Leah | Tāmaki Makaurau - This is Aotearoa

What has whānau taught you?

Leah | Tāmaki Makaurau

Leah realised the support her family provides when she spent the Covid lockdowns in Australia, disconnected from her whānau.

“Definitely support. Like, I call my mum probably everyday. Just ask her just random questions or anything. Yeah definitely, yeah 24/7 support.

I’ve learned a lot of resilience from my family. Whenever things get tough, I know it’s going to be okay as long as I keep trying. My parents have always encouraged me to persevere, and that mindset has really shaped who I am today.

After spending time overseas, I realized how much I missed my family, especially during COVID. It was tough being away, and although I got used to not having them around, when my parents came to visit, it made me long for home even more.

I decided to move back to New Zealand because I wanted to be close to my whānau. Being in the same country is so much better than being far away—it feels right to be with them again.”

Matty

Matty

Matty | Richmond, Nelson - "Rocko hadn’t had one birthday in the same place, every birthday was in a different country. So, I recognised a pattern, and how it made me feel, and Nelson is a nice place. It’s very important that they have a base and some roots and have a place that they can always call home."
Nick

Nick

Nick | Ōtara, Auckland - "Home for me, is about feeling loved with family and letting the next generation know that family is important to our lives, and to our struggles or whatever we’re going through in life."
Rachel

Rachel

Rachel | The Wood, Nelson - "2010 was when we lost three family members in the Haiti earthquake, and I left New Zealand to support my sister, and when I came home to Nelson, it was just really amazing the community support that was there for all of us in so many ways, to get us through that time."
Harold

Harold

Harold | Māngere, Auckland - "My digital home is a place that we have a sense of belonging to, where we can talk to friends, communicate with people all over the world, and you don’t feel as alone maybe, as you do if you were just in your house and you didn’t have any form of way of communicating with the rest of the world."
Michaela

Michaela

Michaela | New Plymouth, Taranaki - "I think you can be in lots of different places and make them your home if you’re willing to connect to a community and be part of a community then that can be your home."
Aaron

Aaron

Aaron | Māngere, Auckland - "The plan is to settle down and change my life. That’s my hope. I’m trying to look for another job, but just been doing a few courses with MIT."
Ana Maria

Ana Maria

Ana Maria | Epsom, Auckland - "Donde me siento segura, donde me siento amada, libre de expresión, donde puedo inviter amigos, y disfrutar de little, mi pequeño palacio. Where I feel safe, where I feel loved, free to express, where I can invite friends, and enjoy my little palace."
Levi

Levi

Levi | Māngere, Auckland - "I’m homeless. I’m struggling in life because of that, but I’m thinking in the future, I still put my head up high. No matter what happens I lift my head up and walk tall and think of the future."
Fletcher

Fletcher

Fletcher | Otūmoetai, Bay of Plenty - "Because if you don’t have family, you have nothing. To me, family is everything. Having brothers and my mum, my stepdad. So, yeah that’s the main important thing to me, family first."
Padma

Padma

Padma | Ruby Bay, Nelson - "After having designed many houses and homes for people, it’s not about the bricks and mortar. It’s not even about a place which is a receptacle of your belongings. Is it about identity? Perhaps. To me it’s more about that connection."

What has whānau taught you?

Leah | Tāmaki Makaurau

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