Elvin | Manurewa
“Some people take your kindness and your innocence as an advantage, and I’ve learned to control that notion. It’s taken me a long time to accept that my kindness and innocence is my biggest downfall.
I’m a people person, so I connect with people every day. Six months ago I connected with a very beautiful woman I ever seen in my whole world. Her eyes is the reflection of the sun, and her skin reflects as how beautiful she is, but I wouldn’t say the same about her soul. I’m a visual artist, so I do a bit of things with stones. I, I look at something visually and I could carve it into a stone. That’s what I do as a skill in my pastime.
Heart to heart
So I would say it would be with my grandmother. I haven’t seen her for a good two years, and what she told me was, look after yourself and make sure you love your kids. That’s what she said. So that’s what I’m doing, focussing on myself and my kids.
Connected with your culture
Our culture is pretty beautiful. It comes with colours, just like the colours of the rainbow. I’m actually a Fiji-Indian, but our Indian culture is very bold, even in our cooking, the way we dress and the way we communicate with people. We’re very interested in other cultures, and we always take our time with people and very excited to try different foods, and different people, and values actually.
Everybody has a different value taught as a person, and as Indians we have a very strong value that we love our family and we’re loyal in our relationships, whoever we commit to, flawlessly and love is all around us. I mean, Indians we’re compassion lovers, and our love touches the sky, so it’s something we always hope to get in return, but we never do, but hey it’s like they say, you win the Lotto if someone that you love loves you back the same way you do.
So, that’s a little bit. Our culture is all about love and affection, and we show it flawlessly with colours and our foods we make for families, and the unity we have here in New Zealand is flawless compared to India and Fiji. This country has grown with so much Indian cultures. Unbelievable. It feels like we’re in Indian, in New Zealand. Weddings and organisations we’ve got here, with the Islam as well as the Hindu temples that we have around New Zealand. In every suburb we have a temple. In every suburb we have a mosque. So, that’s a good sign for us in New Zealand. We have so much opportunity to grow, and we are growing flawlessly every day, even got an Indian station. We also have a Indian TV now which, which has been pretty appreciated that we can have a better piece of home in Aotearoa. Thank you. Thank you for that opportunity.
Okay um, I was brought up here by my nana when I was like five, and my lifestyle has always been the kiwi way. I went to school here. I went to Roskill, Mt Roskill central-based, but um, I’ve been around West Auckland as well. I moved to South 10 years ago, trying to build a relationship with my old man, and get to know my dad’s family, and that’s, that’s been pretty successful, and I love South Auckland. It reminds us of, a bit about the island, how we interact with different cultures and, and how we should be, be unity and a lot of love, and a lot of sharing. I, I made a lot of friends in South Auckland, compared to when I was living in West. It’s a totally different ah, lifestyle. It’s like that of home, and I choose to live here until I move up North. That’s where I want to be. Um, they’ve got a better opportunity over there in, in forestry. I love the nature and, and that’s how I like to live, in the country, survival of the land, and do forestry work, which I will be in a couple of years.
She’s a very beautiful lady. Um she, she has very strong values, and she’s very strict. We had to go to Sunday, every Sunday we had to go to church. Um, the way she used to um, always keep stones in her hands, she’s given me one of the stones here, my birthstone, and she’s a woman with so much, so many talents. I mean, first of all I would say would be my um, the way she used to cook food. She always mixed, surprised us with different kinds of um, flavours, you know and, and my nana’s Fijian, half Fijian half Indian, so um, she’s got the island way of cooking, Kiwi way of cooking as well. Sunday we used to like church, dressed up for church every Sunday. Um, she’s always dedicated to God, and that’s how she lived her life, with honesty, a lot of love, a lot of control, and ah she, you can still hear Nana’s voice whenever you do something or make a decision.
We always talk to Nana. Like, still today I stick to my nana, and she is part of my world, even if she doesn’t show it, I would say is, she’s like my Wonder Woman. She’s always been there for me from the time I was born, so I would say, I love you Nana, and I thank you for being there for me when I needed you, and I’ll make sure I’ll be there for you when you pass on, and I’ll carry onto your generation the way you taught me, and I’ll teach my kids, and yeah I miss the food. That’s why I see Nana now and then. That’s all I could say about Nana, was all about love. She’s colourful lady.
She’s a bit artistic. She draws faces of things that we comprehend with the sky. When I look up to the sky I could see my nana on a blue shiny day, and she’s a big spiritual lady. Yeah, that’s how I see her, and can’t beat the smell, man. It always will be, I don’t think anybody could ever replace the way she is. My mum is close to my nana, but she lives in Aussie, so yeah that’s a bit, a little fly away. I guess I don’t know what I’m going to do the day she goes. I’ll try to stay strong to that day.”
