What has brought you the most joy or strength this year? 

John | Kerikeri

Growing up, John watched his grandparents support whānau moving away from a rural community to Auckland City for a better life. Today, he does the same work in reverse – supporting whānau as they return home to their kāinga for a better life. Watch this beautiful story of legacy and service to community.

“No job could ever fulfil the joy in seeing our people achieve, especially against the odds that are up here in Northland for them. But we’re here to make that change and support them.

I grew up in Auckland and that’s where I saw my grandparents. My grandfather was an Anglican minister at the church in Ōtara. And then my grandmother was the Māori Women’s Welfare League founder for Tāmaki Makaurau.

So I saw that firsthand. I saw my grandmother, doing what they could do for the Māori Women’s Welfare League, supporting the women and their children, especially moving down into Auckland. Also the men that were moving down to Auckland and feeling a loss because of their lands and everything. And then now they’re being put into an urban centre to work. So all those social issues were there.

But I look back at it now because they’re all coming home now in my generation. They’re all coming back to their papakāinga from Auckland, moving home. And the same issues are here. In retrospective of it all I see [that] I was meant to be here.

I was meant to grow up in that neighbourhood and see my grandparents and then move home and now I’m in the same circumstances as my grandparents, but flipped around the other way. So my grandparents moved to Auckland to get a better life. Now all the whānau are moving home to get a better life, and I’m in the same position as my grandparents, but I’m at home.

But that’s why we work in this space is to help our young ones that are going through those, giving them support, being a voice to help them and to guide them and then see them achieve and succeed.

It’s not actually work. It’s actually just life and just supporting our community, creating relationships where we don’t have relationships. And just looking that we’re doing it all for our future generation up here in the North. It’s a challenge, but we know that when we put all our minds together, we can make things happen.”