Captions by Faith Hamblyn. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2015 INSPIRATIONAL MUSIC TINKLY PIANO MUSIC FUNKY MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUES My name is Dukie, and I'm 5. MUSIC CONTINUES Next week I'm going to start school. SIREN WAILS FIRE CRACKLES I came out and stood on the deck, looked at the car, and I saw this little flame in the middle of the back seat and just ran towards the car. By the time I got there, Nathan and Jacob were there. He'd pulled him out, and` pulled Dukie out, and when I got there, Dukie was on the grass. So I just scooped him up in my arms and ran to the back... to the tap. And fortunately, there was a couple of buckets of water there. And, um,... he was gasping for air, so I, sort of, held him in my arms... and started singing to him,... but thinking to myself, 'What am I gonna do?' I was in shock for... six months. Yeah, it was` it was a terrible time in my life, and I would say all my family's, but, yeah, I just... Yeah, I was in shock. I couldn't believe what had happened. So, every day, the doctor said, 'He might die in the next five minutes. He might die in the next hour.' And they said that every day for at least three and a half months. And, you know, I had already buried him. I had already done everything. I was just waiting for his body, more or less. And it was really hard. After three months or so, Andrea got sick of looking... (LAUGHS) looking at me, you know, mourning, crying and whatever. She said to me, 'He's still on that bed. He's still alive. 'Don't worry about what they say.' And yeah, I actually snapped out of it. And yeah, it was really hard, though. FUNKY MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUES 75% total body surface area... was burnt, and they were third degree, which means that his skin can never grow. There's nothing to grow. (LAUGHS) That's one of the most painful injuries you can endure. You can imagine. He's had at least 30 operations,... yeah. REGGAE MUSIC # Yeah, yeah. # Yeah, yeah, yeah. # Yeah, yeah. # Yeah, yeah, yeah... # We are in Mohaka,... in between Napier and Wairoa. And there's approximately 20 people that live here. Uh, this section is an acre from that fence there all the way down to the road. And there's three sections of my grandparents on my father's side. My, um, grandfather had, uh, two siblings; a sister and a brother, and they all got a acre each. Mm. Nathan and I have between us... 11 children. Sorry about the big pause. Uh, 11 children,... yeah, 11, and... three attend Maori boarding schools. I'm from here, this is the family's land, so we decided to put a house here and bring up our children, which is a good place to bring up our kids. And, yeah, everything seems to be going OK. We've got a good community and a lot of family around Wairoa, very good community, like, particularly in the south. KIDS YELL We've always had animals, so it's just a part of everyday life ` go water the cows, feed the pigs. And they've all got chores, they've got to do those, but after that, they just do what they want to do. And well, I think that's the difference from town children. My kids can go in the paddock, jump on the motorbike and do whatever they like. Yeah. In other words, if they want to go fishing or the river, they just go over there. Yeah, it's pretty good. We do a lot of chores, though. Like, all holidays, we've been gathering wood and getting ready for the winter. And, yeah, well, we haven't had much of a holiday, but it's been good. Nathan's born and bred here, so he knows how everyone is, but our children are still not allowed out of the gate without permission. Yeah, they're pretty strict, I guess. They sent us away so we can do good in school, and I think they just want a better life for us. And for us to get a good education and get good jobs and grow up. And just to remember to look after Dukie and always come home to him, whenever he needs something, always be there for him. Dukie has to do lots of activities to stretch his skin. So when he's riding the motorbike,... his thumb is always using the throttle, so that's stretching it. But you'll start getting a sore thumb. Dad does little finger exercises with him so that he can, you know, keep moving his hands. We just carry on. You know, we don't cry about it, but, like, what I can say about Dukie, the amount of operations and what he's been through, he never