WEBVTT
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This podcast captures what happened on the night and in the days, months and years that followed.
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Join me, Mandy Yakit, as I speak to fellow Mudowai locals, volunteers and those involved in the emergency and recovery effort.
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Hear about their experiences of lost and upheaval, the impact on their lives, and the community-led initiatives that helped Murruai find a way forward.
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Welcome to Princip.
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Mike is a Muruwai resident who is based in Auckland City during the week.
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He is a partner in a law firm which helped with the formation of a charitable trust to coordinate and distribute financial donations after Cyclone Gabrielle.
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Mike explains the process of setting up this trust, receiving and administering funds, registering the trust, finding a chairperson and trustees, and getting the trust approved as a charity with the IRD.
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He explains how the trust communicated with the community, creating a website, identifying the people in need, creating a workable assessment model, as well as the processes for distributing and preserving donations.
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There were 66 donations over the first few months with a total of 320,000 came in.
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He talks about systems for verifying people and bank accounts, criteria to be eligible for grants, working with other community leaders, and working with an accountancy firm.
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He describes the goals for this trust and where the trust is now three years on.
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So hi Andy.
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Mike Alexander.
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I've lived at Muriway with my wife Teresa since we moved out in uh July 1999.
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We've um we have kids and we've raised kids in the community.
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Um and we love Moodyway.
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We've been here for a long time, and I think we'll unless we are forced to move.
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Um I personally like to be here for you know for as long as we can.
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So it's been close to 30 years now.
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We haven't um raised as I said, we've raised kids, they've sort of been through secondary school and um and our our boys that just finished it, and we um I've built a legal practice in town with with uh another business partner and um with we've been building that business since uh 2010.
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Um we're a six-partner law firm now with 27 in the team.
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Um so we spend the week these days in town and the weekends out at Moody Wai.
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Um I'm on the sort of for a long time.
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I've always been involved in the community, so a long time ago I got asked at Boy Alclub Council to assist with the community association and then passed on to the surf club um after Tim Jago stepped aside um once after the people who built the surf club um council after asked if I'd step on as the chair there to bring some people through to try and make it work financially and uh work with um the wards and Aaron Griffin and other people to to make that and make the surf club financially viable.
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And we sort of by and large we've we've done that, although it continues to be a uh a struggle with liberalized on community participation and donations and and all the rest of it.
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And I think coming out of that, we had the the cyclone on in February, it was sort of middle of February 2023, and they had followed on the heels of um the anniversary weekend weather, which Auckland got a really good douse.
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And and I remember on the um round about uh Valentine's Day at 23, the sort of they were saying the weather was coming through and we were in town.
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So we would have just moved back into town.
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My wife's mother lives out at the uh at the beach.
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So we've got a house out at Moodywai that we've had forever, and and we've got an apartment in town we stayed during the week when we're working in town.
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Um and I remember the weather came through.
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Teresa's mum was out there and it didn't seem like the west coast was going to get badly hit.
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But then I remember sort of during the course of the afternoon, the evening, it was hearing reports that the weather had gone out to west and then turned back around.
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And the way that the weather was hitting the west coast, it was really hitting Muri badly.
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Uh and we were um we're in town, Teresa's mother was out there and we started to get a few phone calls and texts.
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Theresa's mother doesn't like answering the phone and wouldn't take phone calls or texts, but that had got to the point that it was dark and we were getting texts asking after Theresa's mum, and our property's down by the fire station in Woodway.
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So we're on a sand dune, and I remember thinking that um we probably would be fine.
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But nothing major had happened at that point other than that it was really coming in and there was a lot of water around and starting to get reports on about various things.
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But we had friends who were one friend in particular who was who was down around the house keeping an eye on Theresa's mum.
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And then everything happened.
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Um and so we were it was one of those nights we were in town, but we felt like we were around and and talking to various people during the course of the night.
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Fast forward a couple of weeks and the it was a sort of I suppose it was a national event.
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Moody Wai was in many ways leading the news, partly ostraced because it was close to Auckland, um, and and because of the obviously because of the tragedies.
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And so there were people wanting to donate money, and we were talking to people and um talking to people at the Surf Club, talking to people at the community association and and as everyone was, and um we were uh I was asked if I would ever think about putting together any entity that could to could receive funds that administer funds, and so we I talked to a few people and Paulden, um one of my business partners here who's the who's been the chair of the takeovers panel and has been sort of the government advisor and um was on a lot of trust boards and around the country.
