1 Captions by Jessica Boell. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2016 JANGLY GUITAR MUSIC Northcote Point sits on a peninsula that juts into Auckland Harbour just west of the bridge. Once the wharf here was a bustling transport hub for people and produce travelling north or south. But after the bridge opened in 1959, the area became a peaceful backwater, which helped preserve its old homes and heritage buildings. I left Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea when I was 12 years old. The island was caught up in a civil war. My parents wanted me to be safe, and they wanted me to get an education. I always had it in the back of my mind that I would return, but time had passed and I soon realized that NZ is my home. Northcote Point has been welcoming to me over the years. Let's meet some of the locals that make this quiet neighbourhood so inviting. A woman from South Africa pinpoints the parallels with her grandmother's life. I often wonder what she would have gone through and what she was thinking when she was holding it. It just ma` It reminds me that I come from somewhere. The Northcote Point Tongan Church celebrates the importance of education to their community. Growing up in the Islands, school has always been the number one priority in our household. So if you have something to do with school, you could get away with almost anything. A woman with Nigerian parents wants to ensure her kids grow up connected to their culture. My children are also learning to be able to be independent. And they do help out with the cleaning, with the washing, with the cooking in the house, and it's not seen as a chore. And a Fijian-born local takes a stand for young Pacific women. I don't want other young women to go through what I went through, and I suppose that's life. You know, you try and teach people younger than you not to do the stupid decisions you make. I'm Florence Korokoro, and this is my neighbourhood. THEME MUSIC TRANQUIL MUSIC In 1989 a giant Australian-run copper mine on Bougainville sparked conflict over land ownership and profit. It escalated to a violent fight for independence against the Papua New Guinea government. Some people say that this was the biggest conflict in Oceania since World War II. Many thousands of people died or were misplaced. After the violence began, my parents packed us kids up and sent us to boarding school in Australia. I didn't see my family for six long years. My mum made sure I took my rosary beads with me. They made me feel so close to her even though I was so far away. Sometimes it's the little things that connect us to family that we've left behind. REFLECTIVE MUSIC I'm the gallery manager at Blikfang in Northcote Point, and we do exhibitions, so I curate some shows and we do events as well. I did my honours in art history, and I'm currently busy with a master's. It's called Blikfang Art and Antiques. Blikfang is a Danish word for eye trap, so it kind of entraps the eye and investigates why certain things attract certain people's attention and why other things just don't. My name is Janie van Woerden, and I was born in South Africa. I love anything that's glamorous and old and fashion-y. Old chandeliers ` I mean, come on. Who doesn't love a chandelier? There's a pink chandelier. Everyone needs a pink chandelier. And, um, oh, there's just` there's just too many treasures to count because you just find new things all the time, hidden things. It's about secrets, isn't it? And mystery. (LAUGHS) SUBDUED PIANO MUSIC My childhood, I` My sisters would probably say I was a spoilt brat. Um, I'm the youngest of three, so there's seven and eight years between me and my sisters, and I was just very fortunate. My parents had their own business, and I grew up in the shop and did pretty much whatever I wanted to do. My grandparents left the Netherlands I think in 1950, 1955, just to make a better life, a different life. Europe was a tough place, and South Africa was doing well at the time. It was a new nation being built. That's my granddad, and that's my grandma. That was his first baking cart. He would put the bread in there and he would go and deliver the bread. Grandma was a seamstress. She was a nanny as well; she looked after kids. And then she worked in Granddad's bakery doing ` I don't know. What would she do? Admin and management and be the strong force behind the strong man. My Grandmother's name was Bep Sonnenberg. And she was married to Jacob van Woerden. Um, she was a very strong woman, very graceful. Um, very sensitive. I have my grandmother's little sewing tin. It's supposed to be a needle tin, and it was one of her little belongings that she kept for a very long time until she passed away and it came to me. And it's a special thing because it does remind me of where I came from. Knowing somebody had gone through, from Europe to South Africa and now from South Africa, it's in NZ. It's really neat. That's her name that she, kind of, etched out in there. Sonnenberg, B Sonnenberg. And on the back, B Sonnenberg again and the date ` 1938. It's so special. So, she would have been young. It looks like a young girl's handwriting still. It's not quite confident and independent yet, but it's her name; it's her mark. It opens and you have to just keep turning