moans. Like, I haven't heard him moan once. As for the rest of them, yeah, they moan about this and moan about that, but he doesn't. No, he don't. Out of all my children, he'll be the happiest. He's always happy. And I love my son. BIRDS CHIRP Nathan. > Your standing on my shoulders. I'll steal your hat. (GIGGLES) Give me the hat back! We had a birthday for his elder sister Ashley, and we went to light the candles, and we were, like, 'Are you OK, Dukie?' You know, sort of not thinking at the time, but, um, sort of, like, lit them and... and remembered Dukie in flame, and we were just, like, 'Are you all right, Dukie?' And he was like,... # Happy birthday. # So he loves that. Yeah, so I'm grateful that... that he doesn't remember. It's good for me. But I don't think we'll ever know until he gets older and tells us if he remembers. Can I stop? You wanna stop? Yeah. Can I start again? (GRUNTS) Get down. Hop on, buddy. Hop on. Can I have a turn? We just pray for him and just show as much support as we can. He just loves life. Like, he doesn't care what people think about him ` he's just, like, really enthusiastic about life. Yeah, I worry about him all the time ` just, um, when he grows up and what he has to deal with and his emotional well being, making sure he's OK with how he is and how people perceive him. There's heaps of opportunities here, like, to fish, to live off the land, to grow our own vegetables, and I think that'll be really good for Dukie when he grows up to know that he can do all those things. And hopefully, if it's too hard out there, he can just come home and just stay here for a while and just do what he loves, which is fish and whitebait and grow vegetables. Yeah, he's a real country kid. KIDS WHOOP KIDS WHOOP COUNTRY MUSIC KIDS YELL KIDS WHOOP KIDS WHOOP KIDS CHEER COUNTRY MUSIC KIDS CHEER We're at Mohaka Marae, in the kitchen. Yeah, it's a bit of a celebration for Dukie, and, um,... we'll just rustle them up a feed. We're gonna have some smoked eel, smoked fish and, um, steamed pudding. Yeah, he's pretty cool. He's a pretty cool guy, you know. Like, I listen to a lot of whanau around home when they sort of moan about stuff, I'll go, 'I know one little tough fella in the area, you know, he doesn't moan about nothing.' So, he's quite, um... Yeah, he's a bit my hero, actually. He's my rangatira. And rangatira, it's like a really high thing, a mana. He's out there doing things. You know, he's under the knife every time he has to get cut, you know, to get a skin graft and all that. And it's is gonna get tighter as he grows older, you know, and it's gonna keep getting cut. He's lucky he's got good whanau around him. You know, like, we're family ` we're just used to him. You know, he's my nephew, and that's all I know. You know, I love him, you know? If we've all got the big good hearts, you know, like we say we have, and don't judge a book by its cover, you know, he'll get through life if we're make it easy for him. We're in the slow zone here. There's nothing you have to rush around, you know, to get things done. This is how we prefer it, and he likes it like that too. This is his upbringing. He doesn't have to sort of worry about stuff all the time. You know, no pressure. We've got no shops around here, so, you know, there are no lollies. You know, they don't go roaming looking for a shop. They're use to not, uh, having things. You don't really need much here. REGGAE MUSIC KIDS LAUGH Eh, Johnny? Yup. MUSIC CONTINUES Yup. MUSIC CONTINUES WAVES CRASH MUSIC CONTINUES (SQUEALS) Walk behind, my boy. Walk behind and backwards. Oi. Tell them to get out of your way. (LAUGHS) All right, my boy. All right. Now go forward. All right. You got it. Now come back with it. Pull it out, boy. Don't let my rod go. (LAUGHS) > You gotta walk backwards, boy. Walk backwards. Keep walking backwards. Go up there. Go up there quick. (LAUGHS) Whoa! He knows how to reel it in; he doesn't quite know how to throw the hook out. He's, uh, just more of the, um... the action person, sort of. This is my first fish ever. Yay! REGGAE MUSIC I'm going to push you in! CHILDREN CHATTER (LAUGHS) (SQUEALS) (SQUEALS) Go! (SQUEALS) Go! Wait up! REGGAE MUSIC CONTINUES Coming! CHILDREN CHATTER CHILDREN CHATTER REGGAE MUSIC CONTINUES Dad, I brushed my teeth. Come. Let's do this. Did you brush your teeth? Yep. See? Look. Cool. Get more teeth, did you? It's supposed to be every three hours, but