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Um I asked me if he would chair that and overseas setting it up.
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Um we've got a law firm here, we needed someone uh an entity to administer and set up the trust um to register it as a charity.
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We asked um Erin Griffin as the as the leader and representative for the community to be on the board, and um Charlene Mateano as well, who's the justice of the piece that there.
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Um and so we set up the trust, we registered it, we got it um approved as fast tracked as a charity with the IRD.
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Uh, and then we let the community know that if it's to the extent they wanted to, that we could hold money and we would um consider how to distribute that.
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We the team here, we had a young, we got a group of young lawyers here and they were got enthusiastically involved in setting up a website and working out who the affected people were in the community.
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In the end, we just looking at numbers.
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There were 66 donations over the first few months with a total of 320,000 came in.
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One of the things that was challenging initially, because we had a lot of people talking to us about um and there's obviously a lot of people, a lot of uncertainty.
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A lot of people weren't sure.
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Uh at that stage the government, neither the government nor council had said they would uh provide a buy-out.
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Um, and there was a lot of uncertainty about whether and to what extent insurance would cover it.
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Um, and in many cases people weren't insured, or they would be insured, um, and people didn't have homes, they couldn't afford um because they didn't have money, they had mortgages, they still need to connect, didn't know what they were doing, uh, and so we had a lot of different people who needed money, and we didn't have a lot of money.
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We couldn't solve any or all people's problems, but we thought with 300,000 we might be able to make a difference to their weekly outgoings.
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And so what we said on the in the end was that we would make donations off.
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We ended up thinking that$1,000 would be meaningful as a as a distribution and and that were$300,000 that we had enough to do several rounds of$1,000.
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Um, we were aware that there were several hundred people in the community affected by it, more than 70 houses, families, and um and so we we just had to be we had to be thoughtful about the way that we what we're able to offer.
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As I said, we couldn't solve anything, but we might be able to assist the people.
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Um so we settled on a thousand dollar um grants, and then then we had various people in the community proposing complex assessment models as to how people might qualify for a grant.
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In the end, we decided it didn't need to be that complex.
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We figured that if you were a sticket and you couldn't get into your home, then you were affected and that you would be suffering hardship.
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We had to chart our way through various issues, including the sort of you obviously had a lot of people who were tenants and some people had people who were landlords and tenants, and we didn't want, because we were aware that we didn't have unlimited funds, we didn't want people to be double-dipping.
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Not that, I mean, I d I didn't mean that in the sense that we thought people would double dip.
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We just thought that we needed to preserve funds as much as we could.
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The criteria were if you're yellow and red stickered and you had suffered hardship, you would qualify because we appreciated people were under urgent and immediate need.
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We didn't require people to provide any evidence that they were suffering hardship.
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We made the assumption that because you were yellow or red stickered, you were suffering hardship.
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Um and so we made grants on the basis of that.
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We worked with the stickers, the stickered association, the stickered residence group, um, and with other community leaders to um, first of all, we got a list of all of the yellow and red stickered houses.
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Um we then had to um and then so we advertised on the website and we asked people to apply for grants, um, and then we had to verify people who made applications for grants.
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And so we had the the team here and my wife Teresa were ringing and verified people, and once we verified people and verified bank accounts, we made payments.
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We ended up contributing 298,500 of the$321,000 in seven rounds of grants as an entity that's responsible for public money and for um distributing it.
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We wanted to make sure that we had and and and to encourage people to, in the first place, to to trust the entity and to distribute to donate funds to it, we asked Grata Faunton, who's an international accounting firm, if they would be the accountants and said that we we'd hoped they'd be the accountants without charging us an international accounting term a term fees, and they agreed to do that for heavily discounted fees.
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We also asked um a local auditor to assist us to do that.
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And that was um McLaren guys, and they agreed again agreed to audit the the trust for heavily discounted fees, so almost nominal.
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And our our law firm provided we provided our assistance on a pro-bounded basis, so we didn't charge for any of that.
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So the idea was that all of the funds were available other than sort of a very small amount were available to um people affected by the cycle.
