Bekky | Māngere

“Ko Ripeka tōku ingoa. No Māngere ahau. This has been the worst year of my life, my bro. I think that we should change government. We should all be one, and not parted as certain individuals or groups shall I say. I think that the government is corrupt-as.

There’s no remorse for the people out here on the streets. The ones that are just living average are the ones giving towards them. We’re the ones that are helping them live another day. So, yeah society sucks. Sorry for the language, that’s about all I would change, is the government. Everything. What if they cut everything loose, and then let them be?  Then, it will be sweet.

Well in Feb, I lost my kids to CYFS, due to assumptions, and last year, were the same assumptions, but I had done everything that they had asked of me. I did drug tests and all, and then it come to this year where they have the same assumptions as last year, and they took my kids in Feb. It’s November now, and it’s my birthday next week, and I just got told from CYFS that I’ve got a trespassing order on me, against all 13 kids of mine. It sucks really, because not once I have ever seen a kid smile every day, love to hug, love to kiss, love to say I love you, Mum and Dad, and now my kids are sheep. They’re doing exactly as government asked. I don’t think there should be a government, because they’re doing no good for us.

Just to be one unit, I reckon. That’s all it is. Family is number one to me. Family first, all day, every day. Number one thing for me is that they’re still a family, they’re not with other people, people that we don’t know, or they don’t know. They’re with my mother, my cousins and my ex-mother-in-law. They’re in Kawerau, and Māngere, and Christchurch, and I’m 34 years of age, and I’ve seen hell, just on these streets alone.

I just want to be happy, my bro. Just to know how to love everybody. Even though there’s some crooked people around here these days, out the gate people, number one fact is worry about yourself first, and then love everybody else after you’ve done. If that’s not the case, then you know, what’s the point of even talking about family and what-not?  Family is number one, and without that, we’re nothing. 

I grew up in Māngere. I’m from old Māngere and that’s my dad’s family out there, and my mum’s family, we’re all from East Coast, and life around there is pretty, I don’t know. How do you say it in a nice word? Not awesome. Not great, but good. It’s good, and we’re living week to week, day by day, every day.

This right here is something that we need to work upon as tangata whenua of this land. I mean, I’m a native myself. I’m a descendant of Māhuta, and I’m proud to say that I’m from Māngere, but the way that Māngere’s changed, it’s dramatic change. It’s for the worst, anyway. It’s not for the better, a lot of our people are suffering more than what we were back in the days.”