‘My Dad’s Story
When I was little my Dad was deeply involved with the union movement following his return from five years on the frontline during World War II. He was a working-class boy from Port Chalmers who had grown up during the depression of the 1930’s and who could remember the violence of the Great Strike of 2013.
In 1951 I was six and my Dad, having been an active member of the Rubber Workers Union, had joined with the Waterside Worker’s Union in support of a consortium of unions involved in the 151 day waterfront strike. Leading up to the denouement of this strike I became aware, as a kid and through listening to my Mum and Dad, of the horror, the violence and the confrontation that was happening down on the waterfront in Lyttelton.
I was at home with Mum one lunchtime when Dad came home, his face covered in blood, with a blackeye and badly broken nose.
He sat at the kitchen table and talked about what he had experienced while my mother cleaned him up. I remember him saying, when I expressed concern at how badly bashed up he was, that there were others far worse off than him.
This was the start of a journey for me as he took me through the history of the union movement and the reason for its existence. From that moment I guess you could say I was radicalised but it’s actually in my DNA to want to create a better world for people who struggle for equality and a decent way of living. I guess you could say that the seeds were sewn way back then when I was six.
I’ve been to many protests, marched down the main streets of Christchurch, Wellington, Auckland, New Plymouth, even Oslo, Norway, and have worked as an activist in the area of human rights and human decency all my life. I have met some amazing people. I’ve been part of some extraordinary change. Perhaps the most moving experience I have had in recent times was, as chairperson of Auckland Pride, to host the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern when, pregnant with Neve and in her slippers, the Prime Minister marched the full length of Ponsonby Road in support of full human rights for all queer people. Amazing. It was an honour to work with her on that project as I know we share similar values and similar goals, and while she works at the highest level, I am still active on the street with people from my own community who are disadvantaged, discriminated against, often homeless, and who need all the help that people like me can give them. When I get down and a bit depressed about how slowly things are moving, I have to remember the words of Prime Minister Norman Kirk who said ‘there are four things that matter to people: they have to have somewhere to live, they have to have food to eat, they have to have clothing to wear, and they have to have something to hope for.’
I would add that, we, as individuals, need to do everything we can to do no harm to each other. My life has been driven by a desire to be part of creating a world where no one else has to sit at their kitchen table, bleeding, having had to relentlessly fight a dysfunctional system to gain any real sense of actual equality.
We’re not there yet, not by a long way.’
dykiegirl 