Moana | Mt Albert

“Okay, my first name is Moana and I currently reside in Mt Albert, Ōwairaka. The most recent generosity that I received was an extra amount of money that was to see me through last weekend, Labour Weekend.

That was from a person who may have not been forgiven for what he had done, but I know that I have been forgiven for what I have not done. So, once Labour Weekend was over, my generosity had to be paid forward, and the first thing back to that person who gave me that. It was only $40, but it was enough. My values and my beliefs come from what my mother taught me, how she maintained her dignity, throughout her career, and she’s now retired, finally. Supporting three children under the age of consent to anything whilst her husband was in jail, was not easy, but she did it, and she continues to be able to enjoy her retirement with her second husband, and I think he’s a good man, and he’s kaumātua. Has been for a long time. A lot longer than my mother has been her kuia. The only thing that she lacked was the time to learn te reo Māori. I learned te reo Māori, and I started as a teacher aide at Hoani Waititi Marae, and the first thing we were taught, if you can’t say the Māori word, don’t say anything, and then I was going, oh well I know what Dad is. I know what food is. I know what my name is, and I wouldn’t wish to curse my name, which is something you can’t do, because if you’re born and you’re alive, that’s why I’m still here, and I’ll go home every day, because that’s what I do. I come down here. I do what I do. My family are everywhere, and that’s humanity. If you have one thing that you don’t have then it’s not worth worrying about, and that is the richness.

It’s one word. Aroha. There are many types of love. There is love for your pets, for animals. There is love for yourself, and you must be kind to yourself. There’s love for your children, but if the pain of what you have witnessed hurts that much, then don’t place that pain upon anybody but yourself, and that’s why the only name, my name told me, if you put a name on your in ink, don’t make it another man’s name. So, I didn’t. I put my dad’s name on it, and I wear it with pride, because to have gone all the way to Edinburgh bought a coat just like this, because it was that cold, but you’ve been as far as Christchurch and to Greymouth, and lived down there, then minus two is nothing. Forgiveness for the past, again aroha. Aroha tētahi ki tētahi, rule number one in Te Ataarangi. If you love one another, when it’s time for you to be forgiven by your Maker, then you will be forgiven, and it doesn’t matter how it is on earth, and Māori believe there has never been a hell.”