1 Captions by Tom Pedlar. Edited by June Yeow. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2016 RELAXED, MELLOW MUSIC Back in the 1850s, Devonport was separated from the rest of the North Shore by a thin strip of causeway, like a narrow neck ` beach on one side, mangrove swamp on the other. The swamp was drained and filled, and now Narrow Neck is a quiet seaside suburb tucked between its flashy neighbours, Devonport and Takapuna. RELAXED MUSIC I've lived here for more than 10 years. It's an eclectic community, home to a lot of creative people. And that makes me, as an actor and musician, and as a person of British, Caribbean and Sierra Leonean heritage, feel very much at home. Come with me as we explore the community. We'll meet a woman whose art references the British steel town she grew up in. I think the concept of The Big Man was all about displacement. Not just through war zone, but, um, environmentally displaced as well. A French couple cooks a dish that reminds them of home. I` I love particularly these dishes because this is a good memory for me with my, uh, Brittany family ` my cousin, my aunt, uncle. Uh, really nice. We'll walk in the footsteps of Cook Island recruits in the First World War. I don't really think they knew what they were signing up for. The severity of the situation, of the world at that time. I think for a lot of them it was signing up to go on an adventure. Um, it wasn't until they were on that adventure that they realised what they had actually got themselves into. And an American man shares a little of his musical legacy. Well, I play guitar, I play mandolin, I play bass guitar, I play double bass and I can fake it fairly well on a banjo and a violin as well. I'm Maxine Cunliffe, and this is my neighbourhood. RELAXED MUSIC Fort Takapuna has a prime defensive position overlooking the Hauraki Gulf and Narrow Neck Beach. It's been an important military site for centuries, first for Maori and later for those who signed up to fight for king and country. Growing up, I was often challenged if I called myself English. People would say to me, 'Yes, but where do you really come from?' Being born in England, with an English-born father, I found this frustrating. Yes, I looked Afro-Caribbean and I was very proud of that, but I also had deep roots in the country of my birth. It made it very challenging working out where my allegiance was supposed to lie. Standing in this place, where thousands of young men have gathered over the years before going off to war, I can only imagine how some of them would have felt, going off to fight for a country they didn't necessarily identify as their own. My mother was born in a Far North town called Ahipara, just out of Kaitaia. And my father was born in a small pacific atoll called te uru-o-te-'atu or else known as Danger Island or Pukapuka, which is in the Northern Group of the Cook Islands. Been in the NZ navy now for 20 years. About 500 Cook Islanders served in World War One. I had 14 relatives that served in the Cook Island contingent during World War One. I don't really think they knew what they were signing up for. I don't think they knew the severity of the situation of the world at that time. I think for a lot of them it was signing up to go on an adventure. Um, it wasn't until they were on that adventure that they realised what they had actually got themselves into. From what I was told they were` they were ashamed because they` they left their families. They left home with the understanding that they were definitely going to come back. They were going on an adventure. They were going to NZ. They were going to new places and these places to them, you know, sounded like fun places to go to. After coming back from the war, uh, I was told that they didn't want anything to do with the military. Many of the Cook Islanders actually threw their medals away, um, and wanted nothing to do whatsoever, um, with the military. Didn't want to recollect any, uh, of the stories or any of the experiences that happened during the war. This is Fort Takapuna. This is where I was stationed after completing initial training in the NZ navy. Fort Takapuna is also where my relatives were stationed prior to proceeding on the various battles, uh, during World War One. So, this is the barracks where 15 of my relatives were accommodated and were trained before leaving for World War One. I think coming here, for them, would have been a big shock ` coming to a different country where they didn't speak a word of English; experiencing a different culture and just feeling like total foreigners in a foreign land. For the three that returned, they never ever spoke of their