Bondi – the capital of New Zealand?

Tu Tangata, Issue 24, 1 June 1985, Page 10

Bondi - the capital of New Zealand?

Why do Maoris flock to Australia and more particularly, Bondi, a seaside suburb of Sydney. The lure of big money to be made has faded now with previously easy-to-find labouring jobs now scarce.

In the minds of two Polynesians, who’ve made Bondi their home, it’s summed up in freedom. Freedom not to be constricted by family ties, preconceptions or just plain small town thinking. Jim’s a Cook Islander, who figures high in activist circles and Rodney is a Nuiean who came to Bondi nearly nine years ago with big dreams and little money in his pocket. Both shared their thoughts with Tu Tangata. The idea of Polynesians being restricted in what they can do at home may be a new thought. However for Jim and Rodney, Bondi represents a freedom of living style that they felt wasn’t possible at home. And what is that style. For Rodney it’s the late late hours and night life and for Jim it’s a more tolerant environment.

Jim says he didn’t realise how tolerant until he returned to New Zealand recently. He says he was appalled by the underlying violence and tension in Auckland and Rotorua. Not having been back for ten years, Jim found the gang presence, just one of the contributors to the tension.

He says in Sydney, the main violence is associated with Maori ‘bouncers’ at Kings Cross, a dubious reputation they’ve earned over the years. Consequently he says most Australians have this view that Maoris are big and can fight.

Another surprising fact is that there are a large number of pacific islanders living in Sydney, a fact that pleasantly surprised Rodney’s mother when she came to visit.

For Jim, who’s taking sociology at university, life is very much wound up in politics. He says he served his apprenticeship during the 60’s hippie counterculture phase and has kept active since.

One of his current involvements is FM community radio based at the university. Radio Kotahitanga started last year and has two hours each week. It’s

what Jim calls ‘inner city radio’, not just because the low strength signal only covers the inner suburbs of Sydney, but because it’s community based.

Jim. “I’ve been here in Bondi 14 years. My arrival is typical of a lot of Maoris and New Zealanders who come over here. I came to get out of the small town attitude. I got a job labouring in the building industry, a job traditionally taken by young Maori because of the non-union labour. They come to Bondi, where they know people, hang around for two to three years with the idea of taking back a lot of money from the big city to keep their mums and dads satisfied that they’ve done a good job over here. So they want to make big money and they’re not interested in unions. They want to make it as fast as they can. The building industry has always been attractive. They pick up jobs on the side, like being a bouncer at the Cross. They’re heavily involved in that. A few Maoris were involved in murders and organised crime. Most of the activities are centered around the Cross and people come over and always check out the Cross and so Maoris become a very focal point because they’re seen around the Cross. “I came here to the building industry and got involved in the unions and stayed with the unions.

“A lot of people coming over here won’t give up this idea of making money, especially for the folks back home. “But from what I can see, they’re not making it and they just perpetuate the myth of Sydney, the big city. “They won’t give up this idea of making it big, you know like a taxi business, but they end up after around three, four years with a child or two running around Bondi. They’re then faced with, ‘Do I go back, or do I get a mortgage and go and live in the Sydney suburbs.' “The climate, the sun is very attractive to brown-skinned people and about the only place they can get a big enough/ house is out in the western suburbs. So they get scattered in all directions, purely because of economic reasons. Bondi is a place for single people, not kids. “It’s a transient population in Bondi, it changes every three or four years. Out in the western suburbs, they have to find a job, anything, it's usually to do

with small businesses. They have to make it living on their wits, they pick up a few skills. They're definitely survivors. “However because of this making money thing, they tend to have different factions distrusting one another. I found it very factional. “In different fundraising efforts for a marae or projects 1 found people wanting to know where the money has gone. “I mean a lot have no money but that doesn't stop them asking.’’ TT: This entreprenurial skill seems a lot more evident in Sydney than back home though.

“Yes but it’s a lot more alienating here. I go back to that small town attitude they bring with them. “A twenty year old arrives in Sydney, he’s never seen a city like Sydney. I mean Bondi is next to the Cross, and then you have television that goes all night. I mean when my mother arrived here, all she did was watch television all night, she loved it. “When you come here, you’re away from those small town restrictions, you’re on your own.’’ TT: But don’t Maoris bind together here in Bondi? “Well because the building industry is in a crisis, we lost our jobs, we have the highest unemployment per density in Australia here in Bondi. Because we

were unemployed, we met more often now in the street, rather than as before in the pubs after work. We have this informal network connected up with what’s happening back in New Zealand, this Treaty of Waitangi issue, those things. With those political, social things happening elsewhere we were able to bring people together.

“People going backwards and forwards between here and home keep us informed.

“There are not too many Maoris who come over here to work in tertiary institute or get education. Most come to make money.

“I happen to have those skills, and instead of working at the Cross, I went to university.

“A lot of the Maoris coming here haven’t had the tertiary education and so find it hard acquiring the professional skills needed in small business. The last idea they have is to get some higher education.

