Dawn Raid

by Pauline Vaeluaga Smith

  Charlotte must have been nervous because she read hers REALLY fast. Hers was a bit sad. She lives with her aunt and shares a room with 2 of her cousins. Her brother lives with another aunt, and her sister is with her mum. I don’t get it, why wouldn’t they all live with her mum?

  When I read mine, I decided not to rush like Charlotte. Everyone laughed when I read the bit about the cabbage, even Charlotte and her stupid friends. We had to hand in our written speeches.

  WEDNESDAY, 30 June

  * * *

  We got our speeches back and this is what Mr. Morrison wrote on mine:

  “Good job, Sofia, this is well written and a creative way to talk about yourself. You have used humour and painted an interesting picture with your words. Your speech was well paced and you paused to get the attention of the audience. Be sure to check your spelling (remember, “i before e except after c”) and the use of commas. You may be a writer in the making.”

  I was floating on a cloud when I read that. I fell off the cloud and hit the ground when I read his last comment though … “Would you like to read this out at assembly?”

  NOOOOOOO, I would not like to read it in front of the whole school! NO WAY JOSE (actually, I think this is how it’s spelled, like the song “Do You Know the Way to San Jose”).

  Mum and Dad said they were chuffed with what Mr. Morrison wrote. Dad said I should read it out at assembly, he said I needed to push myself. The only place I want to push myself is off a cliff! I can’t speak in front of the whole school! I actually do feel sick now.

  THURSDAY, 1 July

  * * *

  I have to read my speech in assembly tomorrow. I practised tonight in front of everyone. I left out the bit about pretending to believe in Santa, of course, coz I didn’t want to ruin it for the boys.

  “I don’t get in trouble with Archie,” Ethan said. Mum gave him a look and pointed to Tavita’s eye and that shut him up. Lenny said he liked the bit about Martin Luther King Jr. and civil rights. He asked if I knew anything about the Māori land march.

  “It started last year in the far north,” he said, “from a place called Kapowairua. They headed south and collected more people from a marae Te Hapua.”

  The Māori people were unhappy because land had been taken from them by the government (the Crown, as Lenny called it) and never returned. Lenny told us their slogan is “Not one more acre of Māori Land.”

  “That sounds like a civil rights problem,” I said. (I felt quite grown up saying that.) Lenny agreed and laughed. Dad didn’t though. He got a bit annoyed with Lenny.

  “It’s nothing like what Martin Luther King died for. Those Māori are just stirring up trouble. They should leave it alone—it happened a long time ago.”

  Lenny wasn’t going to leave it alone though. “Martin Luther King died fighting for justice for Black people—a battle they’d been fighting for hundreds of years. The Māori are only asking for things that were taken from them since the Pākehā came and the government started taking land illegally—”

  Dad interrupted him. “Well, we need to move on. They need to make the most of what they have now and get on with it.”

  “So if someone took our family tapa cloth, you wouldn’t try to get it back?” Lenny snapped.

  Dad looked mad. “Don’t be silly, of course I would.”

  “And if the people who took it wouldn’t give it back, wouldn’t it still be yours?”

  Dad was quiet for a moment. I thought Lenny was crazy talking to him like this. Then Dad said, “It’s a family treasure. We would do everything we could to get it back.”

  Lenny smiled. “Yes, Dad, that’s exactly what the Māori say about their land.”

  Dad opened his mouth but no words came out.

  There was a bit of an awkward moment, and then Mum said, “How about we make some doughnuts for supper?”

  I felt sorry for Dad. I’ve never seen him lost for words. In the kitchen, Lenny told me more about the Māori land march. His friend Rawiri’s family are Māori and are quite involved with the people who organised the march. It’s called a hīkoi (pronounced “hee-coy”). I wonder if Dad’s right. Also, what if the Māori try to take our house and land back? Wow—I didn’t know writing about myself would start all this!

  FRIDAY, 2 July

  * * *

  I can’t eat my breakfast. Too scared about reading my speech in front of the whole school. Dad’s gone to work and Mum won’t be home from her shift for a while. I’m thinking of hiding under the house before she gets home. It’s a long time to hide there all day, though … and it’s really dusty and there’s spiders. Oh man, I don’t know what to do! The best thing about today is it’s Friday so if I muck up my speech there’s a whole weekend for everyone to forget about it. Better go to school.

