Caring for people

Tu Tangata, Issue 16, 1 March 1984, Page 52

Caring for people

By Amo Houkamou

FACES OF ROTORUA

Roma Balzer, doesn’t believe in sitting around and waiting for things to happen she goes out and makes them happen.

She’s 29, eloped .when she was 20, and returned to Rotorua six years later with three children. She says, “raising children on your own isn’t easy, but I’ve managed.” She’s also managed to get behind many community groups. The groups with causes she believes in, like the Womens Refuge Centre in Rotorua, of which she is the Co-ordinator and Maori rights groups. This doesn’t mean she’s out waving banners all over town. It involves many things, sitting around talking to people, and playing with the children who come to the Refuge centre with their mothers. Even when she was at school, she challenged what happened to her. When she was at Rotorua Girls High, she was kicked out three times and each time she fought to go back. “I really liked school, it was nice and safe,” she said.

“The teachers thought I was bad, but I disagreed.” They thought this because she didn’t live up to her “older sister’s reputation,” she says. She has had a few breaks, and made a few, in her efforts to take a hold of her life. “I left school when I was 18, it was a Wednesday. On Thursday I started working at Tokonui, (a psychiatric hospital near Te Awamutu) teaching multi-handicapped children.” Two years later she quit. Roma enjoyed the work, but she felt she wasn't mature enough to handle the responsibilities. The next six years were spent in different cities, working in restaurants and hamburger bars, and raising her family.

When she was living in Hamilton, she attended evening classes on ‘Women in Politics’, became very interested in the Womens’ movement, and joined the Womens Health Collective, a forum for women exchanging ideas and learning about themselves. This was a turning point, because here was something she was interested in, and ready to absorb. “Individuals have a responsibility to challenge what happens to them, and a right to decide what direction they should take”, said Roma. Breaking up with the father of her children was another turning point. She was on her own, with her children to look after, so she moved home to Rotorua. Stuck in her home, with only her

children for company, was lonely so she decided to get out and do something. She says it would not have been possible to get out, without the support of family and friends. She started doing community work, paid and voluntary. Roma was involved with trying to set up a beneficiaries union, a pressure group for people on benefits. She got a job working for the Fordlands Community Association. The Association is a group of concerned people living in the Fordlands district, of Rotorua. She was disappointed with the job, because she didn’t give it her best shot. There were too many distractions, like the 1981 Springbok Tour. Roma came out of the Springbok Tour with broken ribs and deep-seated worry. She said “I walked out of the

grounds at Hamilton, after the game had been stopped, people all around me were saying, “we stopped the tour!” I just thought to myself “what is happening to this country?” She felt Rotorua was the safest place for her during the tour, not because there were more anti-tour people here, but because she knew the people. Her parents did not agree with her protesting, but when challenged about their daughters’ actions, they would defend her. Her father, Clary Balzer, said, “Roma, I don’t agree with what she’s doing, but she believes in it and I have to be proud of that.” She summed up her commitment in her struggle against racism by saying, “The day I was sentenced for running onto the tarmac at Rotorua airport, I caught a bus to Auckland, and was ar-

rested for protesting at Bastion Point.” ‘Ka whawhai tonu.’ It’s not that Roma, likes to jump on the ‘band-wagon’, she just wants to give a helping hand to those who need it. “Sometimes this isn’t easy, when there are children to look after, and the work you’re doing gets you down. Its hard trying to manage everything, but its better than not doing anything, and moaning about what might have been.

She sometimes feels the pressure of peoples’ expectations of her. They come to her for answers, which she doesn’t always have, because she too is still learning.

As we sat talking, women at the centre kept interrupting, “Roma where are the T-towels? Where’s the coffee? What time’s tea?” She gave me a knowing shrug, and answered the questions.

She says, she gets annoyed with herself for not having all the answers, and tries to be better prepared the next time.

She is her own worst critic, “I seem to have spent all my life just bumming out”, she says.

Her criticism isn’t only reserved for herself, she is also critical of what she sees happening in Rotorua.

“Flashy motels are going up all over the place, while Rotorua people live in sub-standard houses”, she said.

That’s not to say, that Rotorua is a poor city, but it has “a disproportionate distribution of wealth, with Maori people being the main victims”, she said. “There is a lot of ‘deep-rooted’ racism in Rotorua, but its such a sensitive issue that it’s played down. It’s safer to ignore it, than to do anything about it.”

Roma says, Rotorua has an equal number of Maori and Pakeha, but ‘we don’t even get half a page in the local newspaper’.

“Our culture is ripped off us and commercialised, because Maori have little control over tourism, which is the main area where our culture is bastardised”, she said.

She realises these problems aren’t unique, but says Rotorua, as one of the major tourist centres, is fast becoming known as ‘plastic tiki and haka boogy land’.

Rotorua has a lot to offer, native bush, diversity of scenery, unique ways of life at Whakarewarewa and Ohinemutu, and a wealth of Maori culture, says Roma.

And this is why she is sad. She can see it all being lost because of the emphasis on the ‘quick buck’.

When asked, “where do you go from here?”, she replied, “where do WE go from here?, and threw it open to the other women at the centre.

“Well at the moment we are all blowing up balloons. One of our women is getting married on Saturday, and we are helping-out with preparations, she said taking a breather.