it, and then you can find your little pins in there. It's a little treasure. It makes me feel like I belong somewhere, and I often wonder what she would have gone through and what she was thinking when she was holding it. Was she just working away doing` making something wonderful or did she have other thoughts? It just reminds me that I come from somewhere. Yes, she was definitely a bit of a war hero. During the war, in her town, the SS came and they were all marched at gunpoint to somewhere. Everybody knew what was going on. It was hostile, it was violent and, um, being a young girl herself, she saw two children that she knew from town and she, kind of, held onto their hands and slowly stepped back. And every time one of the soldiers looked away, she would step back another time and another time and eventually she found her gap and she disappeared down an alleyway and hid in a cellar for a few days until it was safe to come out. And she probably, ultimately, saved two kids' lives. So yeah, a bit of a war hero. (CHUCKLES) I would definitely give it to my daughter and... little things. I think it's something she'll appreciate, especially with those dates on it. It's` And it's a tin. Everybody loves little tins and little boxes and little places to put secret things. So I think it'll definitely stay with her, yeah. TRANQUIL PIANO MUSIC The Bridgeway is one of my favourite places in Northcote Point. I think that the cinema really brings people together. It provides a way for us to share stories from all over the world. In 2011 I was cast as Hugh Laurie's wife in the film 'Mr Pip' which was set on Bougainville island during the war. It was an overwhelming experience for me being back at home, filming a story about recent history. Many of the cast members lived through the war. For them, it wasn't acting; it was re-enacting. Music and drama can be a powerful way for people to process their sadness and grief. Sometimes what we create can, in turn, help other people deal with their challenges. URBAN MUSIC My connection to Northcote Point, this amazing place, is I was adopted from Fiji and straight to here, so it's ` say, when I was 6. I have lived on five different houses on this street. Um, I think the majority have been torn down and new houses been built, but, um, a couple are still here. Yeah, a lot of memories on this street in the different houses. I never wanted to know about my birth country. Um, I, kind of... I suppose I... hated it cos I felt like it didn't want me, but really` then when you're older, you learn what adoption is. But, yeah, so, in the last four or five years, I've felt a real close connection to Fiji. I have been doing music for ` professionally, like, earning money ` for only about five years now. Before that I was never really interested in music. I don't know, the music bug just hit me, and I met my now-husband, Jacob, and it just started rolling from there. I suppose, you know, when you can buffer off someone else and their creativity, it, kind of, rubs off on you. So I was like, 'Oh, I can earn money off this.' And I started to enjoy it, but it was damn hard work. When I first started out, my style of music was R & B-pop, but I write more ` I don't know how to put it ` like, eclectic soul? I kind of write like that, but then it's like soul/funk. Back in 2010, and I won the best female for my single Wonderful. That was off my album called Infatuated. And then in 2015 I won Best Female for my EP called Organised Chaos, Which meant a lot to me because it wasn't just one song; it was the five or six songs combined. # Give me the simple things in life. # There's nothing I want more # than keeping my heart pure. # Mm-hm. 'So, my life hasn't always been amazing, jellybeans, unicorns.' A while ago I was unfortunately in a domestic and sexually abusive relationship um, for a number of years, and... coming away from that was really hard. # Everybody # says that nothing's gonna change, # so you should stay the same. I don't want other young women to go through what I went through, and I suppose, that's life. You know, you try and teach people younger than you not to do the stupid decisions you make, and that's why I created the GAS project. # Take away the distractions, # the shiny lights. It seems money don't bring you everything. # GAS, the GAS Project ` Getting Along Side young Pacific women and refuelling them, GAS, for their next destination. You know, sometimes young women, young girls get exhausted. They give up on their dreams; they give up on where they` their goals. You know, they quit uni, they quit school, especially in the Islands. And it's where I can go in. Refuel them, you know. Hopefully spark or ignite something... in them again. So we share our stories as candidly as we can, as raw as we can. And we work alongside organisations that are in that area, so it's not just us going in, 'This is how you do it.' I want the GAS project to be... a project that doesn't just slip in and out of an area or a Pacific` young Pacific Island girl's life but one that leaves, like, a lifelong impact. (VOCALISES) # I give up everything... # 'I do want to release more music to earn a lot more money to put into the GAS project. 