it. My cultural heritage is a mix. It's constantly evolving with my understanding of it. In terms of bloodlines, my father is from England and my mum is from Samoa. And then they both migrated here at different times and met each other in a shoe factory. (LAUGHS) And then I came along. (LAUGHS) So, yeah, first generation born in New Zealand. Born and raised in Papatoetoe and, yep, still in the family home. SINGSONG: Look what you done. My son will read` you know, when I'm gone, my writing will be here for him to read, and so I always bear that in mind too, like it's an heirloom, you know? I used to define myself as a spoken-word poet, and more than anything, that was for the art form to be seen as a legitimate art form. But now I'm just like, 'I'm a poet.' You might read it, you might hear it, you might see it. However you receive it, that's however I wanna give it. I am the va. So cut... me... up. Scatter me among yourselves and taste the bittersweetness of the space between brown and white. (IMITATES SPITTING) Mud. That is how some have treated us. Slap some colour into us, cleanse culture into our pigments, as if skin soldiers invaded white into us. 'Va' means, um, the space between... between` that connects you to another person and how you nurture it. So yeah, in that poem` in the poem I'm talking about my two different cultures that I identify with and how I identify with other people as well, in relation to my own identity. (PEACEFUL MUSIC) It stays quite a while. Yep, up to there. In 2014, I was awarded the Creative New Zealand Pacific Artist Internship. And I took mine at Auckland Theatre Company. So I was there for six months, they had me. And, um, as well as being exposed to theatre and the production side of things, they were like, 'Do you wanna direct a show?' I was like, 'OK, I've never done that before, but let's go for it!' I feel like at one point I'd like to see you two switch places on the` cross the paces on the stage. And, Kyla, I like that you're out there working that... that part. 'I just fell in love with the whole directing side of things, 'and it was really nice to not be on stage for a change and just see something. 'I love creative process. Like, I love the product or the end result, 'but I am more fascinated with, "How did we do that? What are we gonna do?" Like, that whole thing.' Remember every moment you're in my mouth. Uh-uh. Honey? They do not taste like sugar. You do not dissolve on my tongue like some kind of addiction. The show is called Mouth:Tongue:Teeth and it's a poetry theatre show by a brand new poetry collective. although their writers, their poets have been doing this stuff for a while, but they've come together as a collective and this is their debut, so it's an exciting new show. Can you finally taste it? We are the young. We are everything you fear. We are everyone you have left behind. And we have picked up all of our tongues. Honestly, any poetry work, when you bring it into performance on stage, to me, the importance is ` while theatre dynamics and performance is important ` good writing is the key. And this show has amazing writing. Really good writing. Like, for me, I see poetry stuff all the time, and so when I actually have a moment of getting really excited about something that draws me in, like, that's why I'm here, because I knew they're good writers and they're really hungry for this stage and for this kind of opportunities. (PLAYFUL MUSIC) I remember when I first joined the Papatoetoe Cricket Club. I would spend every day in the summer after school playing cricket with guys who are still my best friends to today. I remember in my backyard I had a tennis ball I'd throw at the garage door, play shots back at it like I was playing a Test match for New Zealand. I come from a family of academics, so I wasn't sure how Dad would react when I told him I wanted to be a professional cricketer. He said to me, 'I don't care what you do, as long as you work hard.' I'm very grateful for my family and their support, and I know how lucky I am to have grown up in a place where it's possible to pursue your dreams. To be in Iraq as... as a Christian, you know, is not easy at all. They have that mentality that I'm infidel. They call it 'sharia'. That I am dirty person. There are no common between us. My name is Father Douglas Al-Bazi. I born in Baghdad. I decide to be, actually, a priest. It was not my plan at all. Especially when I spend my childhood dreaming to be a pilot. So when I told, for example, my family, 'I want to be a priest,' immediately they said, 'What's wrong with you? You are OK?' (LAUGHS) In 2003, they decided to change the... the regime in Iraq. Saddam has to... to leave. So they shut down everything, they shut the military, and they say, 'Now we have a new life,' you know, 'Freedom for all.' And our people, they were not ready for that. And the, let's call the civilian or religion war starts in 2005, 2006. But we were continuing our masses, helping spiritual, pastoral way to our people. But suddenly just in one day my life completely change. There were two cars. Immediately they blocked the highway. And... they forced me by weapon... to open the door and, uh,... they took me and they put me in the car's boot. (SIGHS DEEPLY) I dunno where they took me. I found myself of the ground, because one of them, he... he kick me by his knee in my face. So when I wake, I just found, you know, a lot of blood. Only thing I was heard, like... I was hearing was those words like, you know, 'infidel',... 'American spy'. The first four days, they left me without water. The day six, actually, they start negotiated with one of the priests, and they let me talk with him. He asked me, 'What you think?' I put one word in our language, Aramaic. So I told him, ''Ela.' To us, this mean, 'That's it ` it's over.' So immediately the priest, he told them, 'I don't want to talk with Father Douglas any more.' 'Keep it to yourself. 'We are going to consider him as one of our martyrs.' 