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So we've got after it's a couple of years later now, we've got um sort of roughly sort of 15 to 20 grand left and we've got to do accounts, and and I would finally that it'll probably be about$5,000.
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But the I think the big big thing things for us were providing an entity that was charitable, that people trusted, uh, and working with getting some trustees in who could work together and make good decisions, who had experience in the space, um listening to the community and working with the community and trying to be fair and equitable in the way that we did things and uh accepting that we weren't going to change anyone's will, but we might be able to make a small difference.
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We had some, I mean, amazing the sort of people that donate sort of um and and we allowed people to be anonymous, but it's surprising the amount and the nature of people and organizations that did donate money.
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Some there's some very generous people in the community.
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How did you put it out there that um there was an opportunity for people to donate?
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You know, many there was a there was the Facebook page, there was heavy community involvement.
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So we were working very closely with Kenton in the on the in the Buffalo community Facebook with uh reach tickets.
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I'm compressing all these things, but I think initially it was the was the residence Facebook page, wasn't it?
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Um in Kenton and and the group that was organizing that, distributing, talking, communicating to people.
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So we were working very closely with them around who would be involved in setting it up and letting people know that it was the case.
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And then the sticker residence association was established and we ended up working very closely with them in terms of um talking to people, communicating with people, getting feedback um and verification of people.
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Did you have any uh sort of sticky little issues around getting the money out or anything like that?
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Was there anything that you kind of learned from what you did that you could you could pass on to other communities?
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I think that um the biggest thing was that we again we didn't have we had some money which was significant, but again, nothing that would change anyone's lives.
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We knew that these were life-changing events.
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Um but it was to make a considered decision about the amount of money.
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Uh and that was sort of based off an assessment of the amount of people we thought would be, if you know might be eligible, who we thought would be that we should be um able to distribute money to.
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Um and then it was making some commercial decisions, I suppose, around um establishing need.
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So and it was the city we had we had there are some very experienced people from all walks of life, like from the community.
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We had some people who had been in large charitable organizations proposing complex models around assessing uh who should be eligible, how we might um assess grants and pay them out, all of which um might be appropriate for a large internationally funded organization with paid people, but we had volunteers working in, we had people that we needed to get money to quickly, but in a fair way.
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Um so what uh the lessons from that, I think, is just to be just is to get good people making the decisions or to be consultative in that role.
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And so for a community who who have gone through something like this and are trying to organize donations, yeah, you know, I guess it a lot of it depends on the sort of skills that the people from the community have and if they put themselves forward.
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I think the thing is if you ask people that people generally will help.
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So if I was in, you know, everyone stood up at diff at different times, and I felt that because we were in town and we couldn't get out, I would have, you know, I would have liked to have been down helping with distributing food or doing what we're doing.
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But everyone does their thing, right?
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And I thought that was the way that we could help here.
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Um and so I think if you're in another community, then you look to you look around for different people with different skills.
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In this case, we and some accountants that we were had some schools that we could assist with and we were able to provide that.
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Um, but other people were turning up every day doing doing what they did for day after day after day.
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Um so people so if you're in a community, just look around in your community and ask people for who have those skills or who are outside your community.
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Most people say yes to providing assistance.
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Yeah.
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Well, it's I think everyone wanted to contribute in some way.
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Yeah.
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And how do you feel uh the community of Muriwai responded and what did we do well?
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Got together, communicated, assisted, worked, checked on neighbours.
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Um I thought Muriwai did a fantastic job of of looking after the people in the community.
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I thought they did a fantastic job of communicating what was going on to um the outside world.
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Um and through that communication they were able to um be persuasive and in getting not just the Auckland Council but the government to assist people affected throughout the country.
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So I think the Moody World community, as I said, firstly did a really good job of advocating and looking after its own community, but did a really good job of presenting uh what had happened to cyclone victims across the country and advocating for those victims uh to the government and then to the to the um Auckland Council.
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Were there moments of kindness or solidarity that stood out to you at all?
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The whole whole time, yeah.
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There was that was a um there's been no moments of uh enthusiastic, bringing out the best in people, and I think this really did in Woody Way.
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Um, because because I've spent a lot of time building a business in town here and mostly been a weekend person out in Muddy Way.
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Um and so knowing people that I've got but don't know lots of people and people that I had no idea about really, you know, some people that who who really stood up um and did it stood right in the middle of things and made a real difference for lots of people as people that as doers uh and as advocates for the community.
