Captions by Tariqa Satherley. Edited by Ingrid Lauder. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2015 RELAXED MUSIC The opening of the Seatoun Tunnel, back in 1907, helped to turn what was once a seaside resort into one of Wellington's most appealing neighbourhoods, just a 15-minute drive from downtown. When we first moved to Seatoun, it was overcast, and I'll never forget when I woke up that morning that it cleared up and went out on to the deck and said to the neighbour, 'What is that?' And he said, 'That's the Kaikoura mountain range. You're looking at the South Island.' I couldn't believe that those beautiful, snow-covered peaks were my view. I mean, in Johannesburg, the only view I'd had was of my neighbour's electric fencing. I'm a South African, Irish, Italian, Swiss, Pakeha. In South Africa, we'd call me a sidewalk special or a Saffa-Kiwi-Kraut. I feel very welcome in my adopted home. Let me introduce you to some of the locals. We'll discover an heirloom smuggled out of Moscow during the Russian Revolution. When they got to the train station, my grandmother had these three cases of treasures, but, of course, they couldn't take them,... (CHUCKLES) because the train was chock-a-block ` absolutely chock-a-block ` of Russians trying to get away. An artist from the Netherlands uses broad brushstrokes to celebrate her new neighbourhood. My paintings do reflect a little bit of my sense in` sense of belonging, in the sense that you s... are very different when you come to NZ, or you feel different. The local football club gives racism the red card. We started it as a movement, and` and the idea behind it was that for anybody that wanted to be a part of the movement they could, um, get a T-shirt or` or, you know, be at any events and` and just show their` their support for it. And a Frenchman sets about perfecting the recipe for his grandmother's pate. I had quite a few disasters when I started making it. It looks very simple, but believe me, this is not that easy to make. Grandma gave me the tips once I made the mistakes, not before that. I'm Nathalie Boltt, and this is my neighbourhood. UPBEAT MUSIC RELAXED MUSIC I come from a family of adventurous but slightly eccentric people. My mother wanted to model, so she went off to Rome, but instead she fell in love with pasta and got too fat, so she followed her boyfriend to Johannesburg. My father escaped the foul moods and fouler weather of Switzerland to find freedom, fortune and my mother in wildest Africa. I followed the family tradition of looking for better prospects, so here I am in NZ, a writer, actor, film-maker and teacher. My husband and I met as dancers in a physical-theatre company, and when we moved to NZ we started a media company to express ourselves. I think when you change countries, your art can change with you to express the new influences, the sights and sounds. Now, Jolanda Norris, when she came from Amsterdam, turned to oil painting to express herself. SUBDUED MUSIC I didn't do an awful lot of painting before I came to NZ. I did a lot of other things. I did a bit of watercolour, and I did a little bit, maybe, of acrylics, but I haven't done any, uh, oils. Um, so I started doing all that more seriously in, uh` in NZ. UPLIFTING MUSIC I like Seatoun because it's a very peaceful place. It's very green. Um, I love being close to the beach. Um, I grew up very close to, uh` to the beach in, uh` in Holland. It's a very arty community. I mean, you go a walk around the corner and you will find an artist from, uh` from the Miramar Peninsula Arts Trail, which we set up about three years ago, which is great. I do get, uh, quite a bit of inspiration from the environment. I love walking around and, um, actually taking my camera and taking photos of what's happening, and every day's so different with the` with the lights, and, uh, especially autumn time is great. Sometimes I sit in the car and I just take photos out of the car, and I` and I go one after the other. Drives my family mad, but, you know, it just gets a sense of movement, and then I take that movement into my painting the next day and` and that's quite a lot of fun to do. Well, my mum was very cultural. She would take me to plays and to all sorts of countries in, uh` in the school holidays to visit art galleries. Yeah, it was really interesting to see all the art everywhere in Spain and in France, and we went to America, to New York and to Mexico, and yeah, it was beautiful. Really enjoyed it. Here's a little photo of my mum and me in, uh` in the boat that we used to have that my father built himself ` or partly. Yeah, so, we used to go sailing quite a` quite a bit in the` in the weekends, which was really good. I think my mum is an, uh` an adventurer. She loves travelling and loves culture and loves exploring new things and meeting people and, uh, yeah. It's a little bit like me, I think. TRANQUIL MUSIC My paintings do reflect a little bit of my sense in` sense of belonging, in the sense that you s... are very different when you come to NZ, or you feel different because you are an immigrant. You grew up some` somewhere else. It's` It's a very different culture. I'm using oil paint at the moment, and I just loving the vibrancy of the` of the colours. It's really quite beautiful and shining through. So, um, yeah, the bigger the painting, the more you can be gestural and be able to put big movements on the` on the