Speech: Waitai's Got Talent - Hon Tariana Turia

Waitai’s Got Talent.
Loongana Hall, Waitangirua; Thursday 29 April 2010 6pm
Hon Tariana Turia,
Minister of the Community and Voluntary Sector

This must be a day of National Celebration for Waitangirua.

I started today in a morning meeting with Fa'amatuainu Wayne Poutoa – learning all about the amazing progress that is being made with the Streets Ahead 237 Project.

We heard about the transformation that is occurring within the families of this area. Wayne talked with great passion about the initiatives that your people are taking to determine your own pathways forward.

And then here I am tonight in the heart of the ‘Rua; in a hall cram packed full of talent; through the initiative and passion of the Waitangirua Residents Focus Group.

And I want to mihi to a special breath of fresh air in this community, Maria Burgess.

Maria has been hired through a three year Community Development Scheme grant awarded by the Department of Internal Affairs to Porirua Living Without Violence. That’s her day job.

But what Maria is probably best known by –is as a cause champion.

A cause champion is someone who is motivated by much more than winning.

For Maria, the big win would be the creation of a community which is Living Without Violence.

But there is a much greater goal in sight, which is about families, whanau and communities generating their own solutions to their own issues, driving their own development full steam ahead.

Waitangirua – and indeed the greater Porirua region - seem to attract more than your fair share of champions.

I’m familiar with the great work that Wesley Community Action is doing with people like Eugene Ryder and Liz McMillan working with whanau in creating your own opportunities.

And of course the redevelopment of Waitangirua Park is proceeding through the vision of people like the Waitangirua Guardians.

So how do you become a champion? What is the magic attitude, the motivation that drives us forward above and beyond winning the initial goal?

In the spirit of song, I turn to the late, great Michael Jackson for some advice on this. He said,

I'm starting with the man in the mirror
I'm asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself, and then make a change

Often when our mokopuna first catch sight of themselves in a mirror it is the most remarkable thing, to see the sheer joy and excitement they experience.

Their chubby little hands reach out in wonder as they stare at this magnificent little person staring back at them.

To be a champion, we have to know that when we put the mirror up to our whanau, in our homes, in our streets, in our communities that we can be just as thrilled with the reflection shining back at us.

It is about that sense of great love, that pumping pride that tells us that all of us are capable of being champions.

It’s about valuing and respecting all who belong to you – your tamariki, your kuia, your matua. It is about knowing your roles and responsibilities to each other.

It is about having a vision – the sense of future possibilities that gives a sparkle to your eyes.

It is about knowing who you are – your history, your taonga, your whakapapa, your stories.

Now I’m not the only one that knows the real truth about Waitangirua being the breeding ground of champions.

Over 25 years ago, one of your own, a writer of Ngati Toa, Raukawa and Te Ati Awa descent, identified the champion gene across this community, with her wonderful children’s book, Watercress Tuna and the Children of Champion Street.

That writer, Patricia Grace, has won many national and international awards, including the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize for fiction, the Deutz Medal for Fiction, and the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, widely considered the most prestigious literary prize after the Nobel.

She is indeed a champion.

But the most wonderful thing about Patricia Grace – is that she uses her gift to show the champions that are within us all.

For that book, Watercress Tuna, is all about this community.

It has a whole cast of characters who each cling to the treasures of their people– Kelehia gets a kie; Hirini has a piupiu; Karen has some shoes; Roimata with her poi; Nga gets a pareu; Losa gets an ula; Jason gets a paper streamer and Fa’afetai gets an ailao afi.

At the end of the story the children all go out on the street and dance day and night.

Waitangirua – you can indeed be proud that when you put up a mirror to this community, the faces that are reflected back to you are the faces of the future.

This is a community who knows what it is to have talent.

This is a community who is proud to be innovative, to generate your own solutions and to face whatever challenges come your way.

This is a community which deserves to get out on the street and dance!

I am so excited about the opportunity to be at this event – and to be able to truly say, yes, Waitai’s got talent – that talent is in you all. Tena tatou katoa