Community advocate Dave Letele said the filming of the second instalment of his Heavyweight series enabled him and his father to put a number of issues that had lingered between the pair to rest.
This one-hour programme explores key moments of Letele’s life story and considers them within the context of New Zealand today.
In Heavyweight with Dave Letele: Patched, screening in August, Letele explores gangs and their impact, including the impact on his own life, after he was sent to live with his grandparents in Australia when his father, then-president of the Auckland chapter of the Mongrel Mob, was jailed for 10 years for an armed robbery.
Being sent away has always haunted Letele and this was the first opportunity during filming that he had spoken about it with his dad.
“I felt like I was being punished by being sent to Australia. I was only five and didn’t understand. I didn’t want to go and it was hard. It haunted me,” Letele told the Herald.
“Even when Dad was released from prison I wasn’t allowed to come home. My grandparents were strict on my dad and his siblings but were super soft and spoilt me and loved me rotten.”
“The most confronting piece about filming Heavyweight with Dave Letele: Patched was sitting down with my dad for an hour and having that conversation. This was the longest time we had ever sat down and I could ask him things.”
Letele said he understands now why his dad sent him away.
“I look at some of those kids raised in the gang life around us now made me realise the decisions my dad took to send me away. It could easily be me now with a Mob patch on my back. I was taken out of that environment.”
Letele’s dad Dave Letele snr was a ward of the state aged 10 and was in and out of boys’ homes.
At aged 15 he joined the Mongrel Mob, who were establishing an east Auckland chapter. Two years later Letele snr was the Mob’s sergeant of arms (enforcer), and by 19 the gang’s president. Serious and violent criminal offending was the staple daily diet.
Letele recalls as a kid, police raided their house during Christmas and took his dad and their Christmas presents away.
“I saw police as the enemy,” Letele said. “I f***** hated them. It changes you,” Letele said.
“When you see shit like that, you can’t undo it.”
Fortunately, Letele was taken out of the gang scene.
But for many of the gang members interviewed by Letele, they have similar stories.
Letele snr was released from prison a reformed man and one of faith. He has dedicated years to helping prison inmates reintegrate back into society and is a community advocate, like his son.
Heavyweight with Dave Letele: Patched is an in-depth look at the significant challenges New Zealand faces regarding gangs.
Letele engages with a wide range of people including gang members, extended whānau, former members who have found new paths, academics, police, and, his father.
Letele approaches the gangs not as a journalist but from the perspective of someone with lived experience and could easily have been one of them.
He says he is driven by curiosity and asks why Māori and Pasifika are overrepresented in gang and harm statistics. He also examines how 501 deportees have further altered the landscape.
The TV special arrives at a critical time when public interest and division are high, with national measures such as the newly established gang unit and upcoming patch bans being implemented.
The documentary features perspectives from various experts and individuals with firsthand experience. Police Commissioner Andrew Coster notably states, “If you had to name the one group that does the most harm in New Zealand, it’s gangs.”
Letele said he hopes that sharing diverse experiences will foster better understanding.
“It’s important to address these issues and have some really tough conversations. Hopefully, through sharing different experiences, we can better understand the challenges we face. I hope in highlighting these stories we might inspire hope for positive change within our communities.”
Heavyweight with Dave Letele: Patched airs in August on TVNZ 2 and TVNZ+.
Joseph Los’e is an award-winning journalist and joined NZME in 2022 as Kaupapa Māori Editor. Los’e was a chief reporter and news director at the Sunday News newspaper covering crime, justice and sport. He was also editor of the NZ Truth and prior to joining NZME worked for urban Māori organisation Whānau Waipareira.