  * * *

  Well, I’m still alive! I thought I was going to die at assembly. There were 3 of us reading our speeches. Me, Alice Reid from Room 7, and, to my BIG surprise, Lenny! When we were waiting to go on to the stage, I asked Lenny why he didn’t tell us he was doing it too. He said Mr. Carter only told him this morning because he didn’t want Lenny to get worked up about it. I think Mr. Carter should have a talk with Mr. Morrison. I spent 2 days being worked up about this! I asked Lenny if he was worried.

  “Nah, I don’t care. Anyway, it’s a good speech, so why should I worry?”

  Lenny’s right, I thought. I shouldn’t care either because Mr. Morrison, Mum, Dad, Lenny, Lily, and the boys all thought my speech was good too.

  Alice went first—she was really good. Her story was about the most important events of the past ten years. She talked about the moon landing with Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin. Buzz?? That’s not even a real name, is it?

  Then it was my turn. My mouth went dry when I saw the crowd. I’ve never stood on the stage and looked at the whole school, there are TONS of kids at my school. I was looking for Lily, but there were so many faces I stopped trying. I tried to pace myself and look at the audience. When I read the last bit, about the cabbage, everyone laughed and then the kids all clapped. I looked at Lenny and he was smiling at me and clapping too.

  Lenny was my hero today. His speech was about the hīkoi (Māori land march). It was really interesting hearing why the Māori people are angry. When he asked questions like, “How would you feel if someone took something of yours without asking?” I saw some of the teachers nodding at each other. After assembly, I was stoked when Mr. Carter told me my speech was really good. THEN he said, “I’m organising a local schools’ speech competition and I’ d like you to enter for your age group.”

  Geez, that freaked me out! Then I thought how proud Lenny was of me and how I liked it when everyone laughed. I couldn’t believe it when I opened my mouth and said, “Yes.” OH MY GOSH, when will this all stop!

  When I got home I watched TV—it was a big celebration coz it’s been 1 year since TV2 started. It’s so good having 2 channels I don’t know how we managed with just one! I watched Bewitched. Tabitha’s my favourite. She gets up to mischief all the time and her mum, Samantha, has to fix it. I wish I could do magic. I’d make an endless supply of vanilla milkshakes and nut roll bars. And I’d have a pair of go-go boots in every colour.

  After tea, Dad made some doughnuts and we all watched the Donny and Marie Osmond show. Marie was wearing bright blue go-go boots—WOW, they looked so amazing—I want them!

  We are really lucky to have a colour TV. We wouldn’t have got it if Mum hadn’t gone back to work because it cost $840—2 months’ wages! They had to save hard to get it. But man, Marie’s go-go boots look great in colour. Other kids love coming to our house to watch TV coz most of them still have black and white sets.

  SATURDAY, 3 July

  * * *

  Mum let me sleep in today. It was almost 11 o’ clock when I got woken up by the sound of clinking bottles and people talking outside my window. Sounded like people having a bottle drive. I got up to see what was happening, and when I
opened the curtains there was Colin Baker staring back at me. I got such a fright I ducked down, which was stupid coz he’d already seen me, but I was so embarrassed, dressed in my pj’s with sleep in my eyes and hair everywhere, looking gross.

  What if he tells everyone at school? Oh man, I might have to change schools now! They were there for ages getting the bottles from under the house, so I crawled to the bathroom to wash my face. When I heard them move off, I went out for breakfast, still in my shorty pj’s, and ran straight into Lenny and his friend Rawiri, who were sitting at the kitchen table. I got such a surprise I quickly tried to backtrack, but slipped on the freshly polished lino and landed on my bum. Rawiri rushed over to help me, but I was up and out of there before he could get close.

  What a terrible start to the day. Bad enough that Colin saw me with messed-up hair, now Rawiri saw me fall flat on my BUM in my PYJAMAS. I got back into bed and pulled the bedspread over my head.

