Ko taku nui, taku wehi, taku whaka-ti-ke-ti-ke i a au, ko taku reo. Kei nga ihoiho o nga maunga whakahi, kei nga wai whakatere taniwha, nau mai, tahuti mai ki Te Hui. Ko Mihingarangi tenei e mihi atu ki a koutou katoa. Welcome to The Hui, Maori current affairs for all New Zealanders. E taro ake nei ` Gimme a kiss. BOTH: Mwah! A story of survival and hope. He endured a childhood of unimaginable brutality... One minute he was loving and caring, then the next minute he just turned into a wild person. ...and ended up in one of our most notorious gangs. If I had to kill for them, I would've killed for them. Now a social work, Hopere Chase is telling his story in the hope of helping others to break the cycle of violence. www.able.co.nz Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Karahuihui mai. The whanau of Hopere Chase has been separated and damaged by violence. But this 57-year-old grandfather is making it his personal mission to heal them and bring them back together. Hopere's seen more than his fair share of violence and committed acts himself as a member of the Mongrel Mob. He joined the Mob when he was just 14 in 1975 and became a senior member and leader. More than 40 years later, he's a social worker and able to reflect on the impact of violence on his family and many others. I korero ia ki a Raiha Paki. He endured a childhood of horrific violence at the hands of his father... One minute was loving and caring, and then the next he just turned into a wild person. ...and sought refuge in a gang. If I had to kill for them, I would've killed for them. But he swapped gang life for the library and is determined to help his whanau heal the scars of violence. Gimme a kiss. BOTH: Mwah! Today, for the first time, 57-year-old grandfather Hopere Chase is sharing his story in the hope other whanau can overcome the trauma of domestic violence. So, you were more or less raised around the marae? Yup, marae was right next to our whare. It was my mum's marae. My dad's marae was across the river, all in the same area of Te Teko. My mother... really an awesome lady. She was very happy. She... Yeah, she just loved us all to bits. So you were close to your mum? Oh, hell yeah. Yeah. Very religious at home. Karakia all the time. Very staunch Christian. Hopere grew up with 13 brothers and sisters. While they adored their mother, they all lived in fear of their father. The only thing I didn't like was when he drank. One minute he's loving and caring, and then the next minute he just turns into a wild person. This happened in our home every week. He'd go to the local tavern with all his workmates. When we heard the car come home from the pub, come up the driveway, we'd all sit there in our own bedrooms and just listen to the car, and we'd know when he's angry when the car just screams up the driveway and then the brakes just screech, and we know, 'Uh-oh, he's not in a good mood.' My older sister used to gather us, all the little ones in the room when she knew that this was gonna happen, used to protect us by putting her hands over our ears so that we couldn't hear what's going on. But we could hear; we knew exactly what was going on. She didn't need to cover our ears. We really knew what was gonna happen. After years and years of violence, at 8 years old Hopere decided to make a stand. One night I just had a gutsful of it. You know, I just laid in bed and cried and cried for my mum. And I started praying for God to help her or to stop my dad from doing what he was doing to her. You know, I could still hear her screaming, and I thought, 'Oh, nah, I've got to stop this.' At 8 years old? 8 years old. Yeah, so I went to went into the kitchen, and he looked around at me, saw me standing there at the door. Then there was just blood everywhere ` blood on the table, blood on the floor. And I looked at my mum and she was just she was pleading to me to help her, to go beside her. So I walked over beside my mum. And as I was walking over, I just heard this bang on the back of my head. He had the hose in his hand, and he just started whacking me and whacking me. And my mum was trying to help me. Then I saw a knife on the kitchen bench. And I just grabbed the knife, and I started to protect myself and my mum. I managed to get away. I just ran across to the marae. And then I remember going down the back of the marae to the river where I'd always go cos that was a safe haven place for me, the river. I just sat there on the bank and just cried. And while I was sitting there, then I started to feel the pain of my bruises on me. So I just hopped in the river, in the shallow end of the river, and started washing the blood off me. That's when I started thinking, you know, about what can I do. I even had thoughts of maybe I should go and burn the pub down, because