experiences of the war. In fact they were ashamed to have served in the war because they were leaving their families behind. MELLOW MUSIC There are quite a large number of Pacific Island people in the navy. It's only in the last five to six years where we've started to notice a big influx of Pacific Island people come through. Malo e lelei! CHEERING My role as a leader in the Pacific Island leadership team, where we're finding that Pacific Islanders were struggling, um, when they were joining the navy, just understanding navy life and how different it was from the life that they come` came from as a civilian. Um, as most Pacific Island cultures are brought up in a very strict, um, background, going to church and, you know, having very restrictive parents, and then coming to the navy and having so much freedom, um, they can sort of get sidetracked a little bit. So that's why we have a Pacific Island mentoring group, to, um, mentor our` our young Pacific Islanders through, um, military life. There's no agenda. Just as we do it in the island way. Just sit down and talk about anything ` any issues that we have, um, maybe in the workplace, maybe, um, someone's not happy where they're working or anything, really. Just bring anything out on to the table. I think it's important to have this group because I think only Pacific Island people can help Pacific Island people. Only Pacific Island people will think like Pacific Island people. ALL SING IN TONGAN Yeah, my time in the navy has been awesome. 20 years, you know, you do a lot of stuff. Um, I've seen the world so many times. We do a lot of work for the Pacific Islands, and that's why our people now view the NZ Defence Force, um, you know, right up there. They're really held in high regard. I think my relatives would be proud, um, that I've joined the military, uh, just in what I've achieved and how I've helped, um, not only the navy but helped my own people, helped my own culture, um, even trying to recruit more of my family into the military, just to tell them, you know, it's a good life. Um, I think they would be proud. They would be proud of me. RELAXED MUSIC I think food was the main thing that defined our culture when growing up. Mum's Christmas dinners were a mixture of European, Caribbean and African food. We'd make hot chocolate and ginger beer from the spices my Caribbean granny would send across. I loved the guava cheese, which was like Caribbean Turkish delight. Sadly, I never learned those recipes. Moving to NZ has meant that that side of my culture has been lost. But when I go to London and visit my sisters, it's like stepping into a time warp, taking me back to those family meals when I was young. Food connects you directly to your memories. MELLOW MUSIC The name of Chateaubriant is from a small town in Brittany. I grew up close Chateaubriant, so it's the same area so we decided to give the same name. I'm Anne-Constance. I'm Jean-Marc. And we met, uh, in Aix-en-Provence in south of France and, uh, Jean-Marc is born in Tunisia, in a French colony. But his grandparents came from Italy` Sicilia. From Sicilia. Well, about the neighbourhood, we like, especially in NZ, the contact with the people. Everybody- You go on the` on the street, you go outside, and everybody say, 'Hello, how are you?' There is a smile, a` just, the life is nice. It's not like in Europe where nobody talks. You don't know your neighbour. We eat at home the French food. We` Jean-Marc cook every` every evening when we come back. Jean-Marc, his first job was chef, and he worked in the cruise, luxury cruise. French cruise, yes. Yeah. The name was Paquet. Paquet. Tonight we will cook the galette, from Brittany. Yeah. Um, this shall be because this is a time for carnival. So this is a time in France to eat crepe. And our kids like it. MELLOW MUSIC So, today we will prepare the crepe with the buckwheat flour, speciality from Brittany. And, so we need to finish for that the` Paste. Paste, yes. We` we need to` to add more water. French family, like in Brittany, are Italian family. Spend lot of time together, cousin, uncle, aunt in the same house. Big table, we start the food` the lunch at 11, maybe, and we finish at midnight. (LAUGHS) I use my tissue with butter on the pan, and I add a large spoon of paste, and I turn around. RELAXED MUSIC I love particularly these dishes because this is a good memory for me with my Brittany family ` my cousin, my aunt, uncle. Uh, really nice. Our kids, uh, like, uh, like this, yeah. Yeah. Because we try to continue the sort of, um` Tradition. ...tradition with our kids. Yes. And we like it. Yeah. Cooking, um, and spend time with friends and family. (SPEAKS