LIGHT-HEARTED PERCUSSIVE MUSIC Captions by Alex Walker. Edited by Faith Hamblyn. Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2016. CROSS SIGNAL BLIPS RELAXED PIANO MUSIC There was a river that flowed here once, right through the heart of Auckland City. Hone Tuwhare's words are still etched in Aotea Square to tell its tale. What once was Horotiu is now Queen Street, the spine of Auckland's bustling CBD, splitting it right down the middle. RELAXED MUSIC CONTINUES To the east is all the old, grand colonial sites ` the museum, the art gallery, the High Court. But the west has always been a little different, always had its own certain charm ` from the 19th-century opium dens of Chinatown to the glitz and the glamour of the casino. My family lived in Cairo, but migrated to Auckland in 1997. We moved to the North Shore, which is not the most diverse of neighbourhoods, so for me, coming into the city to work as a journalist or to perform poetry made me feel like I was part of a diverse and accepting community. It's a place where a lot of us feel a real sense of belonging. In this episode of Neighbourhood, we'll meet an intersex woman who can't return to the country of her birth. I was attacked in the street, and the situation was so terrible that I was so afraid to ask for help and the police, and not even people in my family knew what happened to me. A Singaporean-Indian actor discovers theatre can help him connect with his culture. 'Prior to this, when I was in Singapore, Shanghai or Australia,' I had never even` I don't even know anything much about Indian theatre. It's only been here that I've managed to, in a way, learn a little bit about it, yeah. We'll explore the challenges of living in the inner city with a young baby. 'Although it's very important for him to learn new things, 'when he's stuck in that small space,' so he don't have enough to do... in that` that restricted space. And we'll share Passover with a family from the local synagogue. It means, kind of, like, to get together with your family, and, like, it's just a good time to spend with your family, and there's good food every year. I'm Mohamed Hassan, and this is my neighbourhood. CHEERFUL TINKLY MUSIC ELEVATOR BELL DINGS INTRIGUING MUSIC I was 8 when my family moved from Egypt to Auckland. Facing a language barrier in my first year of school was an enormous hurdle. It made me feel isolated for a long time. INTRIGUING MUSIC CONTINUES I also had a terrible stutter, and I just didn't wanna talk. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, I ended up choosing paths that forced me to talk up and articulate, and now I'm a performance poet, and I also work as a radio journalist at Radio NZ. I'm lucky that I found my voice and that I'm able to tell stories about NZ and discover a little bit more about myself in the process. DELICATE PIANO MUSIC I've always been a city person. I grew up in Singapore, and prior to this, we were in Shanghai ` huge city. We've always lived in the centre of the city, and, uh, I just find there's a lot more energy there. And because I love the theatre as well, it's a lot more convenient to get to the theatre spots, yeah. So, yeah. And we don't drive, so it all works out. Yeah. (CHUCKLES) I think there's a lot to see here in the city. It's, uh, probably the most multicultural part of Auckland, I think. Uh, if you walk down Queen Street, you can hear a variety of languages and see people from many different countries. DELICATE PIANO MUSIC CONTINUES I think the idea of, uh, wanting to know exactly where you're from... never really comes to your mind until you leave your country, I think, so, yeah. So I took it for granted that, yes, I` we always` we knew that we were` that we are of Indian origin, but... (SIGHS) as to the question of, 'What does that mean?' It was` It was quite, uh,... a fluid question. It was something that... It was... A) I'd never really thought about it, and` and` and I didn't think it was that important initially. Prayas Theatre Group is a` is an Indian theatre group based in Auckland, and what` They've been around for about 11 years. It's a community theatre, and they're very inclusive of anyone who's interested in theatre. Their angle is, uh, telling Indian stories in English, basically. Um, I've been with them since I got here in 2014. Initially, I... I wasn't really attracted to it. I` I` I'd never done anything remotely Indian ` or eastern, for that matter ` but it was actually my wife who insisted or forced me to` to audition for that, which was` which was, on hindsight, the best piece of advice that I've ever had. Thought I would stop by. (CLEARS THROAT) Nice skull cap ` very trad. Going back to the roots, eh? Flight delayed? Rubbish airline. Better get used to it. Nothing works in India. (SCOFFS) At the moment, I'm working on their latest, uh, production, which is called Love N Stuff. It's a comedy, and I actually play one of the lead roles. I play this character called Mansoor. God. Why are you doing this, hmm? Bugging me, winding me up, torturing me with your freshly made pakoras and mango and chutney dip? You know, three-hour wait? Starving! Uh, it's taken me this long to actually get in touch with, uh,... Indian theatre, yeah, because prior to this, when I was in Singapore, Shanghai or Australia, I had never even` I don't even know anything much about Indian theatre. It's only