Jack | Manurewa
“What did I like? Well, the fun thing about it is, brought up by a poor family, which just makes it more fun. If you’re rich, it won’t be fun. So yeah, pretty much.
Raised pretty good. Brought up from a religious family. Yeah, raised from good parents. Taught us not to be, you know, do chores and everything. I was born and raised in New Zealand. Never been to the Islands. Fun thing about it is got taught to stand on our own two feet. Live on our own. Be independent. So, that’s the pretty good thing about our family.
I was born in National Women’s, Auckland and as a baby, I was in Mt Roskill, but then I moved to Wellington, got brought up at Wellington for a bit, Porirua. Then I came back to Auckland. My mum raised us up good. She made me into the man I am right now, so yeah, that’s pretty much about my family. Nothing special.
It was a big change when I was growing up. I went to school, then I finished my school, so I was pretty much raised in a good family, but it wasn’t a family that had everything in our hand. In my upbringing, I was hanging out with the wrong crowd, which is, I call my family right now. Still call my family, as well.
Started to get into gangs, street stuff, still getting into it now. I’ve got a court case today, so pretty much I still live in that, that bad background. People are just judging me from what I am, but through the years I’ve been growing up, I’ve done some good progress, and yeah, I’ve worked. Got my license, truck license, everything that I’ve never had before. I came from a good background, but my background on the streets is pretty bad.
I’m affiliated with the Red Army gang, it’s a better family, proud of it, because they’re my family as well. It’s not like we go and do stupid things. It’s pretty much just like how other clubs run, too. That’s the opposite from how I was brought up, until now, how I am right now. I call them my family because we were brought up from young, from school, all the way until now. I’m 28 now, and we were brought up from since we were young, and we’ve had that bond ever since, and my mum and my parents knew them too, from when we were young.
Anything to do with my family, they come around and help, birthdays or whatever. They’re always there. Court cases, the boys, just now everybody’s grown up. They’ve got their own thing to do, but we only meet up now and then, which is just showing that we’re more mature now. We just get together now and then. That’s pretty much why I call them my family, because they’ve always been there for me since day one as well, just like how my mum’s been there, since my parents have been there, so some people see it a different way, because some people say your friends won’t always be there, but God’s truth, they’ve always been there as well. That’s no lie, and that was something that I proved my parents wrong back then when we were wrong, because they said the same thing to me, until they started seeing with their own eyes.
Far, my big hope in the future is to become a professional rugby league player. Hopefully, I’ll play for Samoa one day. Till now, I’ve never missed a season, every time I play, no matter what, I still play every season, league, union, you name it. I know I’m getting a bit old, well not old, but you know. Just want that one opportunity to go play league, professional league. It’s always been my dream, and that’s what I want in the future, and hopefully, I make progress from it, and that’s the way I’ll make money, but that’s my big dream, yeah.”