that's where the problem comes from. And then I thought, 'Man, I just want to just go to another world where it's a lot safer.' So that's when I started thinking about suicide. And, you know, as a child I didn't know that was called suicide. All I wanted to do was just leave and go to our family in the other world that, you know, were good people. The next morning I went home after I heard my dad's car go to work. So I went home to see my mum, see how she was. And then she said to me, 'Oh, boy, I think you might need to go and stay with Nan and Koro for a while.' And I felt that she let me down ` that I was trying to protect her, and yet I was told to go live somewhere else. At that time I didn't know she was trying to protect me from my dad. Hopere says all his brothers and sisters were suffering from the trauma of their father's violence, particularly his younger brother Hoani. Like so many others of his generation, Hoani was eventually removed from his whanau and sent to a boys' home. He just turned into an angry little boy. And, um, that anger started getting worse and worse. Hopere was also venting his own anger. One day I just got kicked out of school. They just couldn't handle my behaviour. I was too disruptive. We used to take petrol to school, and we used to sniff petrol down the field. Probably helped me deal with the stuff that was going on, and it made me feel good. At 14, Hopere ran away to Wellington. He found a new whanau ` the Mongrel Mob. What was it about the gang that attracted you? Every day I used to see these mobsters on the front lawn playing and fighting, and just mucking around and fixing cars, listening to music, drinking alcohol. It wasn't the gang that attracted me, it was just the whanaungatanga that they practised within themselves. Anyone hurt one of them, they hurt the whole lot of them. And that's what gave me a sense of, 'Oh, OK, they'll look after me if I was to join them. 'I'll get the same sort of awhi that they were giving each other.' So I joined them. I actually got initiated one night. We went to this pub. This pub we went to was actually a rival gang's pub, and we were going there to actually just take their mana. So, the Mob and the Black Power in those days, they hated each other's guts. I got involved in the fighting too, because I thought, 'I came with these guys,' you know, 'I'll help them out.' And I was a good fighter. It was the next day that they initiated me and gave me a patch. And I thought, 'Well, I'll protect them any way I can. I'll do anything for them,' you know. If I had to kill for them, I would've killed for them. I had no qualms doing anything to protect them. So tell me about some of the horrific stuff you saw within the gang. Stabbings, and seeing my mate get shot. He was he was one of my good friends, as well. He just got shot sitting right next to me in a party we were at. And then I just looked around at my mate, and it was just blood everywhere. Did any of the violence within the gang have an effect on you? Not really. You know, being in the gangs, what I saw them do was just normal stuff to me. Coming up, Hopere starts to question his own gang life and looks for ways to help his younger brother and whanau, fractured by years of violence. He's not a monster. All you're looking at is a person that's behaving badly. But you're not looking at why he's behaving badly and try and help him find a solution. Kia mau tonu mai ra te titiro, hei muri i nga whakatairanga ko te wahanga tuarua o taua ripoata. Ko Mihingarangi tenei e mihi atu ki a koutou katoa. Hoki mai ano. Hopere Chase spent 27 years in the Mongrel Mob before he decided he needed to quit and change his life. He did, becoming a social worker and helping others deal with their violent pasts. His studies helped him understand what had gone wrong in his family, and in particular one of his brothers, who has a criminal history of terrible violence. Anei ano a Raiha Paki me te wahanga tuarua o tenei korero. Koro! (CHUCKLES) Former gang boss Hopere Chase is now a grandfather. Gimme a kiss. BOTH: Mwah! He says his mokopuna changed his life. Come on, we'll go inside. I've got some raw fish here. Got a kai? When his first moko, Anton, was born 16 years ago, Hopere had a realisation. When he was born, held him in my hands and looked at him and, oh man. Had my patch on, looked at the image in the mirror, and then I, sort of, looked at me holding my mokopuna. Something just made me feel like 'Hey, what are you gonna do now?' Even though he couldn't speak, I just looked in his eyes and I knew straight away that I want to set an example for my moko. I don't want to take them down that path where I dragged my kids down, but I never gave them an option. But I said, 'I wanna give my moko an option,' and I want to show them