Zoe – Mt Wellington
“The last message that I sent to someone was to my friend about plans.
My friend is an old workmate of mine, and we’re meeting just to have a catch-up. I’m from Auckland, I’m 20 years old, and I’m a fashion graduate. Fashion is my creative outlet. It’s my one hobby and passion.
I feel safe and welcomed in Auckland during the daytime. Potentially, I don’t feel the same way in the night by myself as a woman, but during the daytime I do feel Auckland is really welcoming. I find everywhere you go there is a low level of sexism, and being mixed-race I also find a low level of racism. It’s always been hard for me, because I’m half white and half Māori. I’ve never really fit into either group, which has caused some tension during school and things like that.
I don’t think violence is an acceptable way of dealing with things, but I do think it is very normalised. I think people, rather than talking about it, they just kind of accept it and push it down, but they don’t really deal with it.
I think it would be great if there were just more open spaces where people can talk about issues such as that [domestic violence], whether within the healthcare sector, schools – anything. So that hopefully people can reach better solutions and just feel heard.”
