Dawn Raids Project Idea
Working Title : After the Dawn Raids
Talofa lava!
My idea is to create a 10 part series of Podcasts by interviewing Pacifika people on the Dawn Raids. Each interview will inspire a song.
10 unique stories to inspire the writing of 10 original songs. (An Album)
These podcasts and songs will be produced and recorded by me in my home studio. The interviews can be recorded in person if possible but more likely, will be remotely recorded via screen capture software.
The songs will each encapsulate a theme or message from the stories I hear in each of the episodes/interviews. All Podcasts and songs will be specifically themed and focused on different aspects and perspectives of the Dawn Raids.
Each song will be written, recorded and mixed in the weeks following each of the interviews and also shared on the podcast platform. It will be an artistic and experimental project and will draw on utilising my strengths and skills as a singer, songwriter, musician, storyteller, artist, producer, event manager, audio engineer and performer.
I have written and released an original album before with the assistance of Samoan musician and producer Ben Lemi from Trinity Roots. I have been a working Artist for the past decade and have built a music studio business which is currently where I work assisting other musicians with their creative projects.
I teach in the afternoons, and have been wanting other work to add into my morning schedule - which is when I would do this Nui Dawn Raids Project for the remainder of this year.
I have so many questions to ask my interviewees and pray that I get the opportunity to set off on this quest for knowledge. A lot of research is required by me in this process as I know there is a lot I just don't know!
For me - as well as this being about creating publicly accessible audio resources, it is also a deeply personal and spiritual calling to learn more about the Dawn Raids. I was born in 1976 - the year that the National Government, under Prime Minister Robert Muldoon instigated a further wave of policing and prosecutions.
Not that long ago when I found out about the Dawn Raids, I went on Youtube and watched several documentaries. They were informative but mostly covered only the events happening at the time of the Raids. I also want to know what flow on effects the Dawn Raids had on Pasifika people in the years following - and in the generations thereafter. I want to know how these events changed and shaped peoples lives, up until the present day.
I’ve chosen to create a Podcast as one of my main media forms as I'm a total enthusiast and listen to Podcasts daily as a way to experience educational entertainment. They are very popular at this time and are a great way of sharing information on a global platform.
By creating screen captured interviews I will be able to share these podcasts as both audio only and audio with video. This will give me the ability to share the interviews more widely on a variety of online platforms such as Spotify, Youtube and iTunes, as well as transcripts being available as written words for a PDF manuscripts through the use of translation abilities on Podcasters software such as Podcastle. In the future, these Manuscripts could be developed into a book with further editing.
I thought - well if I'm researching and interviewing people to learn more so that I can write the songs, why not also share that aspect of the project as well.
The next step or longer term vision for this project in 2025 would be to share the songs created through live musical performances and tell the peoples stories at my shows.
The Podcast episodes will obviously serve as the material to create the songs and show from - but will also stand alone as an important body of work, and are a large focus of my funding application.
Funding would allow me to focus and give some of my available working hours currently spent teaching singing, over to the time required to work on this project. I'm fully self employed and have been for ten years so I know the balance it takes to manage creative projects, to serve the community and to also make sure I can pay the rent on time.
Having the opportunity to create this series would give me that dedicated time to focus on my own Artistic project which my heart and soul has been craving - as much as it is an honour to help so many other people with their creations, I really miss having the time, financial resources and energy to also be the Artist, and I'd love to dive into utilising my skills and talents for a creation of my own.
If I get the opportunity to do this project, it will be the most important body of work I have ever had the honour of creating in this lifetime.
For me music has always been an incredibly healing force. Growing up I knew my Dad was a musician in a band at one time before he became a Minister, and this has always made me feel more connected to him and my Samoan heritage as I feel he gave me the music that is in my blood.
Sharing my voice with an audience as a story teller, musician and an advocate for the Pasifika people through my Art would be the most amazing experience on many levels for me - emotionally, spiritually, intellectually and artistically.
Thank you so much for considering my EOI.
Here is a proposed set of ideas I currently have from my first brainstorming session.
I have not yet asked all of these people if they will participate in my podcast episodes but it will certainly be amazing to have them as my guests, and I anticipate a positive response from my invitations.
