What does community mean to you?

Ngahuru | Te Whanganui-a-Tara

Ngahuru reflects on how community saved their life when they became homeless during school, and now pays it forward by supporting others through Rainbow Youth and InsideOUT.

“I’ve been homeless and stuff before so being able to have people come through and be like ‘you can stay on my couch, I’ll cook you a mean feed.”‘

I became homeless whilst trying to finish NCEA. And that was really rough. But I got taken in by Chlöe Swarbrick in her campaign office on Karangahape Road at the time. And I got a nice clean couch to sit on. Some kai. A clean wharepaku (toilet). That was nice.

And just a bunch of new people who are now lifelong friends. I genuinely don’t know where I would be if I didn’t have that support because they helped me get into uni halls, which then helped me get off the street. Which made me come down here [to Wellington]. Having them really did change my life.

And the same with my drag community down here. Having them just be like, ‘hey, I can teach you how to do your makeup. You can borrow this shirt if you’d like. We’ll come to your shows, we’ll scream and cheer, we’ll feed you after the show.’

I’ve done the same thing of letting people stay on my couch as long as they need. I’ve made the big pot of soup and gone around to people’s places. I’ve done grocery trips for when they can’t. Also, just being able to kind of channel it through volunteering. I run a trans social group at Rainbow Youth. I get to teach workshops with InsideOUT for my job. I mean, being able to just have that pathway to bring people in is so rewarding.

I don’t think I could accept community help without being able to put it back in there. It’s genuinely the most fulfilling thing I’ve ever been able to experience, for sure.

I whakapapa Māori (have Māori ancestry) so my community is my iwi and all of the people that I meet on the street and we go, “oh yeah, where are you from? Where you from?” And end up being cousins. Instant community right there. Or my mahi, I’m surrounded by all trans and LGBT people. Instantly we’re connected through that. My drag whānau. I’ve got my drag mother and my siblings, and we’ve also got drag cousins and all of this stuff. It’s just like, Te Whanganui-a-Tara is just kind of like a big hug. It means everything to me honestly.

Last year, there was a young peoples’ mental health rally outside of Parliament, and I made a sign for it that says, I’m still only here because of community. And it’s true.”