“I’ve been within the University of New South Wales for seven or eight years. I see a few pacific islanders, but don't see any of this particular crowd. But those things must change. The myth about the big city is slowly changing to the extent where more of them are going back to New Zealand now.”

TT: What stories do they tell on returning?

“That’s it’s tough, normally they’re beaten, with two dollars in their pockets or someone else has paid for their fare.

“I think they don’t understand the politics of the place, it’s never been an area that Maoris outside of Maori activists, have been involved in. I mean they don’t see the connections between Aborigines and Maori land rights.”

TT: Well what political connections have you made that you’re still here after fourteen years?

“Well I got to the stage about three or four years ago when I had been involved in unions and knew more about Aboriginal land rights than what was happening back in New Zealand.

“I’ve applied that knowledge that I’ve gained from meeting aboriginal activists to the scene back home and I find there’s no difference. The same bureaucrats are impeding the progress of Aborigines and Maoris. There have been links between Red Indian groups, Aboriginal groups and Maoris. An indigenous people conference was held a few years back with Donna Awatere and Rebecca Evans coming from New Zealand.”

TT: What does political knowledge do for your group here in Bondi?

“We were dealing with bread and butter issues like housing and unemployment and came together as Maoris.

We had problems within this particular area.

“Those activities like squatting in an abandoned house became blown up. If we didn’t take some action we would have ended up with eight or nine people living in a one-bedroomed flat. I mean we didn’t have the money to send them back to New Zealand.”

TT: What has your squat achieved?

“It became the catalyst for resident action groups to start up here. Other groups came along and got involved as a community.

“It gave us credibility as a Maori group.

“To give an example. In setting up this particular group we approached the Australian Arts Council for a project with cultural and modern music. An aboriginal activist, Gary Foley was on the council. We asked him for money and he turned us down flat saying the best place for Maoris was back in New Zealand.

“He said Sydney Maoris had not done anything for Aborigines.

“That’s how we started, thinking, ‘What have we done?’.

“That’s when we realised what our stereotype was.

“After that we kept out of Gary’s way and kept contact with kooris (Aborigines) living in Redfern. We now have credibility with them. No way

would Gary Foley say those things about us now.”

TT: How do Aborigines benefit from your group’s work now?

“We make it a priority to involve them, get the Aborigine Dance Theatre in with our projects. Music is a big uniter, the reggae. One of them, Tiger shares an FM programme with us. They’ve invited us to talk about Waitangi Day protests on their radio shows.”

TT: How do you see the Aboriginal struggle? Is the lead coming from urban blacks?

“I think there is a challenge to these urban blacks from older, tertiary educated blacks who’ve been to university and been promised jobs within the Aboriginal Affairs. They’re having a modifying influence which is smothering the radicals.

“These urban blacks are now finding groups rising up and challenging them now, where for about ten years they were given a free rein. Their opinions were always in the media.

“Now we find new groups, sometimes people no-one knows. They’ve been selected to counter people like Gary Foley; to give support to government policy. It’s to the extent that Gary has said that the biggest obstacle, they now face in the eighties are the

bureaucrats, and they’re the black bureaucrats.”

TT: What connections does your group have with other Maoris living in Sydney?

“We went out and met these particular people before the squatting incident, so they know ourselves, but they find us a bit informal. We joined a few of their committees but found our interests were different. We’re a bit younger. They’d hold a social and say tickets were ten dollars. We’d ask if there were any concessions for unemployed. I mean they would organise fundraising from crook raffles while we have an Australian government grant. That’s the difference plus at the time of the squatting incident, we needed all our resources here in Bondi.

“The present council running Bondi is what I would call ‘mavericks’, flash-in-the-pan who want to develop Bondi. They’ve rushed around Bondi upsetting and alienating different groups.”

TT: You recently returned to New Zealand after an absence of seven or eight years, how did you find New Zealand?

“Well before I left, groups like the Mongrel Mob weren’t around. Now after going back I wonder what I’m doing here in Bondi, I should be back home.

“Now living in Bondi, I have a greater concentration upon the Pacific because of things like Anzus. I’ve moved away from Maori and more towards a pacific awareness.”

TT: Was the gang thing fearful for you?

“I found it very territorial and very tense. I also found it very exciting, the physical presence of Maoris. I’m a first generation migrant, a Cook Islander born in Rotorua. I’m the oldest of ten. When I went to school there was a little box where you had to tick Maori or European, and like Islanders didn’t exist. Now I see more people looking like me.

“What I find exciting are the street kids, who’ve made their own links through music, they’ve broken down divisions between Maoris and Islanders. Instead of the old idea of the two groups fighting, they’re dancing together.

“There’s still a few punches between groups but it’s disappearing.

“In New Zealand I think there’s nothing to do beyond having kids. These street kids are making their own action and to me that’s exciting.

“The older gang members I talked to said they’re bored and got into mischief. The young kids show promise. I think music can do a lot for Maoris.”