At this stage I just wanted to get all my ideas down in writing so I could make the deadline for the funding round. I expect the specifics to become more refined if I get accepted as a recipient, and can go full steam ahead on this project.
*After attending the final Talanoa Session I did ask Pip Laufiso if I could interview her - and she said yes!
April - Episode 1 : This episode will be an introduction to me - the host. Born in Dunedin in 1976.
It will be a solo reflection on my life growing up in the 70’s and 80s as a brown skinned Afakasi in Dunedin. My Mum is European/Palagi and my Dad is Samoan.
Before I understood what racism was I experienced it in ways that were highly traumatising. From when I first started school everyone always asked me the same question where ever I went. “What Nationality are you?” they would ask with wincing eyes and no smile.
My mother told me to just lie and tell people I was Italian so they wouldn’t know I was a ‘boonga’ but this caused a lot of confusion and disconnect in me and shame for being who I really was. It also didn’t change the racist treatment I often received from kids, their parents and even my school teachers. I was spat at, called a nigger, and was constantly teased by kids on the playground. One time at around eight, I was beaten up on my way home from school for being "the colour of poo". I've been accused of stealing throughout my life from as young as six or seven, because of my skin colour and still feel a level of racist treatment and suspicion from some people today.
When I was little, I thought the abusive ways that people treated me was a reflection of me being unworthy and unwanted. The remnants of those early beliefs I formed is something I’m still working on healing to this day in my late 40’s.
I will explore how the events of the Dawn Raids during the 70’s created racial profiling, racial tension and a contributed to a society where discrimination was a normality. How I experienced that racism from my early childhood onwards has massively impacted me as a person.
I will also admit my total lack of knowledge about the Dawn Raids until more recently, and how I now have a strong need to explore what happened back then and how the flow on effects created racial divides that many Pasifika people born in New Zealand in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s lived with. Maybe like me - some really didn’t understand why they were being ill-treated, or how the government and media at the time were inflaming the tensions and creating the discrimination.
In my personal experience of life in Aotearoa, I can see that although we have come a long way from where we were as a nation in the 70's and 80's - there is still a lot of work to be done.
I’ve never been afraid of diving deep into controversial conversations. It’s time to talk about things no-one talked to me about. It’s time to put some of the pieces of the puzzle together and understand the atrocities that occurred at that time and how those events inevitably shaped my life.
*This episode and song has already been partially produced whilst I've been exploring putting in this EOI.
April - Episode 2 : Opening Blessing and Interview with my Dad - Reverend Ulisone Kiliona Mafaufau. In this episode I will interview my father and uncover some of the stories of what life was like in Dunedin at the time of the Dawn Raids. I have vague memories of him leaving to go up to the North Island to be with his family when I was very young. I also know he originally moved to Dunedin to be a factory worker and he married my Mum soon after in 1975. I want to what life was like at that time and how the Dawn Raids effected him and our family. I also want to know if he knew any of the PPP as he was of the right age to have maybe had friends or family members who were involved in that movement. This will be a conversation I have never had with him before as he left New Zealand and went back to Samoa to become a minister when I was only three. This is a conversation I feel compelled to have before it’s too late, as the years are passing by and we are both getting older.
I have so many questions to ask him and feel strongly that this will be a very enlightening interview.
May - Episode 3 : Conversation with Pip Laufiso who was my baby sitter in the 70’s and is now the Lead Adviser Pacific Engagement at the Ministry of Education. Pip lived in the same state housing area as I lived in for the first five years of my life. I want to interview her to find out what life was like in Brockville in the 70’s. How did the news of the Dawn Raids in Auckland affect the Polynesian families who were living in other parts of New Zealand at that time. Was there fear of it happening in other parts of the country? Were people from Auckland fleeing to the South Island to avoid being deported? I also want to know how this subject matter is currently being taught in the education system today and when the introduction of Pasifika resources were added into the school curriculum.
June - Episode 4 : Chats with my cousin David Tua for an added Celebrity moment! In this episode I would like to find out how the Dawn Raids effected my family in the North Island during the 70s. We have the same Grandparents who were living in Porirua at the time. Unfortunately I never met them. I want to have a conversation to find out what schooling and social life was for David in the wake of the Dawn Raids, as we only have a few years difference in age. I want to know if his parents and our grandparents ever talked to him about the Dawn Raids and if so what was he taught about them. How old was he when he learnt about them and what impact did that have on his life?
