1 Captions by Chelsea Thoresen. Edited by Glenna Casalme. www.able.co.nz Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2017 Liam. Yeah? Want a haircut? Yeah. Come on, then! OK. Keep still. (RELAXED MUSIC) What's that over there? (CHUCKLES) Do those sides. First day I met Liam, I was, um, actually doing a school tour. I went past the staffroom where he` He was in there. He had had a pretty hard day. He was` He was upset. Tears all over his face, and he just, sort of, threw himself at me. I gotta live all my hair fantasies through you. (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) He'd, um, seen me on TV before, so he recognised me from that, and we've been pretty much, uh, stuck together ever since. I'm no professional. (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) (CHUCKLES) Shut up, boy. Look at that. What? I almost made you look handsome. Nah. (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) Well, thing is, I'm talented; I'm not a miracle worker. Nah. (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) (LAUGHS) Shut up. Shut up. Liam's with me from 8.30 to 2.30, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. The life skills that, um, I help him with is, um, uh, bathroom duties ` brushing teeth, washing his face ` um, toilet` toiletry stuff, uh, showering. I think you're developing quite a chest hair, my mate. Just trying to get him ready for when he leaves home and he doesn't have Mum and Dad there all the time to do everything for him. No spending all the rest of your day looking at yourself, either. Why? Cos that's vain, man. (LAUGHS) Any fear that I had of not understanding Down's syndrome people, because he was basically the first one I'd ever met, it just melted. He has this magic about him. His hugs are absolutely therapeutic, and I was going through my own stuff at the time, and his hugs just sorta melted me. Hungry? Yeah. Should we have a hangi for tea? Yeah. All right. Go to Pak'n Save, eh? Yeah. Go get some kai. OK! All right, then! All right, then! Give me five! (CHUCKLES) (BOTH EXCLAIM) You push. You push. Go, quick. Quick, before the cars come and run us over. So, my bro, I've been noticing lately, you've been eating too many pies. OK. So we're gonna get a couple of cabbages. Yeah. One we'll eat,... Eat. ....and the other one, we'll use to line the` So we'll just get a little one. This one here we'll use to line the baskets. Yeah. See this? Gotta eat more vegetables. OK. Ka pai. Sniff it. (SNIFFS) (SNIFFS, EXCLAIMS) (BOTH CHUCKLE) Kumara. Yeah. Liam's pretty well-known around here. I guess, having, uh, hung out with me, uh, and getting seen around town with me, a lot of people think he's my son. Wake up, Jeff. (EXCLAIMS) I say to them, 'Hell no, he'd be much better-looking if he was my son.' Push it. Push it. So, I came back to Gisborne about six years ago. I had just come out of a pretty rough time in Rotorua. I'd, um, survived testicular cancer and a brain tumour. Wash them. OK! Good boy. Yo! Whoa, whoa, whoa! Oh, no, you're a man now, eh? That's right. (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) Cos you got three whiskers. I was actually diagnosed with clinical depression, and I found myself on the side of the road one day, looking for a truck to, um, end it all. Because I was away from work for so long, I'd` I'd lost my position on probably one of the highest-rating TV programmes at Maori TV. (UPBEAT MUSIC) People knew me as the guy from Homai Te Pakipaki, which I had built my identity on. I didn't know who I was any more. The type of depression that, uh, I went through was like, um, if you were to put the plug into the bath and have a slowly dripping tap, it's not going to flood overnight; but over years, over decades, it's suddenly gonna fill up, and then it's gonna flood and mess out the whole bathroom. Liam doesn't know, but he's practically saved my life then, and, um, he still does every day. It tears me up a little bit, just to` just to think about what I went through, and, uh, how` how he helps me get through