Bronte | Greymouth, West Coast

“When I first became a youth worker in a remote Aboriginal community. There were a couple of times when I had children that were at risk that came to me and I wasn’t able at the time to be qualified enough to know the right avenues to support them, and I would lay awake at night not knowing exactly how to help these vulnerable people, in extreme impoverished situations.

I felt guilty that I was just another white person coming into an Aboriginal community imposing my own beliefs when I wasn’t actually enabled through my council to fully embrace or understand. So my biggest regret is not supporting them as much as I could have.

Continuing on from that work, I made it a real point to whatever sort of social service job that I did, like now working for an NGO in Greymouth, that I incorporate cultural understanding, and being a lot more accepting, and trying to educate myself with the local culture. I’m not just saying Māori culture. I’m saying just accepting and taking a step back to listen to people’s stories, and where they’ve come from, to try and be open. That’s what I’ve learned. To be open.

It’s been a long journey for me. I was born in Alice Springs in Australia, and then grew up in an Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory. I moved and did my primary school years in Queensland, and then did university, and then moved all around and had all sorts of experiences, but I’ve always held art as one of my biggest passions and abilities to express the way that I’m feeling at the time. I’ve kind of brought that into Greymouth where I live now at the moment, I am starting a community arts centre, which we don’t have here, and so I’m trying to incorporate my love of art and social services, just to support the local community. I’m doing arts classes for primary school aged children, and it’s going great guns. So, I suppose in my life, it’s just been a huge transition to know what really makes me happy, and I think I’ve found that. I think it’s incorporating not just painting or sculpture but it’s also incorporating looking at the world in a different way, which has been a huge journey, and yeah, it’s awesome.”