been here that I've managed to, in a way, learn a little bit about it, yeah, and it's thanks to these people, basically. Yeah. (CHUCKLES) Mustaq's one of the more, um, experienced actors that we have here. Uh, all of us here have a day job. Um, we all volunteer our time, so it's great when we find somebody who comes with that kind of experience already on board. ALL: # They are John Potts'; you can tell them by the spots. # And I found them in the vicarage garden. # # And I found them in the vicarage garden. # Whoo. SLOW PERCUSSIVE MUSIC Well, we're` we're backstage. Stage manager Porvi is putting on make-up just to make me look older. Doesn't take too much to make me look old, but, uh, trying to make me look a little bit older. So hopefully, this will` will highlight the fact that I'm 65 years old. So, we've been quite pleasantly surprised with the fact that we're not just attracting the Indian community, but, uh, there have been a fair few people from other` other communities who obviously have` Others can relate to it as well. Yeah, they` Especially the European. And I think that's` that's a good sign. I think we're` we're trying to blur the divisions between Indian theatre or Western theatre, whatever you wanna call it, you know, and just present it as a piece of theatre, you know? FRANTIC PIANO MUSIC PLAYS Grab his bag. (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) Stop him! Hey! Hey! (GRUNTS) Take it from him! Take it! Take it! Stop it! MUSIC STOPS You think it's funny?! A naked policewoman?! AUDIENCE CHUCKLES It's interesting being with these people too, because they` they are from India, and` and I` I'm trying to kind of absorb something of that feeling, you know? I do feel sometimes a bit of an outsider, but it's becoming less and less. Yeah. So it's` it's been a very good journey, I think, and it will never end, probably. (CHUCKLES) LIVELY MUSIC PLAYS # Your love, love, love. # Your love and stuff. # MUSIC ENDS AUDIENCE CHEERS, APPLAUDS SERENE ACOUSTIC GUITAR MUSIC When Wah Lee's was first established in 1904, it was at the heart of Auckland's Chinatown. The newspapers at the time were full of dark and scandalous stories about the area ` opium dens, the corruption of young people and an irrational fear of yellow peril. As a Muslim today, at times, it feels like the word 'terrorist' is hanging over my head like a bounty wherever I go. People are afraid of what they can't understand, and that can make it hard for anyone trying to find acceptance in a new country. DELICATE PIANO MUSIC I was assigned male on my birth certificate, and I was forced to be a man when I was actually intersex and I wanted to be a woman. So this is two categories that people tend to confuse, which is sex and gender. Uh, I was not` I'm not male or female. I am intersex. I am in between. I believe to be the only trans or intersex refugee in the history of NZ. I didn't choose NZ; NZ chose me. And that's something I'm very proud to` to tell the people, because that shows how committed is NZ to help people and help people with different` different things, you know, different problems. DELICATE MUSIC CONTINUES I was born in Bogota in Colombia. When I was 6 years old, and` and when I was starting to have more awareness of how gender defines what you do in your daily life, I started to feel more comfortable being in the` in the gender of a woman. MELANCHOLY MUSIC I was mistreated in Colombia. I was persecuted for paramilitary,... social cleansing groups. And, uh, I was attacked in the street. And the situation was so terrible that I was so afraid to ask for help and the police, and not even people in my family knew what happened to me. I just tried to... you know, to be safe, not to come out of the closet, because I was kind of closeted. I left my country in 2012. And I was` I was, like, desperate, actually, to find freedom, and that's how I ended up in Taiwan. MELANCHOLIC MUSIC CONTINUES Uh, when I was studying in Taiwan, I felt free. Um, I could dress like a woman, finally, and I... I felt like I finally could be who I always wanted to be. So I just, um,... decided to start my hormone therapy, and once my hormone therapy began, I... the change was so dramatic. So, this is my ID from the university. This... It was taken the first day I started, you know, to study in Taiwan. All the problems started when... when I` when I had to renew my visa, and then I had to travel to Hong Kong to renew my passport, because, you know, not having a way to prove who I was. And this is where the nightmare started. I ended up facing actual deportation back to my country, the one I left, because of what I... I wanted to live my truth, and it was just, for me, the perfect storm. And I refused, and by refusing, I lost everything. I lost my dignity. And... And I became like no one, like a person without identity. SLOW MELANCHOLIC MUSIC After what happened to me, Amnesty International sent my claim to the United Nations. Um, at the time, the United Nations saw that my case was` was quite strong. They understood that... that I was a genuine refugee, and they recognised my case within weeks. And after being recognised as a refugee, I was just placed in a refugee centre or a detention centre for refugees. I ended up living in Hong Kong almost one year before my case,... uh, was taken in consideration by NZ. SOFT ELECTRONIC MUSIC For my case, this` this