Me and my brother are planning on having a huge party
to celebrate turning 21.
Everyone's probably gonna need to be vaccinated to come.
My parents are currently not vaccinated.
So that's pretty concerning,
'cause I would really like to see them sometime soon.
I'm Rāwhiti,
I'm from the naughty north and I'm turning 21.
That's kind of in tune.
For our 21st party, we're gonna be doing hella yardies.
I've been practising mate, it's like the Olympics.
And we're definitely gonna have a little wine afterwards.
The kiwi Olympics.
Oh yeah, a little bit of a wine, a bit of a-
It's gonna be a crate day, 2.0.
You know how everyone gets like a 21st key,
We get hoe.
So like little paddles that our cousin Māori, who's a carver,
carves for us.
It's something that represents the journey.
All of us in our family unit having that hoe
to push ourselves forward, all together as one.
As a whānau.
If you're gonna be on the waka,
you need a hoe.
If you're gonna be on the waka, you need a hoe.
No one's just there for free.
No one's just getting a free ride.
Like, I don't know how it's gonna work out, but Mum
I know she would want to bring the hoe.
I do feel like Mum's gonna come around
on getting vaccinated.
It's definitely affecting her,
just not being able to be there.
Mum: What are you grinning at?
Can you not see!?
Oh my gosh.
It's a fake.
Nah, I got my tā moko done.
You didn't say last night.
It looks cool.
Do you like it?
Yeah, but what will your job say?
I don't know!
Can't fire me for getting a tā moko!
Is that your 21st present to yourself?
Yeah, I wanted to get it before my 21st.
It's scary to think
that I might not be treated the same anymore
because I have a moko now on my body.
And I feel like it's my job,
as Rāwhiti,
as a Māori man,
to not let that affect me moving forward.
So we're from Awanui, Rāwhiti and Ngāwhā,
so Ngāti Kuta, Ngāti Kahu and Ngāti Rangi.
Spread around Northland, we're Northland to the core.
Hold on.
[Barks]
I'm so sorry.
That would've been really loud in your ear.
Rāwhiti, hi guys!
I miss you, I miss yous.
Go see Nana.
Mum! They're here!
Should I put some lipstick on?
Come on.
Hau kāinga.
See this grass?
Ahi kā.
See this? Nature!
You silly billies.
This is the old native school,
where my grandmother went to school,
and where we used to go to for rangatahi,
church group, when we were kids.
Native schools were schools that they implemented
for Māori youth to attend as an assimilation strategy
into western culture.
You weren't allowed to speak te reo Māori,
and there were some repercussions that a lot
of Māori faced for speaking te reo.
None of us are fluent.
We can understand some things, but not, yeah.
It's definitely a barrier.
It's a barrier to being closer to
understanding who you are.
When their older sister was small,
she had fits when she had her first vaccination,
so we decided that we wouldn't vaccinate any of them.
They've been fine, they've never really been sick.
Sick of you.
They've been quite healthy without having the vaccines
and the MMR.
Well I've had them all now.
Oh, you have them all now. Isn't that ironic?
And they've all had their Covid injections, which is ironic.
So, I mean they are adults now and they have the choice.
I whakapapa back to here, it's my tūrangawaewae.
It's where I go back to.
It's a place of rest.
It's part of me intrinsically, it's in my name.
Just over there is our koro's house,
and just up there is this bougie mansion,
where we used to take the pontoon from.
We worry about our mum, not taking care of herself,
or you know,
her opinions kind of being worse for her,
doing harm to her.
In the end it's their decision,
and we respect that and it's not like we think they're
like completely stupid.
But what it comes down to is,
we think that getting the vaccine makes it spread less,
and so less people get it.
I'm not surprised
that Northland is the least vaccinated part of the country.
People here are very sceptical of power
or anyone in authority.
No one likes cops up north.
No one likes anyone with a suit on.
It's an intergenerational distrust
in governance, which is granted.
Like, I totally understand it.
Like I grew up with the same sort of feelings.
I mean, when you've grown up
only knowing these people in power to screw you over,
what else are you gonna do?
So I have Covid.
So our birthday party is not happening any time soon.
I feel like Covid's taken all of my hot years.
Hello?
Yo
Yo, yo.
The first couple of days I was super sick,
like it was like bad bronchitis.
Yeah.
Just coughed up a little bit of blood before,
that's fun.
Just then.
What the hell?
Have you got any warm salt water, gargle it.
I know it's yuck, but it actually works quite well.
Have you got any ice blocks?
It's just like some of the coughs are so sharp,
that it feels like it's cutting.
I didn't think it would be that bad because I'm,
because I'm like vaccinated and everything
and I'm pretty young.
To be fair, I've got like a pretty mild version of it,
but it was still like really painful.
After having Covid myself,
I'm definitely more worried about how my mother
and my father and my nan would fare.
I don't think they'll get vaccinated.
I can't convince anyone to do something they don't wanna do,
and that's fine. It's just concerning, so...
Mummy Cel watching the clothes dry
with her little boy.
Happy birthday!
I think when you're growing up,
and you think of having your 21st,
you picture your family there and you getting your 21st key,
and your parents doing a speech.
I guess part of me turning 21 is letting go
of how I've idealised certain situations.
I feel like I've put my energy into loving the things
about my family that do work,
and the things about myself that do work.