Mona | Takanini
“Well, I just want to stay home behind my door, but in reality, we have to get out there.
I have a 15-year-old daughter that I’ve got to get to school, a disability, disabled husband that needs to get out one day a week, but my heart goes out to Islam and the people that have had this tragedy.
I have a son who’s currently converted to Muslim, and he’s been doing that for a long time. It’s devastating when you think of New Zealand, because we’re such a diverse country, and I was walking along taking my daughter to the train station this morning, and a wonderful Indian man said to me, peace be with me, and it’s so diverse.
I’m Māori, been in New Zealand now, brought up in New Zealand for 57 years, have never come across this atrocity of terrorism, but when it’s been planted in our country, I feel very vulnerable for our country, as other states and other countries might, you know, pinpoint us. Even though that man was not a New Zealander, he is from our cousin, Australia, I have children in Australia, and I’ve been seven times to Australia. Never felt hindered not to go because of such terrorism around the world, and I’m planning to go soon for the birth of my 22nd grandchild, and I don’t really want to step out there. I’m telling them to come home, but then they’ve got to get on a plane, but it can, it goes to show that terrorism around the world can happen anywhere, even in our beloved nation, New Zealand.”
