Daedae | Manurewa

“Kia ora koutou katoa, my name is Daedae. I’m 23, and home is Manurewa south of Auckland. Oh, geez. I mean, over my years I’ve had lots and lots of generous favours towards me.

You know, my mum growing up, my nan growing up. But I guess more recently would have to be through Tautai Pacific Arts Trust, where they gave me this opportunity because I want to be a multi-disciplinary artist. My aim is to be an artist and Tautai Pacific Arts Trust gave me that opportunity to go down to Wellington, learn some skills, hone in on my skills, and be able to come back and be Manurewa’s success story. 

I think generosity and kindness is very important, especially for a community that has a demographic that’s mostly Pasefika and Māori, and kindness and generosity are two values that are really instilled within our culture, and I think that it’s something natural for us, to be quite kind and generous. Yes, there are times when we can be quite loud but I feel like it’s really natural for us to be quite kind and generous, because I mean, you get what you want, or how you want to, by being kind, by being generous because if you’re not, you’re just going to get slapped in the face and thrown down the hill, and no-one’s going to give you an opportunity if you’re too stuck-up, if you’re too in your own world, too not thinking about others. You know, thinking about a community, and thinking about it as a whole picture, rather than just; it’s me, and me in the spotlight. It’s me, we and those who come before me.

So, I grew up in Manurewa, Clendon Park. I went to Roscommon Primary School. I didn’t have the the most glamorous upbringing but I did have the best upbringing. Yes, we weren’t rich, we didn’t have the money, but I learned how to stand on my own two feet. Through that, I went to school. Manurewa High School was my high school. I was a drop-out, a high school drop-out. I dropped out at 16 and by the time I turned 17, I figured I needed to do something with my life. I needed to change the statistics and, because I didn’t want to be the statistic that everyone thought Manurewa to be, you know, we’re all just going to go on the benefit or go to the corner of the streets, or sell ourselves, or drink alcohol, or who knows what, and I wanted to prove that wrong. So I got a course in business administration, and then from there I went onto radio foundation skills, and it was that course that introduced me to a certificate in performing arts. Then, I went to do my certificate in performing arts with Best Pacific, and they introduced me to the Pacific Institute of Performing Arts, and then the Pacific Institute of Performing Arts, I stayed there for three years, honed into my artistic skills. My ego came down huge during that journey, and then it got me to this place where I am now, where I’m getting all these opportunities from artists in New Zealand who are like; hey we want to give you a spot, are you interested, we see that you’re a hard worker, that you’ve proven yourself out of these years, come in and work for us, and that’s my journey so far.

I think my final comments on kindness and generosity would be, give out what you expect back. If you expect respect, give it respect. Give others respect. If you expect kindness, give out kindness. If you expect generosity, give it. Don’t think that things are going to come to you on a silver platter, because that may be the fantasy that everyone else is living in, but in Manurewa 267 you’ve got to work hard for your dough.”