that, you know, our Taha Maori is stronger than the Mongrel Mob or the Black Power or any gang, that here's our gang here. Our gang is called Ngati Awa. (CHUCKLES) After Anton's birth, Hopere decided to leave the Mongrel Mob and studied to become a social worker. A lot of reading, a lot of good books, a lot of good information. The library was a world way from the violence of his home and the gang pad, but it's where he began to find insights into his past. My study led me to a psychologist from America who wrote about the trauma, or disorder, and it was childhood separation disorder. And he talks about this journey of a person that's been separated from something. As I was reading it, he was telling the story about my young brother. He writes about the aggressive behaviour, the violent behaviour. As a child, Hopere's young brother Hoani was separated from his whanau when he was made a ward of the state. He spent five months in the notorious Epuni Boys' Home. Hopere believes it damaged him for life. He was mixed up. He was starting to get a lot more aggressive. My brother's only little, you know, 5ft something. He's not that tall. But when he gets aggressive, man, he's just unstoppable to the point where his nickname in our family was the Incredible Hulk. That's what we named him, because one minute he's all calm, but once you make him angry, that's it. He just turns into this animal and out of control and just not a nice person to be around. Hoani's uncontrollable rage meant it was inevitable he would end up in jail. Last year he was sentenced to 18 years behind bars. Hei konei to teina? Ae. How long has he been in here for? Umm, been in here for about 15 months. For 16 years Hoani terrorised his partner. He was found guilty on 28 charges of violence and sexual abuse against her, including rape. He does want to change, but he doesn't know how to. This study I'm doing is trying to get him and others to understand that he does actually suffer from this disorder. He asked me this question ` he said, 'Why am I like this, bro? 'Why am I the only one in this family that's like this, that behaves like this, 'that does all these stupid things? My family hates my guts because of my behaviour.' And I said, 'I don't know why you're like this, bro.' Hopere refuses to give up on his brother but is virtually alone in trying to help him. Does your whanau support you? Nuh. (SWALLOWS) No. My brother's burned bridges with each and every one of my siblings. I think there's only a couple of us today that have actually still maintained our relationship with our brother. Now a social worker for 15 years, Hopere's mahi has given him a better understanding of Hoani's criminal behaviour. And he still has hope he can change. He's not a monster. All you're looking at is a person that's behaving badly, but you're not looking at why he's behaving badly and try to help him find a solution. I see a lot of our people that I work with over the 15 years, that they are suffering from some sort of childhood trauma. And as I was going through my research around childhood separation disorder, I started to align it to lot of people I'm working with. Hopere has made peace with his past, even forgiving his father who'd been so violent to his whanau. Before he passed in 1994, he apologised to Hopere for all the pain he caused. He said to me, 'Whatever happened in the past, son, I want to put that to rest.' And I said, 'Oh, don't worry about it, Dad. It's all good.' He did apologize to me, but I didn't take it as, you know, 'You didn't need to do that, Dad. 'I've healed myself.' So you've come home; you've healed, it sounds like. You want that same healing for your brother and your whanau. Yep. And for anyone else in those communities that are feeling, you know, this is maybe what's going on with their family members but never ever found an answer. It happened to me, but I was able to find healing through my mokopuna. That gave me another chance at life. Na Raiha Paki tera korero, and it was produced by Richard Langston. Hei muri i nga whakatairanga, ka korero ahau ki nga manene e ako ana i te reo Maori. Next, we speak to new New Zealanders who are learning te reo Maori. Ko Mihingarangi tenei e mihi atu ki a koutou katoa. Auraki mai ano. Well, it's not just Maori who are signing up for Maori language lessons by the busload. In fact, more and more New Zealanders are making te reo a part of their lives. including tauiwi. Julie Zhu was born in China but has lived in Aotearoa for 21 years. And Jo Pannell immigrated from South Africa in 1998. Both these wahine are beautiful speakers of te reo and believe learning te reo Maori has given them a unique connection to Aotearoa. Tena korua. Nau mai, haere mai. Tena koe. Tena koe, Mihingarangi. (SPEAKS MAORI) (SPEAKS MAORI) Uh, tona