Rochelle – Ōtahuhu
“I’ve lived in this community for almost, oh god, 20 years, and absolutely love Ōtahuhu.
I tell my family, my children, that I love them regularly. Before we go to school, I say goodbye and I tell them I love them. I do things for them. I put their needs before my own at times, and just really let them know I’m there for them, because caring is associated with love, possibly.
I’m a mum of four, of five. I have a foster daughter. At the moment, I’m currently studying at MIT doing panel beating, or collision repair. For the last few years I’ve done everything for my children. I’ve created real champions through my dedication to my kids, and this year I’ve made this year about myself. So, doing a bit for me! I’m very lucky to have received a scholarship, and I’m loving what I do.
There is no manual. I was 20 when I had my first child. He’s now 17. I never thought I would be a good mum. I never actually thought I would be a mother. I’m an animal-lover, and yeah it is so true when they say you will never sleep the same again. It is so true… you don’t. I’ve just had another child. He’s two years old now and I don’t think there’s anything that can prepare yourself for it. You’re just given that role and you’re there. Those first thousand days of a child’s life are the most important.
Kids, I think, absorb so much, and the more you put into your children the better seeds we create. So I’m a big follower of being there for your children, encouraging them, and I sort of think I’m a good role model. At the moment, my eldest are doing NCEA, but alongside them I’m doing study as well. So, monkey see, monkey do. I mean, we’re their biggest inspiration at the end of the day. What they see and what they’re brought up with really does have a big influence. We don’t know a lot of Maori myself being honest. My child, my youngest, goes to Kohanga Reo, and I’m hoping immersing him into Kohanga we’ll be able to bring back some Māori home, too.
I identify myself as a New Zealand Māori. My grandfather is Ngāpuhi from Kaikōhe and my nana is from Ōrakei, Ngati Whātua. My dad is Australian, and my dad’s family originate from Germany. So, I am quite blended. I’d class myself as, as a half cast, and I think I’m lucky to have the goodness of the white man and the black man put together.
I don’t like Auckland as a whole, as I really don’t get out of my own community, but my child, my 11 year old, he is training in boxing, and he regularly bikes to and from home to training. What I find these days is you’ve got to give your kids independence, so I let him bike from places, but now it’s getting dark our street lights don’t work very well, if they work at all, sometimes. So he often rides around in dark. Now that’s it’s getting to winter it’s quite dark and it’s not safe.
What you put out there is what you get back. So I’m a person that if somebody looks sad I’m that type of person that will go and say hello, or I will ask how they are. It would be nice if there were more people out in the community that do the same.”