pain` on the painting. Um, when a painting is smaller or the canvas is smaller, it just more confined and it gets more precise. I get inspirations from my environment a lot, because of that feeling that I want to find that sense of` of belonging or continue having that theme of sense of belonging, um, which I think is very very cool for me on a personal level. I've been in Wellington for 24 years now, and so I've been quite settled here all the time, um, but I can't help just having it a little bit in my blood too, wanting to travel again and to see different cultures and perhaps even go back to Holland for a` for a bit. I'm just constantly, um` I'm constantly observing, and it gives me a sense of self in the, um, in the meaning that I... that I actually live here. Um, I'm looking down on to my house and I think, 'Hey, how cool is that? I'm actually part of this community.' And, um, yeah, that gives me a really good sense of belonging, of where I am at the moment. CONTEMPLATIVE MUSIC These Seatoun battlements were used during World War II as lookouts to spot potential invaders into Wellington Harbour. Luckily, that didn't happen, but it does evoke a sense of conflict from this history of my own country. Apartheid is at the root of the conflict in South Africa. I was brought up under this regime, believing that it was normal for black and white to live separately, and I had no idea of the conditions that people of other ethnicities were forced to live under. So 'white guilt' is a big part of my inner dialogue, but it's also part of why I became an actor and a storyteller, because it's the creatives who empathise with other people's points of view. You can shape a vision for the future ` a better future. And while one person can't heal a deeply damaged society, they can make a difference. RELAXED MUSIC You like to be able to look at yourself in the mirror and be happy with what you see. And so same thing on a football field as in your personal life, that if you go out on a football field and you've given everything you can, and at the end of the day you can look yourself in the mirror and ` win, lose or draw ` be happy with what you did, then you can't be upset with that. And the same thing in your` in your personal life. You` However you go through your day, if you can look at yourself in the mirror and be happy with what you see at the end of it, then that's` that's` that's a good day. That's a great day. 'I've always been keen on football. Um, the day I was born, my dad's mate turned up, um, 'to the hospital with a ball and Man United bag and shirt,' and so from then on it was kind of` yeah, that` that was it. I don't know if I had much say in the matter, but, you know, thankfully, fell in love with the game and playing ever since, pretty much. About 4 years old, I think, I played my first game. I was coaching at another club called, uh, Brooklyn` Brooklyn Northern United and had been there for a couple of years, but a good friend of mine was coaching at` at Seatoun, so him and a couple of other people at the club grabbed me and said, 'Look, we` we` we think you can do the job. We know you've got coaching experience. Would you take over?' And I said, 'Yeah, I will, so long as I can bring in my own players, 'because there's a whole group of guys that I want to` to bring across.' And so they were absolutely fine by it. Go right! Stay there! Seatoun is very much white, middle-class, quite well-to-do area, um, and so having a whole lot of African players turn up was` was definitely something new. Right from the very start, we became aware... I think the best way I can phrase it is that those of us that weren't of African descent became aware of the fact that there were times, uh, that racism was coming out, um, on a football field. We had a couple of episodes in our first year where I had players in tears after what they had been called on the` on the field, and there was an instance where Hamdi was trying to take a corner kick and a supporter was threatening to let his pit bull off the lead and` and, you know, let him go on him. We were quite successful, I guess you could say, after a couple of years, when we got here. That's when it, kind of` people just started looing at us and` and tackles that were` comments and stuff made during that time or during that year. That's when it, kind of` that's when we realised that there is a lot of, uh, racism in the` in the game, which is` is not what we want. You` You don't wanna hear kind of sort of stuff on football field. Um, I think what we should do is just go out there and play football ` leave the racism stuff. So Kick Racism Out, I mean, we` we started it as a movement, and` and the idea behind it was that for anybody that wanted to be a part of the movement they could, um, get a T-shirt or` or, you know, be at any events and` and just show their` their support for it. So rather than trying to, you know, treat things with a Band-Aid, let's get to the cause of it, and let's just get this` this thing of racism out of our game. LAID-BACK MUSIC PLAYERS CHATTER, LAUGH As soon as, um, Steve stood up and said, 'We're gonna make a stand. We're gonna do something about it,' he gave us all the option to` to say, 'Look, it's up to you. If you wanna join me, great; 'if not, it's up to you.' Um, and every single player in the team, every single player in the squad, right behind him. Absolutely no issues