area is a very... tolerant area for LGBT cases. And they find out this` this place would be the most inclusive and diverse of NZ. Yeah, it's just nice. Like, I just can choose whatever I want. I can go to a dressing room. Nobody's going to question what I'm doing inside, that if I'm in the right place or not. But this is something I can really, like, finally feel free. I can, you know... You can see, this is the men's section. Look how boring the shirts they have. And you see, this is the women's section. We have clothes ` all the colours, all the infinite possibilities of being, you know? It is something I really like. SOFT MUSIC CONTINUES So, many ups and downs and happy things, you know? The most amazing and beautiful thing happened to me ever was to` to be able to marry my husband, who I met quite a long time ago when I was in the refugee camp and to be able, finally, to meet him and, um, to marry him in NZ. So this was the` one of the happiest days of my life, and it's actually the most meaningful part of` of all the story that I've been, like, from Colombia to NZ, because it's the` one of the more happy things. It's one of the things that make me more alive. RELAXED HIP-HOP MUSIC We've put on some pretty epic poetry slams here at this` at this venue. Uh, the judges are chosen at random from the audience, so your poems really have to connect. LIGHTS CLICK I come from a 4000-year-old tradition of Bedouins, merchants, prophets, pharaohs and, of course, poets. A lot of my poetry digs into my background, my history, my language, the sense of community that I derive from my faith. I'm in transit at Melbourne Airport. 20 hours from now, I will feel God in the shimmering marble of Mecca, be brought to tears at the sight of two million faces from every corner of the Earth, wrapped in nothing but white cloth and a list of promises from family who couldn't make the trip. Slam poetry has a real following in NZ these days. I love that the tales that are coming out are our tales. Everyone we meet has a story to tell. MELODIC PERCUSSIVE MUSIC We were in Delhi earlier, and when I came here, it's a nice quiet place. It's all surrounded with nature. And the work culture is here very good, so my husband, he starts loving the working culture in NZ, so it makes me... (CHUCKLES) decide of` to make a decision, so I am going to stay in NZ, yeah. PERCUSSIVE MUSIC CONTINUES Yeah, although it was very scary, but, yeah, we managed. I live in central Auckland,... in an apartment. It's a small one-bedroom apartment. One day, I just opened my door in morning, and my neighbour was... he was, uh, going for his job... at that time. He just say, 'Hello. Ah, your baby just woke up at 6.30.' 'Uh, uh, yeah.' (LAUGHS) And it was the first complaint, uh, from my neighbour. So it was, 'Oh, what we are doing? 'Why we are in apartment?' (CHUCKLES) Obviously, because, um, if you are in apartment, you are restricted. Uh, you don't have so much space. You have to, uh... At the moment, we decided to use, uh, reusable nappies. And, uh, we thought` We were not able to stick with our decision, because we don't have space. We compromise a lot. PLAYFUL MUSIC If he is in apartment, he just... he don't have any space to go and move around. He just need to play with the kitchen things, sometimes your cosmetics and books and sometimes your laptop. These are the things for them if they are in apartment. If they're out or they have lots of these stuff, lots of space, lots of things, yeah, that's the thing. Yeah. GENTLE ACOUSTIC GUITAR MUSIC I work in Auckland Libraries, and I'm based in Central City Library. With Plunket study, we wanted to know, to find out about families who live in the inner city who've got children under 5. Um, the library provides Storytime and Wriggle & Rhyme, and we see families in the library for 40 to one hour. But we really didn't know much about them, about their lives and why do they come to the library. Hi, Ania. Oh, hello, Richu. Lovely seeing you. How are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm fine. How are you? How's it going? We interviewed and we met with a variety of people. Um, those were fascinating and, um, really fulfilling for me. We met, um, parents from India, from China, from other countries in Europe. Um, I felt very inspired by their stories. I don't know ` there'd be probably 200 ethnicities living in the inner city, which is fascinating. And, um, I question myself, 'How do we serve all these people coming to Auckland, 'from the library perspective?' TAMBOURINES RING RHYTHMICALLY Ah, because we are living in a small apartment, and there is no space for kids, and we want more and more space for our babies. They have lots of toys, they have books, but they don't have space where they can play. So` And the one` And the most important thing ` they don't have other babies. They don't have other families, so I think that communal apartment space is a good idea. The three ideas that we came up with is grab a granny, new parents' tiki tour of inner city and communal apartment spaces. The project group, we have only limited resources, but I think our role is going into advocacy. And project like today, the, um, experiences of parents living in inner city, they walk through in the library. I think it's one of the ways how we influence the decision makers. 