Tommy Kapai: Migrants need some Kiwi spirit

Ashley Highnam and Moira MacDonald bringing an attitude of gratitude to their community. Photo/Supplied

Haere mai, welcome to Aotearoa NZ - where the promise of a safe place to call home is the silver lining of this long white cloud - and the rest of the world is lining up to come on down.

Clean water, cool people, crowd free - and a safe anchorage to bring up the kids is what the rest of the world is looking for and here in the bay that has plenty of all these toanga we need to start calling the shots as to who gets to stay and play in our backyard.

I guess it starts with appreciating what we have over the back fence.

Matata is always that reminder for me.

Pristine fish-filled coastal waters with not a footprint on the beach but the one you left behind.

Who wouldn't want to move here when the world is turning to doomsday custard?

The Americans are coming and moving from Trump Towers in downtown New York to twin towers in downtown the Mount and Tudor towers in Rotovegas.

Thirteen thousand Americans had registered with immigration authorities in Auckland to obtain residency permits in the week immediately after Trump's election victory on November 8.

That is 17 times the usual number of registration requests that the Government in Auckland receives in a typical week, according to the new Zealand herald.

The latest this last week is internet billionaire Peter Thiel, 49, co-founded of Paypal and all up last year, about 2000 millionaires moved to New Zealand, taking the total number of millionaires in the country to 89,000.

Wealthy people are moving to New Zealand, as it is one of the safest places in the world for women to live.

Old money, new immigrants, billionaires and refugee beggars are all heading our way now that Donald Trump has shifted the doomsday clock 30 seconds closer to full time - where it has never been in 64 years.

For me, the counter to the clock we have no control over - or the army of new immigrants coming into our country, is to focus on our own backyard, and helping each other get along by becoming part of the army of volunteers who are the backbone of Kiwi communities.

Like most not-for-profit organisations, our little whanau of dedicated helpers where I work would be lost without our volunteers.

All across Aotearoa an army of volunteers show up day in and day out - even on long weekends when we all get to kick back and soak up the sunshine of Auckland anniversary weekend.

In my experience of the past five years working with the homeless, most volunteers come with an attitude of gratitude and ask for nothing in return. All of my board are unpaid volunteers. Two are in wheelchairs, whom I affectionately call chair bros and Ashle,y a single mum with buggerall in the bank, has given us 700 volunteer hours,

On the flip-side of the kindness coin there is a silence by certain ethnicities to volunteer, yet they are first in line when it comes to free services, and I would not be surprised if this is reflected across the country.

Again, many of the same silent volunteer sector, many of whom have come to Aotearoa as immigrants, seem to pool their resources and buy up the very businesses who help put the poor across the poverty line - pokies, liquor outlets and $2 shops.

Without sounding like Once Were Winston [Peters] and his push-back politics, if we are to allow 40,000 new immigrants in every year, there should be provision in their immigration application to do volunteer work.

This will allow them to get a flavour of volunteering for no motive other than to have the opportunity to belong to - and be part of, a community here in Aotearoa - New Zealand.
Perhaps today is a good day to remember all of the volunteers as much as it is to celebrate Auckland.

Who can answer why we have this day off?

Exactly the same answer in my whare.

Surely, our volunteers deserve a day after them as much as a man called Mr Auckland. What say you Gareth [Morgan]? There is an opportunity, bro.

Perhaps we could call it V day or Awhi Day in honour of all those who tautoko the kaupapa (support deeds) of volunteering - to help others in need?

Not a week goes by when I do not get an offer of help. This last week it was a bunch of cool wahine called Good Bitches Baking, who cook up beautiful kai for those whose cupboards are like Mother Hubbard's with nothing in them.

Check them out and get involved whanau.
Rich lister or poor refugee, every application to call Aotearoa home should have a focus on philanthropic values and the genuine desire to give back to the community who have opened up their arms to them.

Happy V day.

Broblack@xtra.co.nz