'So I'll go and perform, get the money, and chuck it back into the youth, you know?' Proud of her progress. Proud of her just being real. Um, and, you know, not really trying to be like someone` someone else, you know. Her strive of just being herself is what I like about her being an artist. At the same time, you know, it challenges my box, you know, of the way I do things, and` I love her, and I'm, yeah, proud of her. I find that, from my own experience, music has done for me and healed me in ways that doctors never could. So no matter how much meds I had... you know, depression after the domestic thing. No matter how many breaks I had, music has helped in ways, not only me listening to it ` other artists that I like ` but me writing and releasing. Yeah, definitely it's healed me. Still is, still is. PLAINTIVE PIANO PULSATING MUSIC The Northcote Tavern opened in 1884. It originally provided overnight accommodation for people crossing the harbour, but after the bridge split that journey up, it became more of a local watering hole for people to get together. Bougainville wasn't always part of Papua New Guinea. I mean, geographically, it's closer to the Solomon Islands. We look different. Our skin is darker. Folks back at home feel that it's very important to define ourselves as Bougainvillians. Having lived so many years abroad, I consider myself as a Papua New Guinean. Just like so many other nationalities, the Papua New Guinean community in NZ really bonds when we get together over a meal. CONTEMPLATIVE MUSIC I was born in England to Nigerian parents who emigrated to the UK in the '60s. They left Nigeria because of all the corruption and the wars going on and to give their children a better life, really. Morning, Angeline. Morning, Raewyn. Morning. You're just in time for a cuppa. Oh, good. Um, I work at the Northcote Point community creche, and it's a really nice, close-knit community. We have lots of children here who live locally and also children who come from other areas of the Shore. Being at the creche really differs from when I was growing up. Um, in the UK, you had different communities, but we tended to` like, the Nigerian community would tend to keep together, um, so not really mixing so much with all the European or other nationalities. At Northcote Point, especially at the creche, I see lots of different families mixing together, which I really missed, um, about growing up in the UK. JANGLY GUITAR MUSIC Being a solo mum can be challenging as well as rewarding for me. Being Nigerian, the mother used to always take part in what they do in the house and they always took charge of things, so I think for me, that hasn't been anything different. So shall we get some tomatoes there? So we'll need some tomatoes. Yep, that'll be good. And so I feel that my children are also learning to be able to be independent. And they do help out with the cleaning, with the washing, with the cooking in the house. And it's not seen as a chore, whereas they just see it as being part of the household. All right, shall we get some chillies? No, no, no, no, no. (LAUGHS) Aw. I learned to cook by just being in the kitchen and by watching. We had no recipe books, uh, we had no internet to Google anything up when I was growing up as well. It was always cooked one way one day, and another day they will add a different spice to it. so the food almost tastes the same all the time, but the spices were always changed around. UPLIFTING MUSIC Today I'm going to be cooking some Jollof rice. So, the first thing I have to do is the stew that goes with the rice. Tomatoes are a common ingredient in Nigerian meals. Tomatoes are easy to grow, so it's a cheap, nutritious way for people to eat, um, in Nigeria. So a lot of our food is actually based with tomatoes in there. I've had to amend this recipe for the girls. One thing they often add to these type of stews is chillies, and not just one but two chillies, but with the girls, they won't eat anything hot, so I have to take the chillies out of the recipe. I do, sometimes. I miss the chillies, and I find that when I do go out, I order something spicy just to make up for not having to eat it at home. Is that enough? No, if you could do the whole thing, that'd be great. Thank you. My mum probably thinks that my cooking is not going to be as good as hers. When she first arrives in NZ, I normally do the cooking, and I do it my way. But then I notice that she soon goes to the supermarket, buys the ingredients while I'm out and she does a big pot of it. That way I don't have to do the cooking any more. I used to think she was helping me out to do the cooking, but I think she actually prefers her version, but I think she's proud that I can actually do the cooking as well. ALL: Hi! Hi, girls. Hi, Di. How are you? Nice to see you. I have my friend Dianne and her husband, Glen, coming to share the meal with us. I met Dianne when I started coffee group, so I've known Dianne for 12 years, and we've always been very good friends since then. Yes, she's just been that sister that you need when your, um, when your own family is on the other side of the world. Smells good. So this is actually a deconstructed Jollof rice, and normally when you cook it the Nigerian way, you have the rice and the stew cooked together. GLEN: And is there a particular part of Nigeria this would come from? Um, usually