FRENCH) Bon appetit! Bon appetit! When, uh, we` We see back we have, uh, yeah, we say no, we have no regrets. No regrets. Very very nice. (GRUNTS) (LAUGHS) It's very good, and I want another one, Mum. Please. (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) We feel at home in NZ. Yes, definitely. This is our home. CLASSICAL CELLO MUSIC PLAYS I come from a family of six children. As the second youngest, I was off the radar, so pretty much able to choose my own path. By the age of 9 I knew I wanted to be a performer, an actor or musician. My daughter Alice has caught the same bug. She's a dancer. I bought this old cello with the money that my Sierra Leonean grandparents put aside for the education of their grandchildren. It got me through music college. I don't use it much now and it's quite fragile, but I like to keep it as symbol of their love, their commitment to education and their vision for the future generations of their family. It's wonderful how a musical instrument can be the conduit for so much for than just the music itself. RELAXING MUSIC We spent eight years planning and saving and scrimping and, um, shopping for boats, and in 1994 we` we took off to sail around the world. Sold everything we had. All of our possessions were on the boat. We had a five-year plan and enough money, we thought, to get around the planet. So, it turns out that we fell madly in love with the South Pacific. So we sailed in circles for five years around the South Pacific, and eventually, as we had known we would, we ran out of money and had to settle somewhere, and we chose NZ to be our home. So, Trudy and I lived aboard this boat for eight years. We travelled five years of that, and, uh, the last three years we were living aboard working corporate jobs here in Auckland. There are a lot of people ask, uh, you know, 'How do you get used to living in such a small space?' The fact is I was completely comfortable and at home the moment I stepped aboard. So it was not problem at all. FOLK MUSIC PLAYS Well, when we moved here to Narrow Neck, we moved straight from the boat into, uh, this house here. So the biggest adjustment was having so much space. (LAUGHS) FOLK MUSIC PLAYS I was born in a small town called Mexico, Missouri, in the United States. It's a small town, about 11,000 people. Grew up there, went to high school there. I first picked up the guitar when I was 18 and pretty much became obsessed with it immediately and have been ever since. FOLK MUSIC PLAYS Well, I play guitar, I play mandolin, I play bass guitar, I play double bass and I can fake it fairly well on a banjo and a violin as well. This is a Santa Cruz Tony Rice guitar made for the Santa Cruz guitar company, made in 1981. I was really fortunate to get this guitar from a collector in Dallas named Sid Gilchrist. This guitar, uh, was not owned by a guitar player, just a collector bought it new from the fa` from a company and, yeah, I was really lucky to get it from him. So, at the time that I` I discovered this guitar, um, you know, I had very little money. I was` Just enough to pay the bills and nothing extra for frivolous things like a guitar. So I took a night job working for three months to get enough dosh to get this guitar, and it was one of the best things I've ever done. This guitar has brought a lot of joy into my life. It's` It's great. We did have instruments on the yacht while were travelling. But my Santa Cruz guitar was too precious. I didn't want to take that on the boat. So, I'd been apart from the guitar for about eight years and you always wonder if it's, uh, going to be as good as you remembered or not. But still sometimes I pick up that guitar, put new strings on it and start playing it and I just get teary cos it's so beautiful sounding. It's an amazing instrument. Uh, I probably would have to rank this guitar as one of my most treasured possessions, cos it` it's feels more like a friend than just a` a piece of wood. Um, and it's been through a lot with me. There's been, just` the musical journey I've had with this guitar and the wonderful people that I've met and been able to play with. Um, yeah, so, it's been sort of a glue that brings it all` all together. In the acoustic music scene in NZ, the Auckland Folk Festival would be the largest one. So to be headlining at that festival is a great honour. It's sort of the pinnacle of folk music in` in this country. UPBEAT FOLK MUSIC PLAYS # Here we go again, familiar feeling as you dance, # hold them in your hand, # the heartstrings as you pull and you dance. # Playing music is like great therapy. You know, if you're in a joyous mood you can express that joy through the music. If you're