  When Mum called me for lunch, I had to go out and face Rawiri. He just smiled. At least this time I was DRESSED.

  Ethan and Tavita were sitting outside on the steps and I could see they’d been crying. Tavita’s face looked shiny and sticky. I asked what happened but they both started bawling. I looked at Mum and she pointed to the kitchen rubbish bin that was now sitting on the front lawn. The whole lid and the side of it were melted. I could see Mum was upset—she only bought it a few weeks ago. It’s really flash. You step on the pedal and the lid opens … well, it did!

  Mum told me the boys AND ARCHIE were told to empty the rubbish into the big bin in the shed. They were mucking around out there when they found a petrol can. One of them had the great idea to use the petrol can to make a campfire! Oh yeah. The boys sent Tavita in to get some matches. Then they lit a match and dropped it into the petrol can, which was almost empty, but the fumes exploded and Tavita got burnt. That’s why his face was shiny and sticky—Mum had put cream on it, which Tavita calls “oinkment.” Maybe he thinks it comes from pigs, haha.

  Anyway, the firebomb (which is what Tavita and Ethan are calling it) set the net curtain in the shed on fire. The boys panicked and ripped it down and threw it in the rubbish bin, which is how the bin got melted. Dad heard all the noise and went running in, grabbed the bin, threw it on the lawn, and got the hose onto it. The bin is still sitting on the lawn and Ethan and Tavita are sitting on the step having to look at it. Archie got sent home—again. Kind of weird how trouble follows those boys around!

  Dad made a chow mein for lunch with chicken and celery and pineapple in it. I was starving. It was sooooo scrummy. Ethan and Tavita were very quiet at lunch. They didn’t eat all of theirs, so I finished both of them. Rawiri stayed for lunch and told everyone how good Lenny was at public speaking. Then he looked over at me and said, “You’re really good too, Sofia.” I felt my face go a bit red.

  Rawiri talked about Lenny’s speech. Mum and Dad were really interested and even asked a few questions about the hīkoi. But when Rawiri said that all of us needed to stand up and let the government know that injustice is not okay, Dad said we all just need to get on with our lives and leave the government to do their job. Rawiri could see Dad was getting a bit tense, so he stopped talking about it.

  After lunch, Ethan asked Mum what she wanted done with the chicken bones. She told him to put them in the bin. There was a pause … then we all laughed, except for Ethan. He started to cry. I think he felt bad that they’d ruined Mum’s new bin—and that Tavita got hurt. Mum gave him a hug and told him to go have a lie down.

  SUNDAY, 4 July

  * * *

  It was a hot day today. We don’t get many hot days in the middle of winter, so me and Lily were sunbathing out the back. Rawiri came over again and he and Lenny came out and lay on the lawn too. It’s weird—I was worried when Rawiri saw me in my shorty pj’s but I didn’t care when I was in my togs. Anyway, no one’s looking at me with Lily sunbathing in her bikini. I know Rawiri noticed her because he started singing, “It was an itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka dot bikini that she wore for the first time today …”

  Lily just turned her transistor radio up and closed her eyes. She’s so cool nothing ever really bothers her.

  The boys were talking about Lenny’s speech again and Rawiri said, “I think it’s great that you are so interested in what’s happened to the Māori people, but you also need to think about what’s happening to the Islanders.” (He meant Pacific Islanders, like Dad.) They were talking about a thing the government had been doing, called dawn raids. Me and Lily didn’t know what they were talking about, so Rawiri explained.

  “A couple of years ago, the government decided there were too many Islanders who were here illegally so they started looking for them—by breaking into people’s houses in the early hours of the morning … at dawn when everyone is in bed asleep. Sometimes they catch someone and deport them back to the Islands. The government was happy to have them when they wanted cheap labour, but now there’s an economic crisis”(whatever that is!) “they’ve started these dawn raids again. Islanders are getting the blame for being a drain on society.”

  WOAH, this is heavy stuff, I thought. “How come you know so much about this and we know so little?” I said to Rawiri.

  Lily even turned her transistor down at this point and sat up to listen. We asked Rawiri loads of questions about the dawn raids. Lily isn’t usually interested in this sort of thing, so it was good we were all talking about it together.

