Kah-Shar | Manurewa

“One time when I went shopping, and there was actually a person in front of me that didn’t have enough for their shopping, so I made up the difference for them.

My last heart to heart conversation would have been with my mother as I was living in Australia, and she was over here in New Zealand, and she just found out that she was ill. So, we had a little discussion and then that’s what ultimately led me to coming back to New Zealand, to look after her.

Ah, last time I felt connected to my culture was in December, or when I went to Samoa for three weeks um, as my dad was getting the tattoo done, and that was the first time I’ve ever been to Samoa.

Probably would have been a worker that works at WINZ, that we had a talk and that’s when I found out that he grew up in foster homes and he had no family and that. So, that kind of hit home, because you know, when people go to WINZ and all that, they think that the people there are, are like all up themselves and all that, but then when you sit down and talk to them and learn about them, then yeah. Um, well because I bake cakes, and because they’re on a budget, so I decided that I’ll make the cake for her. Um, that just saves them having to go out and pay someone to get the cake done, and yeah so I was just at the library doing, printing out photos to do edible images to put on the cake for her, just to show her like, growing up and where she is now.

I grew up in South Auckland, New Zealand. Um, when I was about eight I moved to Sydney, Australia where I went to school, and then ultimately moved back to New Zealand. Um, last year I moved back to Sydney and I now have three kids and a partner, and right now my partner’s still in Australia working, and I’m back here with my three kids to look after my mum, and yeah so that’s pretty much me now. Ah, I think supporting family is a big thing, like generally for me, in our culture family is a big thing, being an Islander, and every Sunday we get together for lunch after church at our grandparent’s house. So yeah, family is everything to us, and doing things for them is just like, pretty much out of our hearts, normally.”

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