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Um and that was across the board.
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Has this experience changed how you think about extreme weather in Aoteara?
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No.
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I mean well, personally, if you live at Muriwa, you like extreme weather, right?
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So no, no.
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I mean, you know, I think it maybe it maybe it reinforces the um the thoughts around environmental change.
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But in terms of extreme weather, no, I mean if we we used we used to or we we like extreme weather.
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Well I do anyway, living out of Muriwa.
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Obviously, don't like what happened with Cyclone Gaggle, but I but I do like I do love being in amongst the tempest.
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Did you ever expect the landslides?
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No.
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What advice could you give to people in communities or organizations like yours who are going through a similar event?
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Look to your community, look to the different skills you've got.
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I think it's communicate.
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Um I think it's being being kind to people, check on your neighbors and check on people.
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Uh and generally do what we've been told to do when we were raised is treat people like you'd like to be treated.
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In a small community, and like in a in a larger community, you're gonna see them again and need a community might need them to look after you as well.
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Right as we just need people to look after our mother-in-law and to look after us when you know any up when we need our own um date.
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So yeah, it would be my advice.
00:19:57.519 --> 00:20:15.039
Chryslipus was commissioned and funded by Mudowai Community Association, supported by the Auckland Council Recovery Office, artwork by Tyler Williams, sound effects by local Middlewide Band, 10 people written in response to Snightland Give Renounce.
00:20:15.920 --> 00:20:20.319
Number He, thank you to the Middle Eye Community Foodie and Flutter Embrace Race.
00:00:23.120 --> 00:00:28.879
This podcast captures what happened on the night and in the days, months and years that followed.
00:00:29.199 --> 00:00:38.640
Join me, Mandy Yakit, as I speak to fellow Mudowai locals, volunteers and those involved in the emergency and recovery effort.
00:00:38.880 --> 00:00:49.920
Hear about their experiences of lost and upheaval, the impact on their lives, and the community-led initiatives that helped Murruai find a way forward.
00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:51.759
Welcome to Princip.
00:01:05.920 --> 00:01:10.560
Mike is a Muruwai resident who is based in Auckland City during the week.
00:01:10.799 --> 00:01:21.200
He is a partner in a law firm which helped with the formation of a charitable trust to coordinate and distribute financial donations after Cyclone Gabrielle.
00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:37.760
Mike explains the process of setting up this trust, receiving and administering funds, registering the trust, finding a chairperson and trustees, and getting the trust approved as a charity with the IRD.
00:01:38.159 --> 00:01:52.640
He explains how the trust communicated with the community, creating a website, identifying the people in need, creating a workable assessment model, as well as the processes for distributing and preserving donations.
00:02:02.959 --> 00:02:08.560
There were 66 donations over the first few months with a total of 320,000 came in.
00:02:08.960 --> 00:02:20.719
He talks about systems for verifying people and bank accounts, criteria to be eligible for grants, working with other community leaders, and working with an accountancy firm.
00:02:20.960 --> 00:02:26.080
He describes the goals for this trust and where the trust is now three years on.
00:02:26.719 --> 00:02:27.919
So hi Andy.
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Mike Alexander.
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I've lived at Muriway with my wife Teresa since we moved out in uh July 1999.
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We've um we have kids and we've raised kids in the community.
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Um and we love Moodyway.
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We've been here for a long time, and I think we'll unless we are forced to move.
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Um I personally like to be here for you know for as long as we can.
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So it's been close to 30 years now.
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We haven't um raised as I said, we've raised kids, they've sort of been through secondary school and um and our our boys that just finished it, and we um I've built a legal practice in town with with uh another business partner and um with we've been building that business since uh 2010.
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Um we're a six-partner law firm now with 27 in the team.
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Um so we spend the week these days in town and the weekends out at Moody Wai.
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Um I'm on the sort of for a long time.
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I've always been involved in the community, so a long time ago I got asked at Boy Alclub Council to assist with the community association and then passed on to the surf club um after Tim Jago stepped aside um once after the people who built the surf club um council after asked if I'd step on as the chair there to bring some people through to try and make it work financially and uh work with um the wards and Aaron Griffin and other people to to make that and make the surf club financially viable.