'All informations are taken from new mothers, and they try to get information from every ethnicity.' So they are more focusing on the whole Aucklanders, so... I think so it's going to help all mums in future. TRANQUIL ELECTRONIC MUSIC St Matthew's-in-the-City has had a strong tradition of social justice for over a century, from ministering to the poor when the area was surrounded by slums to their famous billboards advocating acceptance for all. I've always had a strong connection to my ethnicity. But in primary school, I didn't know a single Muslim kid. In fact, it wasn't until university that I was able to meet other Muslims and Arabs and build relationships with them. It strengthened the way that I saw myself as a NZer. It's still a struggle, though, in a secular world, fearing that I might lose what my parents have instilled in me. It is so important that things that we value about our culture are passed from one generation to the next. PEACEFUL ACOUSTIC GUITAR MUSIC We're at the Auckland Hebrew Congregation in Auckland City, and this is the central part of the community. The synagogue is here. We've got a big synagogue and a smaller synagogue. The rabbi's office is here. The school is here as well. It's really the focal point for the community. I'm here today to buy Passover food. We've got Passover coming up next week, and we eat special food during Passover, which is during an eight-day period. It celebrates the` or remembers the Exodus from Egypt, the story` the Exodus story from the Old Testament. And the story goes that when the Israelites left in a hurry to escape the` the pharaoh when he finally said they could be freed from slavery in Egypt, they didn't have time to cook their bread fully, so they grabbed their bread out of the oven that was unleavened. And so we can't eat anything during Passover with leavening, so we can't eat bread or anything with yeast and grains and all sorts of things. I was brought up in a strongly identifying Jewish environment, but not an especially religious environment. We did the basic observances, if you like. We went to synagogue for the big festivals and for` for other, you know, occasional times, but as I say, we` we always knew very much that we were Jewish and were very proud of the fact that we were Jewish and identified strongly as such. This year, we're going to my parents' for dinner for Passover dinner Seder, so my mother has asked me this year if I would make the matzo ball soup, so that's what I'm going to be making for the dinner. SOFT INTRIGUING MUSIC Food is very important in Judaism ` both the` the culture and the religious side of it ` so it features very strongly. In fact, uh, there's sort of a joke that a Jewish festival can` can be summed up as that they tried to kill us; we won; let's eat. So food is a very strong focus. So, I'm just finishing off making the soup, um, and just going to throw some` a bit of onion in it ` not too much. Um,... I've already put some carrots in,... and then it's really just the` sort of, the chicken stock, if you like. And, yeah, so it's` it's quite basic. So it's really just eggs, um, matzo meal,... oil and water and, you know, a bit of seasoning. And then you just shape them into round` small round balls, and they'll, um, expand a bit. Um, I'll just throw them into the soup, and they'll, sort of, just cook in there. Matzo is the` the stuff that we eat for Passover, so it's actually this stuff here. And the matzo meal that goes into the making of the matzo balls is really just ground-up matzo. So, the ingredients in the matzo, according to this, are unbleached wheat flour and water only. I always look forward to, um, Passover dinner and to the` to the food and, uh, having everybody together or whoever of my` my family can be there and` and friends. Um, by the end of the eight days, sometimes I'm a bit sick of eating matzo and, um, Passover food, but at the start, it's always very exciting. SOFT MUSIC Hello! How are`? Ooh, the soup! Yum. FAMILY CONVERSES INDISTINCTLY It means, kind of, like, to get together with your family, and, like, it's just a good time to spend with your family, and there's good food every year. Everyone knows that chicken soup cures any ailment, so you've got to have the chicken soup to keep yourself healthy. Juliet, they are just fantastic, sweetie. Thank you, Mum. < Thanks, Mummy. Thanks, Mum. Beautiful, light, fluffy, delicious matzo balls. And what's more, I felt sick before, and now, having this chicken soup, I'm 100% healthy. That's chicken soup for you. This tastes like gold melting away in my mouth. (CHUCKLES) This is really good. Thank you, Mum. JULIET: I hope for my boys, in terms of the society that they grow up in, that it's` it's much the same as the society that I grew up in, so it is an open, inclusive society where they can feel, uh, proud to be Jewish and not feel vulnerable or not feel that they have to hide that in any particular way, as I would hope for all other religions and ethnicities as well in NZ. LAID-BACK MUSIC West of Queen Street is a hive of diversity. The amount of culture that lives on these streets is a reflection of all that Auckland has to offer. I hope that as NZ grows into the future, we can have more conversations about how we see ourselves, how all these different and colourful parts make us who we are. Captions by Alex Walker. Edited by Faith Hamblyn. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2016.