with just jumping in behind him and saying, 'Yeah, you're dead right. You know, we need to take a stand.' The effect was very very great. It went big. Couldn't have really asked for anything more. If` If we had to be at events, and we had to keep doing things, then we'd know that we weren't` we didn't make any progress, but the fact it was so quick, um, means that, for me, um, for now, it means that it's not in our game at the moment and, um, and I think the` the legacy of it means that we` we shouldn't see it for any time going forward. They` They` They enjoy being at Seatoun. I mean, we're not a very big club. We` We are a very small club, uh, and these guys could be playing elsewhere. I mean, they` they could be at other clubs. They could be at more successful clubs. But, um, they` they like the way that we do things, so` so they've` they're here with us now. We're` We're very thankful to have them. SUBDUED MUSIC Wellington's weather means you can't be oblivious to the forces of nature for too long. This memorial marks the place where the survivors of the Wahine disaster reached the shore after their ferry was driven against a reef in a massive storm in 1968. Of the 610 passengers and 123 crew members aboard, 53 people died. You see, the rescue teams were waiting for them over there on that side in Eastbourne, but because of the wind and the waves, the victims were pushed on to this shore, and it was only because of the local Seatoun residents, who hauled them out and warmed them up, that so many people actually survived. Local woman Tania Dyett has seen some extraordinary events over a long and fascinating lifetime, but one of her most treasured possessions traces her family's story to before the Russian Revolution. RELAXED MUSIC I live in Seatoun now, and I have lived in Seatoun for a long long time. I think I'm one of the oldest Seatounites. I teach yoga now, and even though I'm 90, my class is just wonderful. They all like it. Behind the shoulder line and interlace your fingers. From an old lady who is 90, it's just ridiculous, really, but some of them are worse than I am. Of course, I'm very flexible, me having been in f` in the tropics and everything. Not` Not only that, it's, um, easy for me. It's really easy for me. Stretch up. Make yourself taller. My parents are Russian. They both... Uh, but they didn't want to talk about Russia, because when the Communists, you know, won the war, that` that's it. Millions of Russians left. Well, some went to France, some went to Germany. Just before the Revolution, when they found out that, you know, law and ord` no police, no nothing, they would have definitely been killed. My mother and father wou` would have been killed. GENTLE PIANO MUSIC What happened when they got to the train station, I mean, my grandmother was there, and she had these three cases of` of silver and gold and all the treasures that they had accumulated, uh, uh, uh,... to give away, but, of course, they couldn't take them,... (CHUCKLES) because the train was chock-a-block ` absolutely chock-a-block ` of Russians trying to get away. It was the Trans-Siberian Train. With the train they went to` all the way down to` to China. You see? It finishes in China. After Russia, they went to China, and my father used to` he was able to play the piano without ever having read a note. He couldn't read music, but as soon as he heard a tune... Some people have that ability ` they can just, sort of, play it. And so he earned his living as a musician. (PLAYS VIOLIN) After China, we went to the Dutch East Indies. World War II broke out in 1939, didn't it? '39. So how old was I then? I'm` I'm not very good at a` arithmetic, but anyway... My father went to one` to` to the men's camp, and my mother and I went into the women's` women's camp, and that was a prisoners-of-war camp, yes. How long before I saw my father and my mother saw my father? Is, um, about three and a half years, isn't it? Yes. SUBDUED MUSIC I just wish my mother was here` was still here. Ev` Everything that my mother was... I can feel how she was. Somewhere there must be some strength. (EXHALES) Strength of character ` we must have that... and not cave in straight away. Yes, it's` it's really a` a work of art when you think of it, because, you know, it has these little buds, and then hanging down as well, and it's old gold, you see? Old gold, not` not` not that shiny gold. It's old gold. And I didn't know that it was so valuable. I really didn't know that it was so valuable. There is my mother wearing the pendant. And of course I` I gave it to my granddaughter. Mm. My granddaughter. Heather. Heather. Yes, it's an heirloom, all right, because` because apparently it's got something like Faberge was the jeweller of the ts` of the tsar` of the tsar and, uh, he made it. That doesn't matter so much. It's` It's extraordinary, the` the way that my grandmother managed to take it from Russia, where` and through China, where she was penniless, and then somehow managed to hang on to that it a prisoner-of` < Hang on to it. ...Japanese prisoner-of-war camp for four years, where you` if you had gold in your teeth you had a... (CHUCKLES) risk of losing your teeth, and then bring it to NZ. It's amazing... Yes. I suppose it is. ...how she managed to do that. Mm. My mother, uh, would be very happy to think that my daughter and my granddaughter saw the beauty of it. There is something about the