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And we sort of by and large we've we've done that, although it continues to be a uh a struggle with liberalized on community participation and donations and and all the rest of it.
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And I think coming out of that, we had the the cyclone on in February, it was sort of middle of February 2023, and they had followed on the heels of um the anniversary weekend weather, which Auckland got a really good douse.
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And and I remember on the um round about uh Valentine's Day at 23, the sort of they were saying the weather was coming through and we were in town.
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So we would have just moved back into town.
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My wife's mother lives out at the uh at the beach.
00:04:44.879 --> 00:04:51.439
So we've got a house out at Moodywai that we've had forever, and and we've got an apartment in town we stayed during the week when we're working in town.
00:04:52.240 --> 00:04:54.160
Um and I remember the weather came through.
00:04:54.480 --> 00:05:02.079
Teresa's mum was out there and it didn't seem like the west coast was going to get badly hit.
00:05:02.480 --> 00:05:10.240
But then I remember sort of during the course of the afternoon, the evening, it was hearing reports that the weather had gone out to west and then turned back around.
00:05:10.399 --> 00:05:14.720
And the way that the weather was hitting the west coast, it was really hitting Muri badly.
00:05:14.879 --> 00:05:23.519
Uh and we were um we're in town, Teresa's mother was out there and we started to get a few phone calls and texts.
00:05:23.839 --> 00:05:38.560
Theresa's mother doesn't like answering the phone and wouldn't take phone calls or texts, but that had got to the point that it was dark and we were getting texts asking after Theresa's mum, and our property's down by the fire station in Woodway.
00:05:38.800 --> 00:05:43.439
So we're on a sand dune, and I remember thinking that um we probably would be fine.
00:05:43.600 --> 00:05:52.480
But nothing major had happened at that point other than that it was really coming in and there was a lot of water around and starting to get reports on about various things.
00:05:52.639 --> 00:05:58.879
But we had friends who were one friend in particular who was who was down around the house keeping an eye on Theresa's mum.
00:05:59.040 --> 00:06:00.879
And then everything happened.
00:06:00.959 --> 00:06:08.959
Um and so we were it was one of those nights we were in town, but we felt like we were around and and talking to various people during the course of the night.
00:06:09.279 --> 00:06:15.120
Fast forward a couple of weeks and the it was a sort of I suppose it was a national event.
00:06:15.360 --> 00:06:26.000
Moody Wai was in many ways leading the news, partly ostraced because it was close to Auckland, um, and and because of the obviously because of the tragedies.
00:06:26.160 --> 00:07:01.839
And so there were people wanting to donate money, and we were talking to people and um talking to people at the Surf Club, talking to people at the community association and and as everyone was, and um we were uh I was asked if I would ever think about putting together any entity that could to could receive funds that administer funds, and so we I talked to a few people and Paulden, um one of my business partners here who's the who's been the chair of the takeovers panel and has been sort of the government advisor and um was on a lot of trust boards and around the country.
00:07:01.920 --> 00:07:06.399
Um I asked me if he would chair that and overseas setting it up.
00:07:06.480 --> 00:07:13.279
Um we've got a law firm here, we needed someone uh an entity to administer and set up the trust um to register it as a charity.
00:07:13.759 --> 00:07:24.480
We asked um Erin Griffin as the as the leader and representative for the community to be on the board, and um Charlene Mateano as well, who's the justice of the piece that there.
00:07:24.800 --> 00:07:33.600
Um and so we set up the trust, we registered it, we got it um approved as fast tracked as a charity with the IRD.
00:07:33.759 --> 00:07:42.399
Uh, and then we let the community know that if it's to the extent they wanted to, that we could hold money and we would um consider how to distribute that.
00:07:42.800 --> 00:07:53.519
We the team here, we had a young, we got a group of young lawyers here and they were got enthusiastically involved in setting up a website and working out who the affected people were in the community.
00:07:53.920 --> 00:07:56.240
In the end, we just looking at numbers.
00:07:56.319 --> 00:08:01.680
There were 66 donations over the first few months with a total of 320,000 came in.
00:08:02.079 --> 00:08:09.439
One of the things that was challenging initially, because we had a lot of people talking to us about um and there's obviously a lot of people, a lot of uncertainty.
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A lot of people weren't sure.
00:08:11.600 --> 00:08:16.079
Uh at that stage the government, neither the government nor council had said they would uh provide a buy-out.