life, even to this day. (INHALES DEEPLY) Mm. Cut. (CHUCKLES) (RELAXED ROCK MUSIC) Just gotta get that lid. Right. Ka pai? Ka pai. There's another there. Yummy. WHISPERS: Yummy. You hungry? Yeah. You're always hungry. Yeah. (RELAXED ROCK MUSIC CONTINUES) (SIGHS) Yeah. Yeah, we're good. Yeah. (PERFORMS WERO) (EXHALES LOUDLY) (EXCLAIMS) (EXHALES, EXCLAIMS) (EXCLAIMS) (EXCLAIMS) (SPEAKS SOFTLY) (SPEAKS SOFTLY) (SHANE EXCLAIMS LOUDLY) (GIRL CHUCKLES) WOMAN: Liam loves being with family. Um, sometimes we go to Shane's, and we always have a hangi, and, um, he loves hangi. I'm so overwhelmed, really, because Shane has been` has just opened a whole new world for Liam. Liam has just become bubbly. He loves doing the things that Shane does. They are so funny together. They're, um` It's just a whole new world. (CLANGING) (RECITES KARAKIA MO TE KAI) Ake, ake. Amine. ALL: Amine. He's used to having things done for him. He has a right to a kai, but he has the responsibility to help out after having eaten. He has to help with the washing of the dishes. Hey! I know, I know! Do the dishes. Do it! So I'm just teaching Liam that, um, 'Yeah, you're pretty special, my mate, 'and everybody loves you, and everyone wants you to be happy, 'but that doesn't mean that you're the king of the castle when you're in somebody else's castle.' And I suppose the safest place to learn that is at, uh, the home of somebody who loves him. And, um, he's not gonna get a growling about it over here. He just gets, you know, shoved along nicely into the right lane and told to stay there. (RELAXED MUSIC) Liam is the youngest of seven children. His father was married before. He had three sons. I was married before, and I had three daughters. And then Bill and I got married, and we had Liam. There's 24 years' difference between his sister and him. As I'm getting older, it's getting very tiring. 15, the girls were out and about, doing their own thing, and here I am, still taking Liam to school or doing his washing, making his bed, doing his cooking. Every day I think, you know, 'Who's gonna really take care of him when I'm gone? 'Who's gonna love him like I've loved him?' Take this for me. Take this for Mum. OK, go. 'It is a scary thing, and I think a lot of women and families in my position probably think the same.' You can carry the washing for me, eh? Nah. (RELAXED MUSIC CONTINUES) Are you gonna help me with your clothes? 'Stubborn. Stubborn as. He will not move. He's like a rock.' Do you wanna pass the pegs to mum? Hey? How about coming to pass the pegs to mum while I hang them up? Nah. Come on, don't be lazy. 'If he's got something in his head, there's nothing you can do to get it out of there; 'you've just gotta walk away. 'It gets tiring, and, at days, he's not compliant. 'He's not compliant with being told what to do, or he doesn't like it, now that he's 20, 'and I s'pose most young men at 20 don't like their mothers telling them what to do, anyway.' (RELAXED MUSIC CONTINUES) So you have to, sort of, back, back a bit (CHUCKLES) and give him a bit of space to be a man. Go through that door. Go through it. Please? (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) You gotta start looking after your mum more, eh? Yeah. Gotta be nice to Mum-mum. Yeah. All right? All right. You gotta be nice to the ladies, to Vanessa... Yeah. ...and Mum. OK. All right? Liam. Yeah. Bedtime, my bro. OK. Ka pai. Help me do the bed. Yeah. All right. Turn the TV off. Yeah. Shane's got a special way with him, and he can get him to do whatever he wants, practically. I love it that someone is actually making him do something that I've been trying to get him to do. All right. Plug it in. Yeah. Here. Pass that one over here. Yeah. (MOTOR HUMS) You know, when I have those bad days, I think Liam can sense it. Liam's very sensitive to, uh, everybody, but because him and I are so close, he really senses, and, um, uh, he'll get really cuddly. He, um, he likes to do... And then I have to lean over and give him a kiss, cos he knows it's a nuisance. And he'll` he'll lean