- You're a savage and you should line up waiting for WINZ.
All we are is a criminal.
I feel like it's a stereotype that's still
kind of attached.
A lot of time when I go up in the media,
I saw yourself figured in the idea.
- Kia Ora, my name is Chevron Hassett, I'm an artist.
I originate from Lower Hutt and I'm currently based
in Wellington city and I'm of Ngāti Porou
and Rongomaiwahine descent.
Growing up my dad was in jail most of the time.
And that was my experience of what a male was.
My age group is very common for them going to prison.
I was real fortunate that I was kind of
the opportunity for me to finding more in life.
- So Naenae has a state housing community
one of the oldest is in New Zealand,
kind of, made originally for a lot of soldiers
coming back from the war.
And then a lot of urban Māori came through
and then the Pacifica migrants.
And now has a huge refugee population too
so it's very diverse.
When I was at intermediate, one of these boys brought
in a book for Show and Tell,
kind of had his cousins graffiti in it
and it kind of sparked my interest.
That same day I went and got some markers
and I started writing my name.
Walking home on poles on fences
and then I just progressed into painting on tracks
and doing other things from buses,
and lead into the police they're tried
to get me charged on damages.
That's not really worth going to jail for ay.
There was a big focus on me when this all happening
maybe as to try give university a go.
Because I was doing graffiti spray painting
and using a lot of the acrylic,
I thought maybe I'll go to fine arts school
to learn how to paint.
When I first went to university
I was the only Māori in my degree at the time,
until about my second year.
And also Māori that are there,
a lot of them did come from middle-class homes,
lower class Māori, or more working-class Maori,
don't actually attend art school, design school.
A lot of the strings that I didn't know
how people viewed about me
I learned more while I was there.
People talking about my type of people in the same class,
you know, talking down about us.
And I remember other Māori also putting me down
because I come from those neighbourhoods.
And I took some extra papers and I got really interested
in culture and photography
and so I remember making the decision to transfer
into design school.
Here we're at the Douse Art Museum in Lower Hutt City.
This is my project called the children of Māui.
From 2017 up to 2019
I went on a variety of trips up and down the East Coast
and stayed with family members and friends
and photographed significant sights.
I'm relating to my to whakapapa and
relating to oral histories
and kinda connecting past, present and future
entwined into all of these works.
- It's really exciting cause Chevron's from Naenae
so sort of just down the road and it's really nice
and they're going to re connect with their
local sort of community for him and for us,
especially for young people coming to see the show as well.
I think they can sort of connect with it
and also hope that if they want to be an artist
that this is inspiring for them to be like,
yeah I can be like Chevron.
- I've come back here to make an artwork for sure
it is coming out the cool commoner,
I guess the basis of it is looking at the realities
of Māori men
and so I'm making a work-related to prison reform
and prison population of Māori men.
And so I just designed this like a prison uniform
on the back as 1994, the year I was born.
And this is symbolising that when I'm born,
this is kind of what I'm destined to be, you know?
I still see a lot of people around me falling into that trap
and are caught up in that.
It's also the way my dad was and so
a lot of my memories going, it was getting me to meet him.
So I thought I'd make it work
half of this exhibition around that,
around that idea and name it restorative.
I got permission by the Wellington council to do
a public art display and Courtenay Place
and I always call it a place to be
conceptual was based on a marae ātea.
Centered in the city, eight double-sided
LED light boxes that I visioned as pou
and I installed 16 images of a young urban Māori
from different tribal links and mixed heritage.
So I became the Wellington City council's Toi Pōneke,
visual artist in residence for 2019.
I was supposed to do a project opn Naenae and
I did my first large video work,
had portraits of people that I grew up with in the area
on the community around my age group
and I put them in a place where they felt
home in Naenae.
And then I also put that on the back of buses
throughout the city.
You know, I started drawing on the back of buses and stuff,
so it was really a special moment to 10 years later,
come back and get paid to do it.
- This anything that needs to be touched up?
Maybe, yeah, this colour.
See how it's a darker blue?
- I think this is the right blue.
It looks like it.
This the right one, eh?
So let's go touch it up.
- I work out in the Taita community center
three to four days a week depending,
and I run our programs for a 14 to 18-year-olds.
- I'll find the light purple
if you want to touch up the mangopare designs.
- The mural took a couple of months.
It's been fun doing it with my friends and you know,
there's a lot of meaning behind it and I've been,
I'm excited to put it into to the community
so other people can see it as well.
I want other people to recognise art and
the meaning it can have behind it.
- I try my best to share opportunities
with the young people,
give them an insight and so that they feel like,
"Oh, this could be a place for me to be around, you know?"
And also to build their consciousness of
what is theirs in the world.
So in Naeanae at one of the murals
I just did here for the community.
I was fortunate enough to have one of my students
who have come alongside with Chavez
and we got a 10-meter mural roimata, pātiki and tiki hands.
and it's all about, I'm trying to bring a positive,
uplifting reaching new goals here,
but also for me, as an artist, for me to give back.
As I've gotten older and I've started
to mature as an adult, you know,
you realise that there's different accessibility
for different things in life and for different people.
I came from a classroom that had no paintbrushes,
a teacher who wouldn't show up half the time.
I come from an area where no one told you
you could be an artist.
All that energy you take up as a kid
I hope young kids like me
can transfer that into something creative