00:08:16.399 --> 00:08:22.319
Um, and there was a lot of uncertainty about whether and to what extent insurance would cover it.
00:08:22.639 --> 00:08:42.320
Um, and in many cases people weren't insured, or they would be insured, um, and people didn't have homes, they couldn't afford um because they didn't have money, they had mortgages, they still need to connect, didn't know what they were doing, uh, and so we had a lot of different people who needed money, and we didn't have a lot of money.
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We couldn't solve any or all people's problems, but we thought with 300,000 we might be able to make a difference to their weekly outgoings.
00:08:50.320 --> 00:08:56.559
And so what we said on the in the end was that we would make donations off.
00:08:56.799 --> 00:09:06.960
We ended up thinking that$1,000 would be meaningful as a as a distribution and and that were$300,000 that we had enough to do several rounds of$1,000.
00:09:07.600 --> 00:09:22.639
Um, we were aware that there were several hundred people in the community affected by it, more than 70 houses, families, and um and so we we just had to be we had to be thoughtful about the way that we what we're able to offer.
00:09:22.799 --> 00:09:25.759
As I said, we couldn't solve anything, but we might be able to assist the people.
00:09:25.919 --> 00:09:40.080
Um so we settled on a thousand dollar um grants, and then then we had various people in the community proposing complex assessment models as to how people might qualify for a grant.
00:09:40.879 --> 00:09:44.159
In the end, we decided it didn't need to be that complex.
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We figured that if you were a sticket and you couldn't get into your home, then you were affected and that you would be suffering hardship.
00:09:51.279 --> 00:10:04.799
We had to chart our way through various issues, including the sort of you obviously had a lot of people who were tenants and some people had people who were landlords and tenants, and we didn't want, because we were aware that we didn't have unlimited funds, we didn't want people to be double-dipping.
00:10:04.960 --> 00:10:08.080
Not that, I mean, I d I didn't mean that in the sense that we thought people would double dip.
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We just thought that we needed to preserve funds as much as we could.
00:10:11.200 --> 00:10:19.919
The criteria were if you're yellow and red stickered and you had suffered hardship, you would qualify because we appreciated people were under urgent and immediate need.
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We didn't require people to provide any evidence that they were suffering hardship.
00:10:23.919 --> 00:10:28.159
We made the assumption that because you were yellow or red stickered, you were suffering hardship.
00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:32.320
Um and so we made grants on the basis of that.
00:10:32.480 --> 00:10:44.000
We worked with the stickers, the stickered association, the stickered residence group, um, and with other community leaders to um, first of all, we got a list of all of the yellow and red stickered houses.
00:10:44.159 --> 00:10:53.919
Um we then had to um and then so we advertised on the website and we asked people to apply for grants, um, and then we had to verify people who made applications for grants.
00:10:54.000 --> 00:11:03.279
And so we had the the team here and my wife Teresa were ringing and verified people, and once we verified people and verified bank accounts, we made payments.
00:11:03.519 --> 00:11:18.559
We ended up contributing 298,500 of the$321,000 in seven rounds of grants as an entity that's responsible for public money and for um distributing it.
00:11:18.639 --> 00:11:41.360
We wanted to make sure that we had and and and to encourage people to, in the first place, to to trust the entity and to distribute to donate funds to it, we asked Grata Faunton, who's an international accounting firm, if they would be the accountants and said that we we'd hoped they'd be the accountants without charging us an international accounting term a term fees, and they agreed to do that for heavily discounted fees.
00:11:41.519 --> 00:11:47.200
We also asked um a local auditor to assist us to do that.
00:11:47.600 --> 00:11:55.440
And that was um McLaren guys, and they agreed again agreed to audit the the trust for heavily discounted fees, so almost nominal.
00:11:55.679 --> 00:12:02.320
And our our law firm provided we provided our assistance on a pro-bounded basis, so we didn't charge for any of that.
00:12:02.559 --> 00:12:11.919
So the idea was that all of the funds were available other than sort of a very small amount were available to um people affected by the cycle.
00:12:12.399 --> 00:12:25.120
So we've got after it's a couple of years later now, we've got um sort of roughly sort of 15 to 20 grand left and we've got to do accounts, and and I would finally that it'll probably be about$5,000.