he'll let me do it twice a day. And that's only if I'm lucky. (CHUCKLES) Dad, look at your mouth. Mm. Put some on you. Shh. You're getting bald there, bro. (SINGS) Yeah, it keeps his skin nice and soft, eh, my boy? Mm. Yeah, you feel the difference. Like, if you don't do it, then it goes really hard. Eh? I said where's my clothes? Hang on. Hang on. I'll do your face. (SIGHS) Can't see me. Yeah. OK. Are you happy? I can't see. Yeah, there's lots more people worse off than Dukie. His is more the external, visual injury. Yeah, about a year ago, he asked for some eyebrows, and we were, like, 'Oh, Dukie, shall we try and draw some on?' And then he goes, 'Yeah, OK, then.' And then Nathan was like, 'Oh, don't be stupid. You don't need any eyebrows.' But we had a go and we drew them on, and we just thought, 'You don't want eyebrows, Dukie. They're ugly.' So, yeah, no, we wiped them off. It just looked fake. Yeah, it just looked too fake. Hopefully, he's confident in who he is as he grows up and he'll be happy how he looks. He was drawing a picture, but he really liked that picture, and the next day he didn't like that picture, and then he called himself a monster. It's gonna be hard, you know ` my mum's not gonna be around forever. But... (SNIFFLES) I guess it's good we have a big family ` there's lots of us to look after him. (SIGHS) Dukie's always used... Whatever ailment he has from his injury, he's always used it to the best of his ability. It's quite dangerous, this skateboarding stuff, when you fall over. We need all our skin, eh, Dukie? Yeah. SKA MUSIC Is it tight? MUSIC CONTINUES BIRDS CHIRP MUSIC CONTINUES BIRDS CHIRP MUSIC CONTINUES My sons always wanna come to the skate park. Hopefully, we can bring him a lot more. And, um, the children get to know who he is and he gets more confident in riding. Bringing him into town is helping him to... to, um,... get to know society and how they perceive him. COUNTRY MUSIC I take him out because he has to get used to a lot of people if he wants to go out there on his own and achieve his own personal goals. So keeping him out there publicly,... to me, is good for him. When we go to bigger towns, like Napier, or we've been to Wellington, Hutt Hospital, and we've been allowed out to the mall and stuff and get bad reactions and people staring rudely. So I don't take offence, I've thought of something alternative to do so that we can just make them feel stink, staring. Look, Dukie. These are your new T-shirts. Let's have a look. And 'Beauty is Skin Deep', and this one is 'Simon Says Stare.' If you are staring at someone, you know you're staring at someone and you know it's rude. Um, I don't mind the children so much, cos they don't understand, so once they understand, then I just wanna look after them. When it's adults, you're, sort of, like, 'Come on, mate.' < Give us a look? That looks cool as. What do you think? Awesome? COUNTRY MUSIC I've watched him over the years when we go out, and you can tell straight away, when people are staring, that he just wants to get out of there. He gets anxious cos there's just too many looking at once, and they don't stop looking. To try and explain to lots of people... that that makes him feel bad is too hard, so maybe by going on TV... will help people learn how burn survivors feel about the staring. Staring sucks. Yeah. And I can feel it from Dukie cos he just loses it. So, we'll make some more T-shirts. (CHUCKLES) Yeah. Open it up? OK, but you're coming back in. Right. 'Well, today is a special day for Dukie. He leaves us today to actually start school.' Towards the end of last year, we weren't really quite sure how Dukie was going to handle really leaving Kids' House and moving on to school full-time. However, he's the one that's made the decision, and, um, he wants to start school on Monday, even though he's 5 and a half now, um, and so, you know, that's all positive, and it's all good. HAPPY MUSIC Initially, he didn't come with big smiles ` he was pretty apprehensive and anxious. He had spent basically every day,... um, with his whanau, so actually being away from them, I think, too, was quite a big, um, challenge for Dukie. But, um, in typical Dukie fashion, he just seemed to,... you know, um, take it on board, and soon,... once he saw the kids having fun and doing lots of exciting and interesting things, he, you know, got in there, and it's just never been an issue. COUNTRY