back so that I have to actually physically climb over something to give him a kiss, and, um, he knows that` that making me` forcing me to do something that I can't be bothered doing is a good way to snap me out of` I don't know if he knows that, but it works every time. Shut up. (CHUCKLES) Yeah, I don't know how he knows. He's just, um, really, really receptive. He's, um` He's quite a freaky dude. (SIGHS) Every day, I have to tell myself, 'This is gonna be a good day,' uh, 'you're alive; you're good-looking,' um, 'you're quite intelligent,' and, um, 'you haven't got a six-pack ` yet.' And then I get up, and I do what I've gotta do. It's important to say something so that somebody knows that they need to help you. If you don't say something, it's like, uh, you get a bottle of fizzy with the lid on, and you shake it, and you shake it, and you shake it. If, eventually, you do say something, after shaking it so long, it's just gonna explode. So every now and then, you need to loosen the cap, and then put it back on. Loosen the cap, put it back on. Just talk. Maori males, in particular, don't talk. Kiwi males, in particular, don't talk. We just bottle everything up. 'We're tough enough.' Uh, 'Nobody wants to hear it anyway. Get over it, mate.' And` But the important thing is that you actually` you do need to talk. You need to tell somebody. (STATIC BUZZES) This is T-A-C,... Yeah. ...and my little mate, Liam. Liam! Yeah, boy. Here we go. Go! BOTH: # Aue. # Wairua. # Io. Matua. # He loves music. Um, he loves acting and performing. He'll get on the stage and waffle on there as though he's been there for years. I always believed that God put kids with disabilities on this earth, but he didn't put them here with nothing. He put them here with a talent, and it's up to us to find that talent and excel on it for that child. And I think we've hit the nail on the head with Liam. (RAPS INDISTINCTLY) (BEATBOXES) We've found, uh, someone that he relates with and does things with, and they're actually almost the same kinda person. I think Liam's becoming a little bit of a little Shane. (LAUGHS) (BEATBOXES) (RAPS INDISTINCTLY) Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. (RAPS INDISTINCTLY) (BEATBOXES) (BEATBOXES) Yeah boy! My man! Pffbbt! Thank you, everybody. Thank you, everybody. Hey, my bro. Hey, my bro. We should go busking this week. Yeah. Go downtown, make some money. OK. Then we can buy you a salad! Yeah. All right! All right! All right! Yeah. Yeah. Kia kaha koe. (PERFORMS HAKA) Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. (PERFORMS HAKA) Hika ma! Ko tera haka te haka Tika Tonu! (CHANTS HAKA) Aue! Hi! Ka pai. No reira, ehara tera te Ka Mate, ne? (EXHALES) Me noho raua. Ka pai. (SIGHS) Tena. Titiro mai. Eddie Low. CHUCKLES: Oh, Eddie. Do you know Eddie Low's songs? Yeah. OK, sing one to me, then. Go on, then. Go on, then. Go on, then. Go. How about I Am Me? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. # I am me (SNORES) # I am a... Liam. # (SNORES) Oh, you've gone to sleep! Never mind going to sleep, that's` that's an old one. (LAUGHS) Never mind that any more. We don't need that any more. (LAUGHS) Oh no, he's fallen asleep again! (SNORES) Liam's very accepted in the Maori community. He actually does understand tikanga and kawa. He knows, uh, how things are supposed to` to be done, in the Maori sense. As soon as you start to speak Maori to him, he clicks in. He just clicks straight into it, and he knows what you're saying. I think that he prefers it over English. Liam is, uh, the epitome of pride, you know, and he's a` He's a young, Maori man. A young, proud, Maori man. (WIND INSTRUMENT ECHOES) (LIAM EXCLAIMS) (MAN CHANTS) (LIAM EXCLAIMS, SHOUTS) Just about to get welcomed on to the marae. (LIAM EXCLAIMS LOUDLY) Liam's gonna do a challenge, or a wero. (HUSHED) It's pretty exciting. (PERFORMS WERO) (EXCLAIMS) I'm a big believer in interpersonal dependence ` you know, everybody clicks into each other. We're all a part of something. I'm Maori too, so I believe in whanau, hapu and