tekau ma rua tau kua pahure ake i te mata au ki te ako. (SPEAKS MAORI) (SPEAKS MAORI) I... I te` I Unitec. I te tuatahi, ae. I haere au ki nga kura po, kotahi te po i a te wiki. (SPEAKS MAORI) Rawe. Ae, ae! Engari he uaua i a ko e timata ana. Heoi ano katahi ka... Ka haere au ki Te Wananga O Aotearoa. (SPEAKS MAORI) Ka pai. Pehea koe, Julie? I timata au i te ako... ki te ako i Te Whare Wananga O Tamaki Makauru. (SPEAKS MAORI) (SPEAKS MAORI) He aha nga hua kua puta? Maha nga hua kua puta. Ae. (LAUGHS) Ma te reo ka... ka whiwhi au i taku mahi, kei te whare taonga. (SPEAKS MAORI) Hei aha te mahi? Kua tuhonohono ano au ki toku ake whenua, he tino... He kai ma te wairua. Ana. Ana. Ae. Julie, did you speak any other languages? Was Maori your second...? Ko te reo Hainamana toku reo tuatahi. So I grew up with Chinese as my first mother tongue. But when I came to New Zealand` When I was young I had a lot of internalised racism, and I really rejected my Chineseness and really wanted to be Kiwi, which meant Pakeha. So I slowly stopped speaking te reo Hainamana. And, yeah, so English is the main language I speak now, so ka nui toku aroha ki nga... (SPEAKS MAORI) Like, I understand there's a lot of trauma and shame not knowing your own language, maybe because of how you've been raised and what society expects you to be, or what's normal, what's different. So I totally understand and never want to be held as an example of, 'Look, this Chinese person can learn; why can't you learn?' You're part of a group. Tell us about your group and what it stands for. Ae. Um, so, I'm part of a group called Asians Supporting Tino Rangatiratanga. So we are just a bunch of volunteers, not paid or anything. We started up a couple of years ago. At first we were just a banner which said, 'Asians Supporting Tino Rangatiratanga.' We were at the hikoi up at Waitangi during Waitangi Day, and a post went quite viral that Marama Davidson posted about us. So we decided, 'Oh, we actually have to do some stuff.' So now we run workshops, Te Tiriti workshops for tangata no Ahia, so Asian communities to learn about Te Tiriti, because that's one of the` I think it's important when you're learning te reo Maori, it's not just something fun to learn, but you need to understand the context and the huge loss that colonisation imposed on Aotearoa and how that's ongoing. And if we want to move towards decolonisation, learning te reo Maori is only one small part of that. Um, yeah. He matatau koe ki te korero Maori, Jo. (SPEAKS MAORI) Ana. Are there parts of te ao Maori that, as a Pakeha woman, you won't take up certain roles? Ae. Ae. What are those? (SPEAKS MAORI) Tena koe. Mm. Julie, reo goals ` he aha o moemoea? (SPEAKS MAORI) Yeah, I think my biggest thing is just the whakama i te wai ako au i Te Whare Wananga O Tamaki Makaurau. I know the rules of the grammar, but I don't have the confidence to speak and actually turn my whakaaro Pakeha into whakaaro Maori. I think that's my biggest struggle. (SPEAKS MAORI) Ae! (SPEAKS MAORI) (SPEAKS MAORI) BOTH: Tena koe. Hei tera wiki, he kaupapa kura. She wanted to know who pinched her daughter's headphones. So you're the mum who made an issue out of the $30 headphones. Yes. Thank you. (LAUGHS) Yes. It turned into a row that lasted 10 months and cost tens of thousands of dollars. It is not normal for a school to issue legal proceedings against a parent. I felt like we were going from the frying pan into the fire. Mum-of-three Amelia Gilbert says she's been shunned by the school she invested so much in. Now she's speaking out. I was horrified, and I thought, 'How could this person do this?' Her story next week. Kua hikina Te Hui mo tenei ra. Ka riro ma Rob Ruha me tana waiata a Kalega hei whakakapi i ta tatou hotaka mo tenei ra. Nga manaakitanga o te wahingaro ki a tatou katoa. (ROB RUHA'S KALEGA) # Kalega. Come sing along with me. # Sing 'sanana'. # Kalega, sing 'sanana'. # Kalega. # Kalega. # Come sing along with me. # Sing 'sanana'. # Kalega, sing 'sanana'. # Kalega. # Ooh, ooh, ooh. # Kalega on the straight now. # Torere. # Ki te tapa o te tai ki Hawai. # Haka'z blasting from the YouTube. # Flick to Bob Marley, make you feel good. # Sang, 'Kotahi aroha, ngakau tahi e'. # Tangaroa-whakamau-tai. # Aotearoa, Maimoatia, # Paremata mene. # Waves on the way to the Bay. # No coverage till we hit Raukokore. # Hit the river and the beach while we're on the way. # Ko au ko Apanui, # Tauira-mai-tawhiti. # Wak-pak, we back on track. # Kua tae ki te kainga inawa. # Ka reka! # Come sing along with me. # Sing 'sanana'. # Kalega, sing 'sanana'. # Kalega. # Oh! # Kalega. # Come sing along with me. # Sing 'sanana'. # Kalega, sing 'sanana'. # Kalega. # Ooh, ooh. # ALL: He mea tautoko na Te Mangai Paho. The Hui is made with support from New Zealand On Air.