  “Do you think we might get dawn-raided because Dad’s an Islander?” I asked.

  Lenny said, “Us kids are Islanders too.”

  “But we aren’t real Islanders like Dad,” I said.

  We all argued for a bit about whether we are real Islanders or not. Rawiri broke it up saying, “The dawn raids are mainly happening in Auckland, and they’re targeting people who are overstayers.” Realising I didn’t know what he meant, he said, “That means they’ve come into the country without having the right paperwork, or they DID have the paperwork but have overstayed their permits.”

  “So how does the government know who is an overstayer and who isn’t?” Lily asked.

  “Sometimes they don’t.”

  “So why did the government let so many Islanders in if it was going to cause a problem?” said Lily.

  “After the war, in the 1940s I think, there was a shortage of workers, so the government relaxed the immigration laws to let more people from the Islands come in to do the factory and labouring jobs.”

  Huh, that’ s funny, Dad works in a factory. I don’t think it’s fair that the government is calling Islanders a “drain on society.” My dad works really hard and he’s an Islander, and all his mates work really hard too. Oh my gosh, I wonder if Dad has a permit thingy? Maybe someone should talk to him about this. Rawiri also said the government and the media are making it look like Polynesians are taking all the jobs and being violent lawbreakers. He said it’s stereotyping (not sure exactly what that means but I guess we’ ll learn more about it in our typing class at school). THAT IS SO UNFAIR, my dad’s not violent and he would NEVER break the law.

  Archie’s mum brought him over and made him give all his pocket money to Mum to put towards a new bin. Archie was crying, but I’m not sure if it was because he was sorry about the bin or sorry about losing his pocket money.

  Lenny had to get ready for his milk run so Rawiri dropped him off.

  I got sunburnt.

  MONDAY, 5 July

  * * *

  Everyone at school was nice to me about my speech. Mr. Morrison congratulated me in front of the class for being selected for the speech competition. Blow it—I forgot about that, I haven’t even told Mum and Dad about it yet. Mr. Morrison said I had to see Mr. Carter at lunchtime about the competition details. That made me feel a bit sick again. I wonder how many people will be at the competition.

  Mr. Morrison told the class that since we’ve been learning about each other with our speeches we’ll be having a cultural food
day, and we need to bring some food from our culture to share with the class. We had to talk to each other about what foods are important to our families, then we went around the class sharing 3 special foods each. It’s funny, I used to be scared to speak up in class, but since I did my speech onstage I’m not even worried about sharing my ideas with everyone anymore.

  Colin was first again, not because of alphabetical order, but because he put his hand up first. He loves speaking up in class. He said his important family foods were roast dinners, meatballs, and cheese rolls. No one knew what cheese rolls were so he told us his mum is from a place called Gore, way down south, where they make cheese rolls by rolling grated cheese up in a piece of bread. They toast them in the oven and spread heaps of butter on them. They sound weird but yummy. I think I prefer scones.

  Then Colin said, “Our Scout group did a bottle drive in the weekend …”

  I felt a moment of panic and started hearing a ringing sound in my ears.

  “It was fun,” he went on. “We raised a heap of money and we got to see some really nice people.” He was looking straight at me. I went BRIGHT RED!

  Mr. Morrison laughed at Colin and said, “That’s good to hear, Colin, but let’s keep on track.” Thank goodness for Mr. Morrison.

  When it was my turn, I told the class the important foods in my family are my dad’s Samoan chop suey, pineapple pie, and cornbeef stew. When everyone finished, Mr. Morrison said we had to say which food we thought we might bring. I said cornbeef stew. I chose this because it takes less time to make than the other things and I think Mum or Dad would help me with it.

  As I walked past Charlotte and her lot at morning teatime, she said, quite loudly, “Cornbeef stew, who would bring that cat food to a class lunch?” I heard her idiot friends laugh and then it was a bit of a blur … I felt my stomach burn … and the next thing I knew, I’d pushed Charlotte into the lockers. There was a lot of yelling from her friends, and loads of other kids came running over.