Firstly I need to apologize for not keeping this blog up to date but I have been literally run off my feet. We traveled through Gisborne and Napier, meet a number of people and interviewed Denise O’Reilly, the well-known social activist and one of the original Black Power members. We then went to Wellington and attended the Summit on Criminal Justice Reform, and have met with heaps of really interesting people, and done a number of interviews including Harry Tam, one of the original Mongrel Mob members who is a social activist and has worked on policy in government for 20yrs. We also interviewed the Minister of Justice, Andrew Little. If you would like to see photos and notes from this period you can check my FaceBook page https://www.facebook.com/Allan.Tibby.page/
Today is our 7th day in Wellington. We were able to interview Eugene Ryder, a Black Power gang member and social activist.
Eugene is a truly amazing human being. His father was a minister of the Church and hearing that, most people would therefore, assume he was raised in a caring home environment, was well educated, and had a very clear idea of right and wrong. So, learning that he has had over 50 convictions, and spent years in prison, the average person would ask “What happened?”
Eugene revealed to us that while his father preached one thing in church, his home life was very different. His father began sexually abusing him when he was 10 years old and he and his siblings experienced a great deal of physical violence. The family also struggled financially and so from an early age. Eugene took to petty crime so that he could have the basic things required for schooling, like pencils, and food. Because of his home life. He was quite disturbed and dealt with prejudice or bullying with the only “tool in his toolbox”, his fists. This led to his being put into state care at age 15, where he was again subjected to an environment of violence and sexual abuse by the people who ran the three state-run boy’s homes he was put into. Eugene developed an understanding that the physical and sexual abuse he had been exposed to was the norm and was part of life and especially of Maori life.
Feeling very isolated and alone he sought the shelter, companionship, acceptance and a sense of family that was part of belonging to a gang. He attempted to join the notorious Black Power gang at age 16 and robbed a bank to try and farce track his membership. He ended up being tried as an adult and sentenced to four years in an adult prison. Later in life, he found that many gang members had the same backgrounds as himself and had also suffered violence within their families, had participated in petty crimes in an attempt to acquire basic school supplies which other kids had and to simply have something to eat. So many of them were also sent to Borstal where they were also subjected to both physical violence and sexual abuse. The newly established Royal Commission of Inquiry Into Historical Abuse In State Care will look into the abuses committed within these boys homes, and from what we have learned, will potentially reveal what is a great shame for New Zealand society.
By the time Eugene was 45 years old. He had received a degree in social work but had already engaged for many years in attempts to uplift his community. He is a very inspiring guy to be around, and much loved by his community. He invited us earlier in the morning to the Trust which he works for – CART. They do a lot of work for Maori and also for the Black Power community. It was a very moving event held at their office, but it needs a little back story.
One of the trustees of CART had formally spent many years in prison and was a wonderful artist. His name was Ranga Tuhi. Upon getting out of prison he formally studied art at University. He was a gifted artist, but was not very well educated and had great difficulty been able to function on the campus environment. When he was assigned to study a particular subject, he did not know how to use the index system in the library and so would sometimes take up to a week to search through the shelves of the library to find the book he was meant to read. He felt too ashamed to ask for assistance, and so made friends with the janitors who would allow him to work late into the night to search for the books he needed. One of the things Ranga did was to work with disadvantaged children by teaching them art. Before his death, he looked for someone who could take over the work he was doing with the young people. He asked another energetic young Maori writer, Genisis Te Kuru-White, known as TK to take over from him and lead the young people he worked with. TK is a highly creative storyteller and was a runner-up in the recent Pikihuia Awards as a writer of short stories and Maori.
So today TK came to Wellington with his family from Whakatane to join CART and take up the mantle of Ranga Tuhi. There was a very moving ceremony with TK and his family on one side of the room and the CART family on the other. During the ceremony. TK’s family now and trusted him to the people of CART who would now take care of him and support him in his new life.
TK’s father, Paora, is one of the founding members of Black Power and has been a leader in the organization since its inception he is a very amazing man and a true lead. We had a long conversation with him and learned that back in 1992 he initiated the move for the members of Black Power to reconnect with their Maori roots and culture.
He has continued that worked tirelessly for over 20 years while seeking to uplift the members of his community. He has actively promoted the need not to take drugs or alcohol, and to live, responsible and caring lives. TK is a living example of what his dad has sought to do. We were invited to come and visit with the family in Whakatane and to learn more about their work there. So we look forward to doing that quite soon.
It may be a few days before I can update you again as the next couple of days are pretty full-on. Tomorrow we are interviewing Prof. John Pratt, possibly NZ’s leading criminologist, and Judge Andrew Becroft, the former head of the Children’s Court and currently the Commissioner for Children. Then the next day we interview Kim Workman, a former policeman, head of corrections, and the godfather of Criminal Justice Reform. We’ll also interview Chester Burrows, former MP and currently appointed to chair the advisory committee for the current government’s efforts at criminal justice reform. Then we make a mad dash to Rotorua where we will be interviewing Billy MacFarlane, a former drug kingpin and convict turned reformer and activist.