past that we have to be proud of. We have to be proud of that. Yes. RELAXED MUSIC Having a baby in a country with no family support really is a challenge. At the time, um, my husband was working at Weta Digital, pulling some pretty crazy hours, so essentially, I was a solo mum. But gradually, I made friends who became like my family, and then things got a lot easier. By the time Jupiter was at kindy, I realised that we were surrounded by Vietnamese, Korean, Somali, Indian and Syrian kids, and we had fantastic nights of shared dinners where everybody would bring a traditional dish. And that's when I realised just how diverse my neighbourhood is. A local Frenchman became fixated on perfecting pate the way his grandmother used to make it. The result was so good that he turned it into a business. LAID-BACK MUSIC The navy brought me in NZ, um, and we actually stopped in Dunedin, Akaroa and Wellington. Um, the place was absolutely amazing. Um, I was blown away to actually see NZ. I live now in Seatoun, uh, for the last three years, uh, with my wife, Janette. And, um, it's a lovely, lovely suburb, uh, to live in. It's almost got the little village feel, um, within` of a small community, a bit what I had when I grew up as a kid in` in the bottom of the` of the Pyrenees in a small village. My grandma actually spent all her life, um, in the village, and she grew up, got married and still is there, as of today, in the same house. She was making all sorts of products. Um, she just cooked, um, a lot of the traditional products we got in the south-west of France, uh, from the cassoulet to, um, piperade from the Basque Country, to make her own, um, chickens and... pate and all sorts of different products from the south, from this area. My grandma is a lovely, uh, grandma, um, always thoughtful and` and very caring, uh, for people and family. Um, spent a lot of time cooking in this kitchen, uh, which is really lovely to` to see those pictures. That's` That's another picture of, um, my grandma and my grandfather when they were actually, uh, doing home cooking, um, on` on a large scale. As you can see the size of the salami, um, saucisson, uh, is actually sitting here on the table, uh, some serious cooking going on. CHEERFUL MUSIC We have a combination of pork meat ` of pork belly and shoulder in there ` and a bit of pork liver to bind that together. Also shallots, cos the shallots takes down the acidity of the liver, and mineral rock salt and cracked pepper. A very true, genuine product, exactly how grandma used to do it. It's not the most appealing, I guess, but it's what liver looks like when it comes out. (CHUCKLES) Very sloppy product. That's the fun part ` the mixing part ` which, um takes a little while, but you've just gotta get the liver and the meat to bind together. Oh, it tastes better than what it looks. It's just ground meat and, um, I use this device to pipe it through the jars. So it's just the good old method of putting that into a plastic bag, cut a corner and slowly fill up the jar. One of the big events in the` in the village was actually to kill the pig once a year. That was quite a` a big celebration in the village, so, um, a lot of the women were helping out, you know, and making of the cooking and the men were actually killing the pig, cutting into pieces and this and that. And that was a good time, at the end of the day, to get everybody sitting around a big table and get about, you know, 20, 25 people sitting there telling stories and singing songs and this and that. That was a lovely time. RELAXED MUSIC We sell our product every Sunday morning at Chaffers Market in Wellington. It's a very interesting market to be in, because it's a lot of traditional products, um, but they're all in their own, uh, specific area. So we're proud of being part of this market, which is almost of a niche market. Is this your, like, traditional, local recipe? Like your mother's recipe? < That's my grandma's one. Yeah. Yeah, she's, um, she's hard core. But, you know what, it actually tastes better, I reckon, because the NZ pork is much better quality than what we've got in` Yeah. > ...you know, in France. We have to actually, um, do a lot of tastings to get people getting used to the texture and the` and the flavours, because it's a bit of a different pate, a bit of misconception between all sorts of pate that exist. My grandma is really proud of, uh, me carrying on the tradition. I` I did come back to France, um, to see grandma. I actually brought back some of the product, um, which` on her own words were, 'It's not too bad.' So taking it from her, I think it's pretty good, but she'll never admit that it tastes better than hers. PEACEFUL MUSIC Sadly, South Africa is not in a great place at the moment. It's complicated. Corruption is rife, crime is bad and the services are falling to pieces. But it's also a place of great people and beauty and opportunity. So it's hard, but I have to love it from a distance. By a very happy contrast, though, Seatoun is safe and friendly. The coffee's great, the beach is close, the kids are happy, and we're a stone's throw from Wellington's film Mecca, which makes us feel a little bit special. I think with the influence of my roots plus the joy of my new home, I'm lucky enough to get the best of both worlds. Captions by Tariqa Satherley. Edited by Ingrid Lauder. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2015