00:12:25.519 --> 00:12:58.159
But the I think the big big thing things for us were providing an entity that was charitable, that people trusted, uh, and working with getting some trustees in who could work together and make good decisions, who had experience in the space, um listening to the community and working with the community and trying to be fair and equitable in the way that we did things and uh accepting that we weren't going to change anyone's will, but we might be able to make a small difference.
00:12:58.399 --> 00:13:12.559
We had some, I mean, amazing the sort of people that donate sort of um and and we allowed people to be anonymous, but it's surprising the amount and the nature of people and organizations that did donate money.
00:13:12.639 --> 00:13:14.960
Some there's some very generous people in the community.
00:13:15.519 --> 00:13:20.559
How did you put it out there that um there was an opportunity for people to donate?
00:13:21.120 --> 00:13:24.960
You know, many there was a there was the Facebook page, there was heavy community involvement.
00:13:25.039 --> 00:13:30.399
So we were working very closely with Kenton in the on the in the Buffalo community Facebook with uh reach tickets.
00:13:31.679 --> 00:13:38.159
I'm compressing all these things, but I think initially it was the was the residence Facebook page, wasn't it?
00:13:38.399 --> 00:13:44.000
Um in Kenton and and the group that was organizing that, distributing, talking, communicating to people.
00:13:44.080 --> 00:13:50.240
So we were working very closely with them around who would be involved in setting it up and letting people know that it was the case.
00:13:50.320 --> 00:14:06.799
And then the sticker residence association was established and we ended up working very closely with them in terms of um talking to people, communicating with people, getting feedback um and verification of people.
00:14:08.720 --> 00:14:14.799
Did you have any uh sort of sticky little issues around getting the money out or anything like that?
00:14:14.960 --> 00:14:21.360
Was there anything that you kind of learned from what you did that you could you could pass on to other communities?
00:14:23.039 --> 00:14:31.279
I think that um the biggest thing was that we again we didn't have we had some money which was significant, but again, nothing that would change anyone's lives.
00:14:31.360 --> 00:14:33.519
We knew that these were life-changing events.
00:14:33.679 --> 00:14:40.879
Um but it was to make a considered decision about the amount of money.
00:14:41.600 --> 00:14:53.039
Uh and that was sort of based off an assessment of the amount of people we thought would be, if you know might be eligible, who we thought would be that we should be um able to distribute money to.
00:14:53.200 --> 00:15:01.039
Um and then it was making some commercial decisions, I suppose, around um establishing need.
00:15:01.679 --> 00:15:09.279
So and it was the city we had we had there are some very experienced people from all walks of life, like from the community.
00:15:09.360 --> 00:15:32.559
We had some people who had been in large charitable organizations proposing complex models around assessing uh who should be eligible, how we might um assess grants and pay them out, all of which um might be appropriate for a large internationally funded organization with paid people, but we had volunteers working in, we had people that we needed to get money to quickly, but in a fair way.
00:15:33.039 --> 00:15:41.759
Um so what uh the lessons from that, I think, is just to be just is to get good people making the decisions or to be consultative in that role.
00:15:42.159 --> 00:15:56.639
And so for a community who who have gone through something like this and are trying to organize donations, yeah, you know, I guess it a lot of it depends on the sort of skills that the people from the community have and if they put themselves forward.
00:15:57.120 --> 00:16:00.879
I think the thing is if you ask people that people generally will help.
00:16:01.039 --> 00:16:13.039
So if I was in, you know, everyone stood up at diff at different times, and I felt that because we were in town and we couldn't get out, I would have, you know, I would have liked to have been down helping with distributing food or doing what we're doing.
00:16:13.120 --> 00:16:14.639
But everyone does their thing, right?
00:16:14.720 --> 00:16:16.480
And I thought that was the way that we could help here.
00:16:16.879 --> 00:16:22.399
Um and so I think if you're in another community, then you look to you look around for different people with different skills.
00:16:22.639 --> 00:16:28.399
In this case, we and some accountants that we were had some schools that we could assist with and we were able to provide that.
00:16:28.480 --> 00:16:33.919
Um, but other people were turning up every day doing doing what they did for day after day after day.
00:16:34.080 --> 00:16:41.600
Um so people so if you're in a community, just look around in your community and ask people for who have those skills or who are outside your community.