'We don't want him any more.' (SIGHS) Good friend. If I am in his position, I am going to do the same thing. And they release me after. One of them, he ask me this ` 'If one day we are going to meet, what you will do? 'Are you going to ask for revenge?' And I told him, 'If we are going to meet, I'll invite you to drink chai or coffee, 'and we will talk about those days. 'If your hands bloody with another people, 'know you have to go to the court. But to me, I forgive you.' Say, 'Why?' 'Because this is mean Christianity. 'I'm a free man. I have to forgive you.' 'If I'm not going to forgive you, I would be like you.' (PRIEST CHANTS PRAYER) After they kidnapped me, actually, I decided to stay in Iraq for... for a couple of years. I dunno how, but I found myself actually running ` I don't like to call it a camp, it's a centre, so I call them, actually, our relative centres. (CONGREGATION PRAYS) In 2016 my bishop, Monsignor Warda, with another bishop in Australia and here, so was agreement, actually, to come to New Zealand. I know my body is here, but still my soul is there. As my sister and me, we are always say, it's a blessed to be in New Zealand. (CONGREGATION PRAYS) I want my country to stand again. And those wolves they are in my country, I want them to get out from my country. Those people they are still fight each other, remember, no one will win. All of you are loser. So I'm asking God to have mercy on my country. Thank you. (PEACEFUL MUSIC) My grandmother one of my biggest fans. She's in her 80s now. She started watching cricket because of me and now she's glued to the set. She prays for me before every game, although she does have mixed feelings if I'm playing against India. (BALL THUDS) (CRACK!) I'm really proud to represent the Indian community in New Zealand by playing for my country. I believe the more people of ethnic backgrounds willing to get out of their comfort zone and work hard towards achieving their dreams, the better chance we have at creating a genuinely diverse and accepting community. (RESTFUL GUITAR MUSIC) So, we're just at Papatoetoe West School right now. And we're just sitting outside my year... it was year three, yeah, classroom. And this spot over here, I guess, is really quite special in the sense that, um, I had my first epiphany about myself and my race. My friends and I were sitting under the shade over here because we didn't have our hats on. One of my friends was really quite worried that she was getting darker. And she said to me, 'Oh my goodness, I'm getting tan.' And I was like, 'Oh, don't worry, Martha Anne, you won't be as brown as me.' And then she just turned around to me and she was like, 'But you're not brown, you're black.' Yeah, I just` I thought I was like everybody else, but that's the day I found out I was black. My name is Fatumata Bah. I was born in the holy city of Makkah, in Saudi Arabia. And my parents are from Sierra Leone, West Africa. When we first arrived in New Zealand in 1996, a part of the, um,... requirements coming in as refugees was to pass a health check. And so that health check actually picked up that my elder sister and I have sickle-cell anaemia, which is a genetic blood condition that changes the shape of the red blood cells, so from a circular to a crescent. I attribute sickle-cell disease to me being, I think, a bit more serious. Cos I did have two major operations. I dunno if I was 16. But you... you just become aware of your mortality at a younger age. And I think that does impact the way that you have an outlook on life. (MODERN JAZZ MUSIC) When I was at Papatoetoe Intermediate School and when I was made head girl in year eight, I think, for me, that was when I kind of acknowledged the concept of leadership, being involved in your community and helping others as well. So, it was catching the 060 bus, full of south-side girls, was usually quite a loud ride, but... I'd like to think that we brought a lot of colour and noise to Auckland Girls Grammar, yeah. (CHILDREN CHATTER HAPPILY) So, TOPS is The Otara-Papatoetoe Squad. We're the Otara-Papatoetoe Youth Council, just made up of youth who live within the local-board area. We just want to be more engaged with our community. We wanna make sure that our voices are heard, in terms of decision-making, when it comes to the local board. But, you know, we just wanna have fun, but, I think, also regain our narrative. I feel like, you know, with South Auckland youth, there's a lot of negativity about, you know, what we get up to. And unfortunately, good stories don't sell. So we just wanna make sure that the youth can reclaim their own narrative. Hey, TOP Squad. So, how you finding the event today? (ALL CHATTER ENTHUSIASTICALLY) Did you guys help out? ALL: Yes! So, how were the organisers? Were they good? They were helpful. They were really good. Yeah, Fatumata has contributed quite a bit throughout the time that she's been in our TOP Squad group. She also got a recognition for this women's award, which was really good, cos it helped boost up our TOP Squad and helped us to ask her more questions about what we could do or what she could contribute to the group. If I had the opportunity, I would stay in Papatoetoe. I've been living here for about 20 years now. It's such a diverse community. Um, I've learnt so much. Went to primary and intermediate school here. And I feel like, you know, just being a part of this community has added so much to my being as an individual, and it has helped me to succeed in life, to thrive. And, yeah, I just want the same for everybody else in the community. (PEACEFUL MUSIC) I'm proud to be from Papatoetoe. I love seeing people from South Auckland achieve their dreams because, growing up here, I know what it's like to internalise those negative stereotypes. But all it takes is one person to inspire another. As the wider community begins to see what we can achieve, maybe those destructive old stereotypes will begin to fade away. I believe it's up to us to change them, for ourselves and for everyone here. Captions by James Brown. Edited by Ingrid Lauder. www.able.co.nz Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2017