This month it is 20 years since 433 asylum seekers tried to reach Christmas Island, Australian territory 2600km from Perth.
This pitiful group, predominantly of the ethnic minority Hazaras of Afghanistan, put to sea from Indonesia in a little fishing boat that leaked like a sieve even at the start of the voyage.
The journey was a 350km crossing in the Indian Ocean.
Christmas Island was to be their gateway to freedom, to the promised land, Australia.
There they hoped they would be welcomed and find sanctuary.
We know the welcome was harsh.
When their crippled boat started to sink they were rescued by the Norwegian freighter, the Tampa.
The Captain was prevented from discharging the asylum seekers on to the Island.
Instead they were transferred to the HMAS Manoora, and after sitting on the deck for 10 days, were transported to Nauru Island.
The Australian Prime Minister John Howard made the Tampa Affair, by now an international incident, a platform for his re-election that year.
Australia finally agreed to take 150 of the asylum seekers and requested other countries help take the remainder.
Australia could easily have taken them all, and eventually, the majority were to settle in Australia but at the time the government wanted to deter other asylum seekers.
They had an imperfect asylum seeker process to follow with no shortcuts tolerated.
New Zealand, under Helen Clarke's Labour government, gave sanctuary to 131 of the 433 asylum seekers.
We took all the families and young boys who were on their own. I wish we could have taken more.
We now know their remarkable stories. Of triumph over hardship, of making new lives and making the best of every opportunity that presented itself in their adopted countries.
They were successful in starting over.
New Zealand made the right decision. Those that came here have worked hard, made a good life for themselves and their families and are valued members of their communities.
If New Zealand thought it was taking a gamble, it was one that paid off handsomely.
You only have to look at Abbas Nazari, the 7-year-old boy who, with his family of seven, made New Zealand their new home, after Tampa.
Now 23 years old, Abbas graduated from the University of Canterbury in 2016 with a BA (Hons. First Class) in International Relations and Diplomacy.
In 2019 he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to the United States, where he attained a Masters in Security Studies from Georgetown University in Washington, DC.
Abbas has written an inspiring book, After the Tampa, soon to be released.
He hopes to help children of refugee backgrounds build meaningful lives in their adopted homelands.
As we watch events unfolding in Afghanistan on TV and social media, you can't help but feel extreme sadness for the thousands of citizens who want nothing more than to live in peace and to give their children the best life possible.
To watch thousands desperately trying to get to the airport, and a flight out, to escape the violent tyranny they know is coming is heartbreaking.
After 20 years Afghanistan is back where it started. The Taliban is in control.
The families living in New Zealand have survived to tell their account of living under Taliban rule.
They were brave, they felt the fear of the unknown yet were desperate enough to put to seas to seek asylum.
New Zealand benefited from their courage.
Would that we could provide sanctuary once again for frantic families seeking only to live in peace.
- Merepeka Raukawa-Tait is chairwoman of the Whanau Ora Commissioning Agency, a Lakes District Health Board member and Rotorua District councillor.
