Graham | Ōtara
“Oh, where do I start? Well, I think I wouldn’t change my life too much, but I would have put a bit of money in the bank.
If you could have seen the future and what happens in the future, well you know, just instead of wasting a lot of money back in the day, that’s one of my regrets, is not having enough money.
I regret spending a lot of money that I had on whatever; alcohol, drugs, going out, and not banking any. I regret smoking cigarettes. That’s where a lot of your money goes to, especially now. I’m working on that one, trying to give it up, but it’s so hard. I think a lot of people are going through the same thing. Regrets. Oh, there’s a few regrets, but I can’t think of anything at the moment.
Don’t join gangs. If you’re Māori, mingle in with your Māori family, and learn your Māoritanga. That’s what helped me when I pulled out of the gangs. I’ve been out for about 30 years now, and save your money, right from the word go, especially now. You need to save your money, especially if you’re thinking of buying the house. I’m trying to pass this onto my kids, and my grandchildren. You need to save straight away, not later on in your later years because it’s too late then. It’s too hard, and stick together as a family, and help one another out. Just today; I had a puncture today and, yesterday actually, and it took two days to fix it because I’m sick. I had to wait for my daughter, but she was too busy yesterday, and she came and helped me this morning, which is good. She helped me change the tyre and all that. Just little things like that, and love your parents.
I was brought up in Ōtara. I moved into Ōtara when I was about six months old, or so my parents told me, and I’m just about 59 now. Joined the gangs back in the ‘80s, late ‘70s, played league for Ōtara, because that’s one of my loves, playing league, watching league. Both my parents come from up North, in the Far North. I love going up there and spending time with the wider family, which we say in Māori, the whānau whānui, wider family. It’s all about catching up, and then staying on our Marae when we can and help out on our Marae. For funerals, birthdays and whatever, and just getting behind the Marae and the families there.
I love seafood. I stay in Ōtara. I actually get my seafood from; we used to call it the Ōtara beach. Used to be one caravan, one or two caravans parked in the carpark, and we used to say to one another, oh is the tide in? So, we’d go in and get some seafood, go and buy it at the caravan. I love coming down here, the flea markets on Saturday, because I get to meet a lot of old friends that I hardly see anymore, but I seem to catch up with some of them when they come down to buy their vegetables and pay their bills, because Ōtara is one of the few places that’s still got a Post Office, which is handy. Otherwise, we’ll be queuing up at all the other blood Post Offices.”
