Tigi: Fighting for our future.

My beautiful Grandkids today using their talents to help the cause. I know their future is brighter.

“They’re trying to shut us down – but South Auckland’s on the rise, we’re fighting for our future” – that is the song that my Grandkids were singing today.  I’m so proud of them – they have to take us to the future.

Back in the old days it was easier.  You could just walk down the road and look for a job and find one.  Lots of jobs back then, we all came to New Zealand because they needed us to work.  New Zealand was so full of promise and hope for all of us.  A new life, new opportunities… and lots of money.  So this is what you get – I worked in this Factory for 40 years, left with a plastic handshake and then find out the livelihood of my family is now at risk.  And not just my family.  I looked around today at everyone – some of them, I know their parents too, worked alongside them.

We protested today to save our families.  We are singing for all those generations of lost workers who worked hard to build new lives for themselves.  Never did they imagine it would be ripped away from them like this.  The singing today was good.  Can this music set us free?  I stare into the eyes of the young and hope they will have the answers.  I have been here so long and find myself still asking the same questions…

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