from the south. The Yoruba tribe will eat this as well. So, enjoy. Thank you. Looks fabulous. Yes, it's nice to see Jordan and Honor enjoy the food and also for their friends as well, May and Lewis, to come and share it with us. As they get older, hopefully they'll be able to cook this meal for their friends as well, and also show it to their children when they're older as well. Keep on the tradition. SUBDUED MUSIC This is my daughter Abadon. Just last month I took her to Bougainville in Papua New Guinea for the first time. I could tell that it was a bit of a culture shock for you, wasn't it? Yes. The sandflies? Yeah? And a bit of an upset tummy? Yeah. What was that from? Eating raw peanuts. Raw peanut? Wow! And what did you enjoy best about it? Going swimming because when you get in, it's warm, and there's also big waves. Mm-hm. Although I love taking Abby home to meet my family, I know that Northcote Point is her home. She has so many more opportunities to learn here. Lots of Pasifika people recognise that education is the key. That's why Education Sunday is quite an important annual event for the local Tongan church. GENTLE ACOUSTIC GUITAR MUSIC My parents wanted us to move to NZ because they wanted us to get a better opportunity with education. In Tonga, we go as far as high school. There's no continuing from high school. You just try to get a job from where you are, whereas in NZ, there's a better opportunity for you. Education is very important to my parents. Maybe on a scale of one to 10, they probably sit at 11. Growing up in the Islands, we have to play our role of being in a big family ` house chores and everything, but school has always been a number-one priority in our household. So if you have something to do with school, you could get away with almost anything. (LAUGHS) I've done a Bachelor in Food Technology. And that's pretty much about improving existing products that are out there in the market, or innovating of new products. I think my parents are extremely proud. I think it's more of a relief, being the youngest in the family and accomplishing a degree from university. It's been a day they've been looking forward to for a very long time. ALL SING TONGAN HYMNS So, our family attend the Tongan Methodist Church in Northcote Point. It's very similar to the one that we had attended in Tonga. We wear the traditional Tongan, um` almost covered from head to toe with the Ta'ovala, the mats that we wore` we wear on the outside. It's just a respectful way of dressing up. We have to have the Ta'ovala on. Laulotaha is a mentoring programme that our minister Tevita and Valeti had started when they came into our church. It's a one-on-one session. Volunteering mentors come in and mentor our students. So, mentoring involves just having a one-hour session with each kid. Uh, for primary school we just mainly do literacy and numeracy. Do you have a favourite subject? You don't like maths more than English or`? Uh, I like maths. Like maths. The Laulotaha Mentoring programme is not a homework centre because it is a positive approach. We Pacific Island people have been operating within a deficit model. We always play catch-up. Laulotaha, or 'excellence', is the opposite of that. It's a positive model. We don't wait for our kids to fall off the cliff. We support them, we help them. We tell them that they can do it and they can fly off the tops of mountains. UPLIFTING PIANO MUSIC Education Sunday happens once a year, every year. It's the only Sunday that we can be excused to wear our uniforms. So if you have shorts as your uniform, it's like your one day you could wear shorts to church and you won't be told off. So, when I was growing up I always looked forward to this day so I could wear my uniform. It's the only day that if you wear your uniform, you can go sit at the front table, which was like, Oh my God, like, you know. With us Tongans, we have the hierarchy levels, and we would never get that chance to go sit at the front table unless you're a minister or you're a wife of a minister. On that Sunday we get people who have graduated, professors come into church and talk to you about their life journey, um, some motivational speeches to try and encourage us that are still at school to go further. My speech today will be on Laulotaha. It just basically means excellence and wanting the kids to strive for the best despite all the difficulties that they will go through. (SPEAKS TONGAN) 'I'm being a motivator to the school kids and to the parents as well and just because I've done 'tertiary school and just to be a, I don't know, a role model to the younger ones.' (SPEAKS TONGAN) APPLAUSE One day I'll walk into the shopping centre to do some grocery shopping with my kids and I'll say that, 'Hey, that's my product that I invented.' (CHUCKLES) That's an ultimate dream, yeah. REFLECTIVE MUSIC One of my favourite quotes from the film Mr Pip is about what the people of Bougainville went through during the war. 'We've all lost a lot in recent times. 'Those losses remind us of the things that we could never lose, 'our mind, our imagination and our great expectations.' That's my wish for new NZers, too ` that we keep our great expectations. Captions by Jessica Boell. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2016