Kōrero With a Creative

Where are you from?

I was born in Blenheim. We lived in Picton but the nearest hospital was in Blenheim. I was supposed to be named after my Mum's mum Mary (as Mere) but instead I was named after one of my Dad's kūia who was staying at the time when my Mum went into labour. I am the pōtiki of 12 siblings. Six from my Mum, five of which are my Dads too, and seven from his previous marriage. Our whānau spans multiple generations, so that comes with all sorts of experiences that not many people my age would understand. As the youngest I've seen it all. My eldest living brother is 70 on New Year’s and I'm 36 so there's lifetimes of experiences within one whānau.

I was raised old school but I’ve got those Gen Y tendencies, so I'm pretty fortunate. My dad was a Māori teacher at Queen Charlotte High School. Mum was an English teacher before she was a full-time mother. When I was four, my mum separated from my dad and we moved to Ōtautahi. We lived with different whānau and were always moving which was stressful for Mum, but an adventure for my brother and I. We lived with different siblings and their children, our nieces and nephews, who were the same age as us, some older. We're all still pretty close now.

I moved to Tāmaki Makaurau when I was 16. I just had the bug to find something bigger and brighter and browner. It was meant to be the stepping stone to my overseas travels but then I started moving throughout the motu. Down to Queenstown for the ski seasons and then up to Paihia for a summer, and back to Tāmaki before I moved ki Te Whenua O Moemoeā.