Mongrel Mob member goes from living in his car to running a rēwana bread business

By Ashleigh McCaull of RNZ

A Mongrel Mob member has gone from living in his car to running a flourishing rēwana bread business – and it’s taking off on social media.

The Covid 19 period was a rough time for 54-year-old Upper Hutt man Vonz Kaukau – a Mongrel Mob member for 27 years.

His mother died in 2020, he was left homeless in 2021. He and his family were hungry, and it led to a turning point.

“I was living in a car, and I got hold of my Aunty Teresa, she hooked me up with some emergency housing out in town one Sunday, got a bit hungry so I rang my aunty up ‘any chances of teaching me how to make your rēwana?’ – so that’s how it started,” Kaukau said.

He works with a 4-year-old fermented kūmara starter, called a bug, which comes from his aunty’s 40-year-old supply.

Vonz Kaukau's rēwana bread. Photo / RNZ

The Christmas period is proving to be a busy time for him with 35 orders last week, which he makes from his home.

So far he’s had positive feedback from the community, and is gaining multiple followers and views on social media.

“Just going down town, you know getting out of my car and random people come ‘hey man you’re on TikTok can I take a photo?’ I can’t go nowhere without anyone wanting to say ‘hi’, it’s quite cool, it’s different,” Kaukau said.

He said baking bread gave him a sense of purpose and made him proud to be around his mokopuna.

He hopes for his business to grow even further and include popular Māori cuisines such as cream pāua, chowder and hāngī.

It’s something he also wants to pass down to his whānau.

“When I’m gone I want to leave something for my grandkids and that, I want to be an inspiration if I can to them, you know and just leave something they can carry on and pass down to their kids and just keep it in our family, that’s what I want to leave,” Kaukau said.

Rebecca Noble, a teacher aide at St Bernadette’s school, has been a loyal customer for three years.

She found out about Kaukau’s rēwana bread through social media posts.

Since then she has shared her love of his bread amongst everyone in her circle, from her colleagues to her whānau.

Vonz Kaukau and his granddaughter Kaprece. Photo / RNZ

“When we seen his post I said to mum ‘aw we might as well try it’ and we haven’t looked back since. We get one probably every once a week.

“My dad, cause he’s a shift worker, we’d cut half up and we could freeze it and it’ll still come out fresh but we don’t even have time to freeze it cause it’s always gone,” Noble said.

She praised his customer service for always checking in to see how his product tastes.

She also loves his purple business cards and banner, made with the inspiration from his young 8-year-old daughter – they are purple and have a picture of a unicorn on them.

Teresa Olsen is the general manager at Kōkiri Marae and helped support Kaukau by enrolling him in a business course which ran for about two years.

The programme through the marae is under Whānau Ora and is in its fifth year, with 60 people going through it so far.

She noticed a change in him when he came to the marae saying he used to be “angry” and “out the gate”.

He was previously convicted of credit card fraud in 2015 and imprisoned for two years but Teresa Olsen saw in him a desire to live a better life.

She said the marae was able to provide a holistic approach to tautoko (support) Kaukau.

“I don’t know that it would have been able to happen for him anywhere else, you know a mainstream environment is very cold and very isolating where as the environment that we provide is a real whānau environment, so really supportive of him,” Olsen said.

She said baking rēwana bread was Vonz Kaukau’s way of connecting with his community and honouring his mother.

Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.