The Road Ahead: 'I want to come back here and be a teacher'

Kahupora Mason plans to study Māori and Indigenous Studies at university before returning to Kaikohe to be a teacher. Photo / Mike Scott

"That's one thing that I love about our country is that it was once a country where we couldn't embrace our culture, but now it's turned around where our country … is eager to learn and to embrace it. Looking back, I don't know how it could have been like that. Like, why couldn't we have our culture then? Like, why do we get to have it now? Like, why couldn't our ancestors embrace what they had and what they were born with. And I guess that's what makes it more meaningful to me."

As New Zealand prepares for an historic election in the worldwide grip of Covid-19, reporter David Fisher and visual journalist Mike Scott spent three weeks on the road to find out what we're thinking. In Kaikohe they sat down with Northland College students Kahupora Mason and Arkadian Moir-Kelly to hear about their hopes for the future.