MUSIC My uncles always had bikes and cars, and it has just been a part of my life, so I thought I'd show my kids and, you know, as they get older, it'll be a part of their lives. Dukie's the boss on that car. When it comes to that car, no one's allowed to touch it. If he had his way, he wouldn't even let them look at it. Now, that's how bossy he is. You know, he'll come out every morning, look at his car, 'Look, Dad. Looks like someone's scratched it over here,' or whatever ` that's just Dukie. He's demanding on everything he does. He's really bossy. He even bosses his mother around with things I can't get away with. (LAUGHS) ENGINE CHUGS COUNTRY MUSIC Are you gonna like school? Yep. Are you gonna listen to the teachers? Yep. Are you gonna learn some ABC's? Nup. A, B, C, D and learn how to read and write? Yep. Oh, that's good. You're not gonna run away, are you? Nah. Don't be a crybaby, eh? You're a big boy now, eh? Yes. Are you gonna come home with homework when you go to school? Yes. Oh, that's good. And you want Dad to drop you off on your car? Yep. Yeah, you're a show off, though, eh? Nah, the car wants to go for a ride. Oh, the car wants to go for a ride? Yep. COUNTRY MUSIC CHILDREN CHATTER I'm 7, and Dukie's... 5. 5. I'm in Room 2, and Dukie's gotta be with me, but Room 1 is a bigger class than Room 2. Johnny will always be there for Dukie. I tell them every day, 'Look after your brother,' until the girls come along, I suppose. (LAUGHS) 'Look after each other and look after your brother. Make sure he's safe.' Yeah. That's what big brothers do, always. I'll be helping him with his writing, and,... um,... meeting new people. Yeah, he's really good at drawing. I'm gonna be building big structures. I don't know what Dukie's gonna be. He said he might be a bodybuilder or a builder. (CHUCKLES) BIRDS CHIRP Are you looking forward to going to school, my boy? Yep. And what are you gonna do at school? Play. Play! You'll learn to read and write, bro. Eh? COUNTRY MUSIC Crushed? And then what do I put in? Sugar. CHILD CRIES CHILD CRIES Who's that? It's Emma. < Hi, Emma. CHILD CRIES CHILD CRIES COUNTRY MUSIC Brush your teeth, Dukie. MUSIC CONTINUES FOOTSTEPS APPROACH FOOTSTEPS SPLASH CHILDREN CHATTER BELL RINGS Hi, Dukie. It's a predominately Maori community. Um, at our school, we've got 95% Maori children. And all identify mainly to Pahauwera, which is the main iwi here ` a very talented community. Our two latest new entrants into Mohaka School. We'll just get your collar down like that so we can see that handsome face of yours. Looking handsome too, aren't you, with that smart cap on. OK? So we need to look after Jack, and we need to look after Dukie. So you two, you have a wonderful time at Mohaka School, and if you don't know anything, it's OK, cos we don't know everything either. Are we all sitting up with a good posture? Yeah? 'He just slips in and just, um, gets on with it. 'And he's just a typical little boy who rough and tumbles too, really.' D ` duck. D, D, D. Quack. E ` egg. E, E, E. < Thank you. BOYS LAUGH Once he gets into the routine of daily life at school and, you know, into his reading and writing and that, he'll be fine. CHILDREN CHATTER Mmm. Kia ora. Kia ora. My name is Johnston King. BOYS LAUGH GIRLS CHATTER Who's driving the car back, then? Who's driving the car? Where's your car? CHILDREN CHATTER Who are we missing? CHILDREN CHATTER How was your day, Dukie? Good. TINKLY MUSIC OK, Dukie and Johnston, see you tomorrow, dudes. BOTH: See you. See you, Duke. Yep, you too. See ya! What was the favourite thing you did? Sandpit. And? And ball. Oh yeah. What was good... inside that you liked to play? Computer, Lego. Shall we scare it? (ROARS) Hey, he's run away! Ha. He's a scaredy cat, eh? Yep. Now, what do you wanna do now? I wanna do lottery. Ha. REGGAE MUSIC Are you gonna go back to school tomorrow? Yes. Oh cool. Come on, then ` let's go and get changed. What do you wanna wear? Pyjamas. Are you gonna wear your pyjamas? (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) Do you wanna go on the couch? Yep. Phew, that makes me tried. No. REGGAE MUSIC Nominations for the eighth annual Attitude Awards are now open. For information and entry forms, go to attitudelive.com/awards It's great to be in an audience where people are talking about ability and not disability. Captions by Faith Hamblyn. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2015