Alicia | Papaioea, Manawatū

It reminds me of when I was a child, and I went to see my uncle who was very sick, and he gave me a present, and it was Alice in Wonderland, the book, and said ‘this was my favourite book when I was younger, so I want you to have it now’. That was very special to me, to be able to receive that, because it was something that was his, and he really loved it. So, I felt really special, to be able to receive it myself.

When you’re a kid, it’s kind of like an adventure story and being able to experience this wonderous world, but for me, what was always special about it, was not necessarily the story, but the fact that it was an object of my uncle’s, and I think that’s probably why I enjoyed it so much, because I felt like it was something that I was sharing with him. 

He was just amazing. He was very interested in learning. He had all these amazing encyclopaedias and I used to call him Little Peter, even though he was my uncle, just because he was very small, and when I knew him at least, he was very frail, but he had such a big personality, as a kid he just seemed to know everything in the world, and I just wanted to be like him when I grew up.

Aspiring to be like him, hopefully that’s made me a better person. I like to share things with my younger cousins, and they enjoy reading, I like to tell them things and share through that, and the books I liked as a child, it’s a nice way to connect.

We need to have heart to hearts so that we can understand each other better, and understand that we’re all people, we all have our different problems and issues, and I guess it’s just nice to be able to understand other people, and help each other, no matter what we’re going through.

I’ve grown up kind of all around the place. Christchurch and then on the West Coast after the earthquakes, and just moved around to lots of different towns. I value family a lot. I don’t think that’s an uncommon thing to say, but I think especially now, when we’ve been stuck away from people, you realise how much you value family and being able to see them, and yeah.”