MIHINGARANGI FORBES ‘The majority of hatred towards me is aimed at my being a Māori woman.’

• Published date: 09 February 2023
• Publication title: Guardian, The

‘When my grandmother passed away suddenly from a brain aneurism, my mum shifted back to Feilding with us kids to the family home. She wanted to look after her father but because his heart was broken, he developed cancer and passed away within the year. So we went from living in rural bush settings, in pretty basic houses, to living in this beautiful old villa in Feilding surrounded by all these other big villas with wraparound verandas on one-acre sections

Dad was a bushman and Mum was a teacher, and just before we moved to Feilding, Mum had recently become a solo parent, so Feilding offered us stability. Before that, we’d lived in the sticks around Waikato, Matamata, Whakamaru and Ruatāhuna in Te Urewera. We were also in Rotorua for a short time, in quite a rough area, so Feilding was much calmer. We all felt the privilege and stability that came with owning versus renting.

‘We loved our grandparents’ grand old whāre. They’d been great gardeners too, so half the backyard was in fruit and veggies. Same with the neighbours, and we’d run from backyard to backyard, foraging as we went. We had an awesome childhood on Nelson St, where four generations of our whānau explored and played in all the nooks and crannies of that house.

Feilding was a town of two halves, the traditional settler side, and lots of Māori and other ethnicities working at Wattie’s or the meatworks. But at the rugby clubrooms at the end of our street, it didn’t matter how much your parents earned or what kind of house you lived in, if you liked rugby, or you got in the kitchen and served food or beer, you were welcomed.

‘At Feilding Agricultural High School, students in the B band, which I was in, were made to feel like dummies. Although I knew I wasn’t dumb, and I did well at the subjects I was engaged with. This was back in the 80s, and even though people were saying...