Jeff | Papatoetoe
“I grew up in a place called Port Waikato, on the West Coast. Went to school, hard yards, hard life, very little to eat but we never starved and we never moaned about food.
We were taught, what’s put in front of us on our plate we either eat it or we starve, but at the same time as a young child growing up from five to the time of my mum passing away, ah we helped to clean the house and wash the clothes and kart the water by bucket from the well, and then of course working in the garden, cultivating. There’s more corn that we grew, potatoes, kumara and also watermelon that we loved so much.
At that time we were working to support the community, but for me, I went to a little Māori school, te kōhanga where all cultures came together, but it was a Māori school, but the Māori school that we went to, te kōhanga, we did not allow to speak the Māori language. We weren’t allowed to speak the language, and of course we had a lot of horses. I grew up loving horses and cows, animals. Sheep, pigs. A lot of ah, wild pig and turkey and rabbit, we had a lot of that, although we were right close to the sea.
We also indulged ourselves in seafood. Lots of fish and of course we only had one school bus. One school bus, and if you missed the school bus you stayed home. Ah, I really myself didn’t like to miss the school bus. I loved going to school, because if we missed the school bus we had to stay home and work. Work the farm, and of course there was lots of work to do on the farm, and our neighbours, we were one people in my time of growing up. There were Māoris and Pākehās.
No other culture, but we did not hear the words, you are a Māori and she is a Pākehā. We were just one. One people, not like today. I’m grateful for myself at my age now. I’m grateful to be where I’m at in my life with my children, grandchildren and two great-grandchildren and my loving and lovely wife, and our daughter-in-laws and son-in-laws. It’s a protection. We call it, we call it the cloak of love, the cloak of future, but we carry this with us. Ah, the spirit of our ancestors. The spirit of our Heavenly Father.
Last time you connected with your culture
There’s never a last time. Anything with culture is special to Māori – to Māoridom. We carry it with us wherever we travel – wherever we go.
Had a heart to heart
Last conversation that I had with a loved one was this morning when I says, Mum I love you – have a wonderful day, and my no harm or danger fall upon you, my wife. That’s my loved one.
Last random act of kindness
Random act of kindness… It’s where I take time out – it’s where work, and giving my time to. It’s the young children of the preschool – ah, young children of kōhanga reo. They’re the parents and the people that teaches the young children the language. I think that’s act of kindness to me – vice versa – my kindness to the people that teaches the young children the language and everything else pertaining to everyday life. So I’m one of those; I give, I take – I take, I give – act of kindness.
The Heavenly Father has looked after me right up to where I’m at today, and I’ve been good to our Creator of heaven and earth, and I hope I’ve been good to my neighbour. It’s very important for the soul to be kind to your neighbour, whether he or she has done wrong. If they have done wrong to you, don’t take it upon your shoulders to put them down. It’s not nice. It’s not good to put people down. There are other ways of showing kindness to people, and there’s other ways of trying to correct people, that they are wrong in what they’re doing, and they are so right. Acknowledge those who do good, who do good for the future of the next generation.
So we look upon ourselves today what is happening with the Labour Party, and all that. It’s not nice. It’s not nice at all. People are putting this party and that party down. No, it’s not nice, but that’s politics today. The whole of the country, the whole of the world has completely changed from the time I was born, raised and not even finding a job. A job was just like it comes to you. There was so much work in New Zealand, so much work, more so ah, physical work. Ah, those who want to, to go to further maybe their education or get a real education, to get a real good job, they were lucky enough. They were the chosen ones I guess in my family, to be accepted to go out to boarding school, etcetera but you’ve still got to have the ones that do the labour.”