in a sad place, playing music can be a solace and a comfort and then everything in between. Music just makes everything better. ALL CHEER My mother was born in St Lucia in the West Indies. My father was born in London. But his parents came from Sierra Leone, a place that has ties with Britain that go back hundreds of years. He was sent to a British colonial boarding school in Nigeria. He then won a chemistry scholarship to King's College, Cambridge, and then went on to study medicine at University College London. As a GP in Shepherd's Bush in the 1950s and 60s, my father was a community leader. He was a sole practitioner in a challenging neighbourhood with lots of new immigrants and poverty. He was a cultured man who loved reading and classical music, and he had a strong sense of social justice. I believe the values that you grow up with can set you on a course for life. EASY-GOING MUSIC Birmingham is quite an industrial city. A lot of heritage. It's the second biggest city in the UK. I worked in a little foundry doing everything from mould-making to chasing the metal to pouring. Yeah, every aspect of it, really. So it was great. I learned a lot. My dad was a full-on guy. He was 100mph, workaholic, philanthropic. He used to try and get involved in a lot of charity work and trying, um, to help, um, underprivileged kids and underprivileged people, especially immigrants. So we discussed politics of the day, things like Nelson Mandela still being locked up. And again, referencing the music ` Free Nelson Mandela, um. Think that was a Birmingham band that did that song. So always aware of what's going on, um, in the world and always interested in what's going on. In my work I would say the overriding themes would probably be animal-based, um, politics, um, human rights, perhaps. This is Little Big Man. He's a marquette of a bigger piece that's waiting to go into the grounds of the Lower Hutt City Hospital. Think the concept of the Big Man was all about, um, displacement, really, and a commentary on, um, the millions of people that are displaced. Not just through war zone, but, um, environmentally displaced as well. And so I figured he was quite a good fit for that and representing those people who are displaced. And also, the hoody is very symbolic in itself. So it's a sign of the times, it's a sign of security. It also has a few ominous undertones as well. So, again, it's ambiguous. It can be taken in many ways. Step back and look at what you've got. Has it got a balance? Does the eye go to one place? If it does you need to change the balance. I think it's important to get out, for my sanity and for, um` in terms of looking at other artists. I think it's really important to know what's going on. I just think of something darker, maybe a red or a mustardy` Yeah, yeah, yeah. And in here, too. Shoulder, and this other arm. Yeah. Doing this art course, of course, yeah, I meet lots of different people. Um, different age groups, different abilities. Um, and, yeah, I bump into them around and about, on the beach, or` Um, so some people have become friends as well and, um, yeah. Animals are always important in my life. And certain animal characters tell a story more potently and seem to have a better fit for the particular story. The name of this piece is The Learning. The initial conception about learning, and the, um, book representing, um, some kind of religious text and the, um` the negative aspect of the indoctrination of the forced learning. And then, because my father died in the middle of the making of this piece, it changed the whole dynamic. And so that` It's more of a piece about love and, um, closeness. My dad, yeah, really liked my work and was always very encouraging. Art can definitely raise awareness, and it should raise awareness of issues, politically and emotionally. Um, otherwise there's no point doing it if it doesn't do that. (LAUGHS) It's, um, I guess, well, it's why I do it. Um, it's a commentary on the world around me, really. It's quite simple. RELAXED MUSIC Every year on New Year's Eve, the neighbourhood at Narrow Neck comes out to watch the fireworks off the Sky Tower. We celebrate just for that brief moment and then we quietly go home and get on with our lives for the next year. I love the community I live in and the friendships I've made. It took a while but I truly feel I'm at home here now. My wish for Narrow Neck, and in fact all neighbourhoods in NZ, is that we continue to be open and see that those who may look different from us on the outside are actually just like us. I'd love that. Captions by Tom Pedlar. Edited by June Yeow. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2016