iwi. So, family, subtribe and the bigger tribe. ALL SING: # Tiaho mai... One of Liam's buzzes is, uh, being Maori. He, um, thrives when he's at the marae. When you see him with his tokotoko, his talking stick, he's amazing. So he knows absolutely what he's doing. # Amine. # Tuturu o whiti whakamaua kia tina. ALL SHOUT: Tina! Haumi e, hui e,... ALL SHOUT: ...taiki e! Liam is... life. Yeah. I love Liam a lot. Yeah. Life just wouldn't be the same without him. (CHUCKLES) (DRAWER RATTLES) OK. Thank you. Now go to the fridge and get the luncheon. (HUFFS) Get the meat for your sandwich. Oh, when Liam talks, I know sometimes it's, um, hard to understand him, but if you keep your sentences to four words, and he gives his in four words, we're right. But if he has to talk a conversation, it just becomes babble, and we call it 'Liam-ese', because nobody understands him, really. We're all looking at each other, hoping that one of us have picked up a word here and there, and, um, that we can, um, understand him. I'll get you two slices. OK, here you go. No. Butter your sandwich, please. (GROANS) SOFTLY: Good. Don't you want any more butter? Is it gonna just have that? What about this one? (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) I have to take lots of deep breaths. He is capable, it's just that he gets very non-compliant, and that gets in the way of, um, him doing things. (GRUNTS) Let's see how this works, eh? Can Mum` Mummy ask you something on here, please? Liam needs to learn how to use his TalkLink. It's an iPad Mini with, um, pics on it that help him to talk, and he points to them, and they'll actually talk for him. ELECTRONIC VOICE: I need. What do you`? What do you need? ELECTRONIC VOICE: MP3 player. Where's your MP3 player? No. (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) Do you want to go and get` find it? Yeah. The more people use this, the more he'll have a voice, because, um, at the moment, a lot of people think because he` they understand him, that they don't use this mach` uh, this device. But this device is really important to his future, because it's gonna be his voice when they're not around. We'll go and get a fan. I'll wait at the door,... (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) ...and you go in and get it yourself, OK? Yeah, yeah. Go on, then. You go. OK. 'If Liam doesn't take a fan to town, we have to go to the shop and go and purchase one. 'And he knows exactly where all the fans are kept in all the $2 shops around.' Aha! There. There it is. That's what keeps him at peace. So he has these moments where we let him have it so that he can just relax into his own. Gives his brain a rest, I guess, and, um, he loves them. He loves the fans. He likes the motion of` of how the fan moves and the flexibility of the fan. Liam, did you get your fan? Oh yes, good boy. Let's go. Hey! Oh, don't you wanna hold my hand? No! Why? Come on. Do you wanna go and have lunch? (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) We're gonna go and have lunch. (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) We'll go to Kaiti Mall and have` (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) All right, then I'm going by myself. Bye. It's a fear of mine, that, uh` having to put him out there now, and the time has come. It's all very well that we can understand him, but others can't understand him. and he's not gonna be always in our company; he's gonna be in the company of others. Ask the lady for a sausage. Want a sausage? Yeah. We're working for him to have his own independence and his own autonomy in life, because, um, after all, he's a person; he's in this world, and he's entitled to a life like everyone else. Yeah, boy! 'Him and I are both going through some, uh, weight problems at the moment.' Go. 'Since meeting Liam, I've met a lot more Down's syndrome people, 'and most of them have weight problems.' Yeah, boy! 'He loves carb-loaded food.' There you go. One more. One more. 