In his fifties and after time in prison, Dr Timoti Te Moke decided to turn his pain into positivity. Photo / Robert Trathen
Dr Timoti Te Moke has experienced childhood abuse, addictions, gang life and repeated prison stints. But, he says, it’s the same single-minded focus that helped him survive those environments that drove him to become a doctor in his fifties.
“When you decide to be part of a gang, you decide there and then that it’s going to be your life, no matter what anyone says or any barriers that are put in front of you,” he explains.
“So when I first got knocked back from the University of Auckland, a lot of people would have been dismayed, but not me because I’ve got this single focus. It didn’t matter what happened – I was going to become a doctor.”
It’s a remarkable story of success in the face of many seemingly insurmountable hurdles.
“I had to go through this evolution,” he shares. “By the time I got into medicine, I had amassed some unbelievable skills, the beliefs that I had intelligence and potential – and also that I had the ability to realise that potential.
“But I’m the outlier. I’m the exception, for now, at least, though it’s my hope that things change.”
For the first six years of his life, Timoti, 56, remembers being surrounded by unconditional love from his grandparents, who were raising him in the small Bay of Plenty settlement of Matatā.
But when he was taken from their care to live with his mother and stepfather, his world turned suddenly and unexpectedly violent.
Years of being subjected to brutal physical and verbal abuse led him into crime, gangs and eventually repeated stints in prison.
He remembers spending most days with a group of 20 guys who all knew the pain of an unstable and unsafe home.
“From time to time, I’ve bumped into some of these guys, and we’ve caught up about the old days and what everyone was up to,” he says. “And there’s an awful truth to be found in their answers. Of those 20 guys, I think I’m the only one who’s not dead or in prison.”
In 2012, as he was trying to turn his life around and studying to become a paramedic, Timoti was even wrongfully charged with manslaughter.
He was found not guilty and a Waitangi Tribunal claim around police bias is still in process after it was found police did not consult the Crown Solicitor before deciding to charge Timoti.
His previous time in prison also gave him something unexpected – discipline.
“When I got into medicine, my routine was to get up in the morning, go to the gym, go over my notes, go to tutorials and lectures, study more at the library, then get up and do it again the next day,” he recalls. “That was me for five years.”
The most profound moment occurred during a practical placement, when he witnessed organ donation in action.
Timoti says, “I got to see the whole process… organising organ donation, watching the surgeon retrieve the organ and put it in someone else, who I then had a cup of tea with five days later.”
After graduating in 2023, he was relieved to find work in Middlemore Hospital’s intensive care unit.
“I always knew I was going to come back to South Auckland, to come home and show our people the potential we have,” he enthuses. “It’s pointless for me to realise my potential if I can’t help this rohe [region] realise their potential too.”
Timoti will never forget those who supported him along the way, like his cousin Pita.
“I rang him one day at medical school and said, ‘Cuz, I have no money,’ and he gave me $500. After my first pay cheque as a doctor, I drove up to Mangōnui with a $500 bottle of whisky and a thank you.”
In his bestselling memoir The Unlikely Doctor, Timoti shares his life story. He’s donating 45% of the book’s profits to New Zealanders struggling like he did and to Palestinians in desperate need of aid.
Looking to the future, there are even bigger goals.
“I want to see our country evolve as I’ve evolved,” shares Timoti, who hopes to see his book available in all prisons and rehab centres around the country.
“They’re the ones who need to be shown they have potential, but barriers have been put in front of them that prevent them from even knowing they have potential.
“I’m a doctor now, which is really cool, but I should have been one 30 years ago and the reason I wasn’t is because I had to overcome all these barriers.
“No one has worked as hard as me to become a doctor and no one should ever have to work as hard as me again.”
The Unlikely Doctor by Dr Timoti Te Moke (Allen & Unwin NZ, rrp $37.99).