July - Episode 5 : Chats with my other amazing cousin Lafi Mafaufau who I have only met a couple of times in my life but always had an impact on me with her strong sense of self and her advocacy for Samoan language. I would love to connect with Lafi and interview her on her knowledge of the Dawn Raids and how they may have impacted her life and the lives of the Pacifica People she has worked with. Lafi is the Manager of the Languages Unit at the Ministry for Pacific Peoples. She was also an actress on the Hibiscus and Ruthless Movie. I’m interested to find out the timeline of the introduction of other languages into the schooling system as well and how that has regained a sense of moral amongst the Pacifica students. How are young people of all cultures educated about the Dawn Raids today in Aotearoa?
August - Episode 6 : Conversation with someone in the Polynesian Panther Party - who fought against the Dawn Raids first hand. By this stage I am sure to have made some connections that can lead me to interviewing people who were actively involved in the protest movements or in the Polynesian Panther Party. That's my greatest hope - to be able to interview a Panther! It will be super important to do my research to have a very well planned set of questions to make the absolute most of this opportunity.
September - Episode 7 : Conversation with someone who was deported as a result of the Dawn Raids and is now living in the Islands or returned to New Zealand again. What was life like after being sent away and why did they chose to move to New Zealand? If they returned, how did it feel? How did they deal with the traumatic events the went through? What do they want people to know about how the Dawn Raids made them feel?
October - Episode 8 : Potentially I’d be keen to interview a Policeman or Politician who was working at the time of the Dawn Raids to get an inside view of what was going on behind the scenes of these atrocious raids on Pacific Peoples homes. Were there any attempts made at healing the racial divides put into place in the years following the Dawn Raids and how have we learned as a society regarding the assurance that events like these will not continue on into the future?
November - Episode 9 : I’m leaving this space open because I believe the unfolding knowledge I will gain throughout this experience will mean I may create an episode covering a side of the Dawn Raids that I have not yet considered at this stage.
One idea to fill this space is to have a group conversation with several of the guests from my previous episodes to discuss their experiences with one another.
Another idea is to interview one of you lovely people from Creative NZ involved in the Nui Dawn Raids Funding Initiative. I'd love to talk about the kinds of projects you've seen being created and learn how this funding and the creative projects being made helps to make a positive impacts or changes in society. How do the Artists they've selected help to bridge racial divides, tell our peoples stories and educate others on these events?
December - Episode 10 : The last of the series will be a solo reflection on all I have learnt and all the stories I have heard. As a final episode wraps up I will pay tribute to all who I have met along the way and talk about the future for Pasifika People and the solutions we may have to ensure the apologies made by the Government are not just empty words, but a real meaningful opportunity to heal the past and create positive changes for the future. This episode will be recorded in December - and by that time I will have learnt so much compared to the first episode.
*I have estimated 20 hours per week to complete this work as I know how much time these kinds of projects take - always longer than you anticipate - especially the song recording side of things. My hours allocated to the project would be 9am-1pm Monday to Friday. Anytime spent working outside of that time will be my time to give.
I quickly created a sample demo song yesterday to accompany my EOI.
People like me we don’t have somebody watching our backs
We are the targets
They tell me I don’t belong, on the wrong side of the tracks
There’s nobody in my corner
Oh but stand a little taller
Keeping my heads up in the long white clouds
Oh I’ll sing a little louder
That’s when you tried to throw me out
And come into my home uninvited
Shining your lights through my windows
Come into my home uninvited
Your iron fist is knocking on my door
Come into my home uninvited
In the dark and the cold I am frightened
Come into my home, uninvited
In the little hours
Just before the dawn...
People like me we don’t have somebody watching our backs
We are the targets
They tell me I don’t belong, on the wrong side of the tracks
There’s nobody in my corner
Oh but stand a little taller
Keeping my heads up in the long white clouds
Oh I’ll sing a little louder
That’s when you tried to throw me out
And come into my home uninvited
Shining your lights through my windows
Come into my home uninvited
Your iron fist is knocking on my door
Come into my home uninvited
In the dark and the cold I am frightened
Come into my home, uninvited
In the little hours
Just before the dawn...