Kale | Welbourn, Taranaki

“When it comes to bravery around here, there’s not really much to tell, because a lot of things happen around here on a daily basis.

On Sunday, I was out here with a couple of mates just doing usual things you do on the weekend, chilling outside and enjoying ourselves and all of a sudden, a kid comes up and just tries to act all tough and tries to start a fight with me, and I wouldn’t so much call it bravery, but he started swinging at me, I just stood there and moved out of the way. Just didn’t let him hit me, and told him, look I’m not fighting you, there’s no point behind it. Just told him, you do what you want, but I’m just going to walk away before this situation will escalate. I didn’t want to escalate the situation, because what’s the point in fighting?  What’s the point behind the violence?  Only time I’ll ever get violent is if I need to protect, and people can swing at me all they want, I’m not going to retaliate, unless I absolutely need to, but if you swing at someone that I care about, family members, close friends, then I won’t so much retaliate, but I will protect them. Another reason why I didn’t swing back at him is because, like I said, he was one of the young ones. He looked like he was about 16, 17. I’m 23 years old. Even if I tried to claim self-defence, because he swung first, I could still get in trouble for assaulting a minor, and I don’t want no trouble like that. So, I just told him, I’m going to leave, I don’t want to fight you or nothing like that. There’s no point behind the violence around here. Everyone just wants to try and act tough and thinks that smashing someone is the easiest way to do it. Violence just creates more violence.

There were a few times back when I was a little bit younger, when I was still in high school and all that. I was part of this little after school program at Whangaparāoa College up in Auckland. They set up this thing called the right journey, which is kind of like a right of passage, going into manhood, after school project that they had. One of the day trips we did was out to the Waitomo Caves. There were a few of the boys that had a fear of water, drowning and all that sort of thing, and they didn’t quite know what to do and while we were down in the caves, it was all dark. We didn’t really have much light. We had head lamps and everything, but they didn’t help too much and one of the boys slipped, lost his floating tube, and ended up going down the river. Before anyone else could react, I’d already reacted, threw my tube out the way, literally jumped down the rocks and everything, just to go get him, and make sure he was alright. Picked him out the water, and made sure he was in a safe area. It’s a bit of a risk out there doing that sort of thing, but just throwing caution to the wind, and trying to do something that a lot of other people wouldn’t know how to. Just doing what I need to do to keep everyone else safe.

I kind of moved around the North Island quite a little bit, split up between my mum and my grandparents, and all that sort of thing. I’ve lived in Auckland, all the way up in Kaitāia, and here in New Plymouth, and I guess, New Plymouth’s always been home. I was about three years old when I first moved down here, and that was with my grandmother and my uncles. Just growing up around here shaped me into a different person, because I had different environments, but the one constant thing is just having my family around me. It’s always just helped shape who I am. My grandmother was a kind, caring person, always wanting to help people and I’ve continued that in what I do every day, just trying to help out with everything. 

When I was living in Auckland over the past fiveish years, I was constantly at a place called the Hibiscus Coast Youth Centre. I’ve always had that caring heart with everyone, and just wanting to help everyone out, and as I was up there at the Youth Centre, everyone used to trust me a lot, respect me enough to actually come to me with their problems before going to youth counsellors. I’d give them what advice I did have and if I couldn’t answer their questions, I’d take them to see the youth counsellors and try help them out there. The main youth counsellor up there, one of my old friends, his name’s Daniel, he really just helped shape a lot of my life as well. He helped me out when I needed it, and just tried to put me on the right path so that I didn’t go around causing trouble and all that, and I always helped out where I could. So, it’s just basically always been a thing with me, to help out the younger ones so that they don’t go down the wrong path, like I used to. I just don’t want to see them in a ditch or in the gutters. A lot of the ones around here, they don’t like their living situations, and I try to help them out where I can, but basically just don’t take what you have for granted. I just try to help them where I can, and just do me.

My nan’s always been the one that told me to be kind to others and she passed away from cancer when I just turned nine, four days after my ninth birthday. From that day, I’ve always wanted to carry on what she did, just help those in need. I’ve always wanted to do that, I’ve also had experiences where I was under the influence of alcohol a lot. I used to do quite a few heavy drugs just here and there, but used to be around a lot of violent, angry people, and I just had that moment of realisation that I wanted to change. So, instead of focussing on doing negative things, I wanted to do something positive, and the one thing that’s always in the back of my mind was my nan, and helping others. So, that’s pretty much where it stems from, my nan. I’ve been through it. I’ve done this. I’ve done that. So, I want to try and help those who are going through it.”