00:16:42.320 --> 00:16:45.360
Most people say yes to providing assistance.
00:16:45.840 --> 00:16:46.240
Yeah.
00:16:46.399 --> 00:16:50.080
Well, it's I think everyone wanted to contribute in some way.
00:16:50.320 --> 00:16:50.559
Yeah.
00:16:51.200 --> 00:16:56.480
And how do you feel uh the community of Muriwai responded and what did we do well?
00:16:57.440 --> 00:17:01.919
Got together, communicated, assisted, worked, checked on neighbours.
00:17:02.879 --> 00:17:09.200
Um I thought Muriwai did a fantastic job of of looking after the people in the community.
00:17:09.680 --> 00:17:16.160
I thought they did a fantastic job of communicating what was going on to um the outside world.
00:17:16.400 --> 00:17:31.920
Um and through that communication they were able to um be persuasive and in getting not just the Auckland Council but the government to assist people affected throughout the country.
00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:50.160
So I think the Moody World community, as I said, firstly did a really good job of advocating and looking after its own community, but did a really good job of presenting uh what had happened to cyclone victims across the country and advocating for those victims uh to the government and then to the to the um Auckland Council.
00:17:50.640 --> 00:17:54.319
Were there moments of kindness or solidarity that stood out to you at all?
00:17:54.720 --> 00:17:56.559
The whole whole time, yeah.
00:17:56.960 --> 00:18:05.279
There was that was a um there's been no moments of uh enthusiastic, bringing out the best in people, and I think this really did in Woody Way.
00:18:05.359 --> 00:18:12.480
Um, because because I've spent a lot of time building a business in town here and mostly been a weekend person out in Muddy Way.
00:18:12.640 --> 00:18:28.960
Um and so knowing people that I've got but don't know lots of people and people that I had no idea about really, you know, some people that who who really stood up um and did it stood right in the middle of things and made a real difference for lots of people as people that as doers uh and as advocates for the community.
00:18:29.200 --> 00:18:31.279
Um and that was across the board.
00:18:31.680 --> 00:18:35.440
Has this experience changed how you think about extreme weather in Aoteara?
00:18:35.920 --> 00:18:36.160
No.
00:18:36.400 --> 00:18:40.799
I mean well, personally, if you live at Muriwa, you like extreme weather, right?
00:18:40.880 --> 00:18:41.759
So no, no.
00:18:41.839 --> 00:18:48.400
I mean, you know, I think it maybe it maybe it reinforces the um the thoughts around environmental change.
00:18:48.640 --> 00:18:54.079
But in terms of extreme weather, no, I mean if we we used we used to or we we like extreme weather.
00:18:54.319 --> 00:18:56.000
Well I do anyway, living out of Muriwa.
00:18:56.319 --> 00:19:02.000
Obviously, don't like what happened with Cyclone Gaggle, but I but I do like I do love being in amongst the tempest.
00:19:02.400 --> 00:19:04.319
Did you ever expect the landslides?
00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:04.799
No.
00:19:05.119 --> 00:19:12.799
What advice could you give to people in communities or organizations like yours who are going through a similar event?
00:19:13.279 --> 00:19:15.599
Look to your community, look to the different skills you've got.
00:19:15.680 --> 00:19:17.119
I think it's communicate.
00:19:17.680 --> 00:19:23.599
Um I think it's being being kind to people, check on your neighbors and check on people.
00:19:24.400 --> 00:19:29.599
Uh and generally do what we've been told to do when we were raised is treat people like you'd like to be treated.
00:19:30.079 --> 00:19:36.000
In a small community, and like in a in a larger community, you're gonna see them again and need a community might need them to look after you as well.
00:19:36.160 --> 00:19:45.039
Right as we just need people to look after our mother-in-law and to look after us when you know any up when we need our own um date.
00:19:45.519 --> 00:19:48.319
So yeah, it would be my advice.
00:19:57.519 --> 00:20:15.039
Chryslipus was commissioned and funded by Mudowai Community Association, supported by the Auckland Council Recovery Office, artwork by Tyler Williams, sound effects by local Middlewide Band, 10 people written in response to Snightland Give Renounce.
00:20:15.920 --> 00:20:20.319
Number He, thank you to the Middle Eye Community Foodie and Flutter Embrace Race.