'He eats way too many pies, way too man` too much pizza, drinks way too much fizzy drink.' Yoo-hoo-hoo! So that's, uh` that's how we exercise. As long as he thinks we're playing a game, he's cool with it. But as soon as he figures out that I'm trying to exercise him, he doesn't want anything more to do with it. Hey, kia ora, Shane. Kia ora. Kia ora. Kia ora. (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) Well, I've, um` I've always wondered about people that have chocolate around their lips,... Mm. ...and, uh, it sort of makes me worry. (CLEARS THROAT) Oh OK. 77 total views. ON VIDEO: We're live. We're building an audience... (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) Ooh! Hey, kia ora Sister B. Hey. Kei te mihi, Sister B. ON VIDEO: As the bro said, we're gonna have a` a TV crew following us around. (CHUCKLES) Look at that ` 17 people are listening now. 17. Hello to all you 17 people. Becca Jay Vea, she said, 'Sing us a waiata, Liam.' OK. Here we go. (SINGS INDISTINCTLY) BOTH: # ...aku mihi, e. # Sandy. # Ma te wa. Bye-bye! Say bye. Say, 'Bye, everybody.' (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) BOTH: Bye, everybody! Ka kite. No, no, no. Wait, wait. All these videos that you do,... Yeah. ...heaps of people, they watch them, eh? On Facebook, eh? Yeah. And then you do your Facebook Live stuff on your own page. Yep. Everybody loves you on there, eh? Yeah. We started doing videos and putting them on my page on Facebook. His cousin, Johanna, then decided to make him his own group, and within a week, he had 20,000 followers from all around the world. So he now knows how to go live on his own page. BOTH: # I wonder why-yi-yi, oh, why... # And he's, like, really, really, famous. (ROCK 'N' ROLL MUSIC) Liam absolutely loves Elvis Presley. That's his idol. (ROCK 'N' ROLL MUSIC CONTINUES) Oh my goodness, me. (MUSIC CONTINUES) Yeah, Vegas! (MOUTHS, CHUCKLES) (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) (SHANE EXCLAIMS) (BOTH GRUNT) What are you doing dressed like that for? (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) What`? What's this for? (CHUCKLES) What? Is it for me? Yeah. I gotta walk around Gisborne dressed like this? What if someone gives us a hiding? (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) Oh man. (GROANS) Heck. (GRUNTS, SIGHS) I'm like El` Whoa. Elvis just before he passed away. Deep-fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) Heck. (CHUCKLES) So, I'm gonna look like you? Yes, me. Oh man. (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) All right, sorted, my bro. New-look Elvis, 2017. G-town styles. Boo! Elvis` What the heck are you doing? (CHUCKLES) (EXCLAIMS) Yee-hee! Yeah, that's us, boy. You'll get it. (SIGHS) (BOTH SIGH) Comb my hair for me? Yeah. I don't` Cos I don't usually have hair, I don't know how to do it. Oh, ouch. That's pulling my hair. (CHUCKLES) (UPBEAT JAZZ MUSIC) BOTH: Yeah, boy! All right, Gisborne. (MUSIC CONTINUES) Give them a wave. Hi, everybody. Hey! Hey, hey! All right! Yeah. Uh-huh-huh. Here we go! (PLAYS GUITAR) BOTH: # Aue! # He aha rawa ai koe? # E rere mai ki a matou nei. # Matou e inoi nei. # Matou e whakapau kaha nei # ki te hikina to ingoa. # Aue! # Wairua! # Io. Matua. # Amine. # Tuturu o whiti whakamaua, kia... BOTH: ...tina! Haumi e, hui e,... (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) ...taiki e! (BOTH CONVERSE SOFTLY) Yeah, I'm a` I'm around for as long as he wants me to be around, and I'm` I'm hoping that'll be forever. I'm proud that I have somebody that I can call a real friend. I'm proud that I am able to help somebody, um, with certain things in his life. Knock-knock. Who's there? Sha. 'Sha' who? 'Shaddup'! Ha! Gives me hugs. He gives me love. I'm` I'm grateful for that forever. Yeah. I love him; I really do. Mm. Still getting used to glasses (!) They make my eyes water (!) I've only been wearing them for six months, so that's, yeah` That's twice they've made my eyes water in this interview (!) (CHUCKLES) Cut. Captions by Chelsea Thoresen. Edited by Glenna Casalme. www.able.co.nz Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2017