Living an authentic life in New Zealand's countryside | SLICE | FULL DOCUMENTARY

I've got four younger brothers and sisters and my mum's gonna have a new baby soon and we live in omahu a little town in the north island of aotearoa New Zealand if you ask me to describe Wellen yeah physically he's just a little skinny kid and he's small for his age well you know he's not a big kid but he's got a lot of confidence and he's clever he thinks about things reasons things out and then you can be a little scared thing as well over things that you know there's no consequence slowly but then you'll lead a big string of horses across Rough Country yeah that's funny Aurora is the next one down she's now older than Malachi so she's the second oldest she finds pleasure in simple silly things and she's very emotional and she lets her spirit sort of guide how she feels she's the best on Horseback out of all the kids lead to courage and a confidence with them and her trust in them that's that's a big thing with her yeah [Music] Malachi is about Malachi there's a lot of bravado there but when it comes down to it he's pretty scared when it comes to doing things that are quite tough but in the other sense you know working with me helping me yeah it works his brother and a sister he's got the sort of spirit or the sort of Personality yeah we a lot of things he needs to learn by experience the kids always say that Elias is my favorite it just seems that way because he's he's quite an infection it's a little boy when he was young and he got sick he had to stay in hospital for a week so he couldn't land the kids and I stayed in the hospital with him and he really bonded with me in hospital then after we came back he was he was daddy's boy and the kids are all from then on you know eliasis is his favorite because Elias gets cuddled all the time all nice cuddles yeah Coleman's about Corbin yeah whenever she's doing something it's because it's what Corbin wants to do there I can't he can't she'll do something and she if she'd thought about it she'd know farewell the consequences oh no no you're not going it's like she's surprised at it yeah I was just doing what I wanted to do one more she's the girl version of Malachi at the same time you know she's really loving loves her mommy and daddy when she realizes she's hurt us you know she's always doing things like writing little Tory notes and how much she loves this and that you know how do you spell mom very good my mum's name is Colleen and she's the bestest mum in the world I mean probably there's no better Mum than her many people tell me I'm crazy I think we've got a quite a few children and I'd like to have more so yeah this is my grandfather Papa weedle's house he's my dad's dead and he grew up in this house the head's been handed down from generations to generation they've had seven generations now I can't have a family at the time so I think it's quite a rich Heritage really they have with their current name and also this house it's over 100 years old hello we've got the symmetry which a lot of people think is quite spooky just a house away from us and that's where all the current varied [Music] yeah all of them are relatives all the Cardinals we had heaps of them people from the Maori Battalion and heaps of family heaps of people live there so for a hundred years old foreign oh she's a little bit older yeah but am I there don't get on anymore and papa Widow wants to sell the house come here today's kind of special because mum and dad are going to buy the house taking my new baby sister Salem with him I resigned myself the fact that we could lose our home that goes off we'll get over this we live quite a quite a blessed life if we lose it someone else had already bought the house so mum and dad didn't even get to bed [Music] I don't know this is my community this is all right decided I was gonna live [Music] working on options now so cheers just living like Pepsi fill it off the track and [Music] ride around on horses and just live on the side of the roads that's that's not where I'd like to be I've got lots of family but if I move with my family we've got to sell all our horses which is [Music] to get our worries for an hour or so swim in the river maybe kids for a ride [Music] foreign [Music] on Sunday we had I'll say about 15 people here um the guy who apparently has brought it um him and his family came over and they were just he was swearing at us and and yeah not that you need 15 people to come cook a family no maybe it was intimidation tactics I don't know intimidated me anyway he's a prison Warden the guy who were you come around to my dad sort of kind of deal with and got him [Music] dealt with people in my past and been quite hard in my past I felt like dishing some of that out onto him that would have brought violence into our home with something I don't want my children to have around [Applause] [Music] right um nothing is viscous action uh he's willing let's go away today let things cool down which is good because we don't want any further aggravation hello I mean you're still happy to move out with you which is good for him we're going but I'm not going to be bullied into paying rent too yeah those two Big Fellas come here they drag me out the window that's extortion as soon as I go out there today and I said turned up and had put some stuff in the cake and I don't know I think Peter just came in locked the door yelling was scared you as a mermaid you guys can be a boy [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] um [Music] thanks for your help I appreciate it [Music] okay so now how are yours kids lucky we're going on Camp tomorrow let's get all our stuff ready tonight and we're just gonna leave leave this place mess it all up [Music] you want mom [Music] there's a blue one I pulled it out by myself oh wait they kicked me in the mouth when my Wiggly Doodles I just pulled it out did it hurt nah we've never put our kids on a horse we would feel they would be in danger feared the kids being on the horses you know we've always talked to them about safety you know so we never ever worried about safety helmets not fear into them oh hello foreign [Music] [Music] Ty so we left all the photos and anyhow stuff you can't replace photos he's a Frenchman he's from England another Arabian he's an American [Music] I love the house me and my brother I'm even buried some of our soldiers here [Music] so camping is fun too [Music] we're going through a lot of hardships especially with the house burning down and having to live in a cabinet a lot of people like to say you're living in a caravan with six children you know they I think I'm Superwoman or something I guess someone who's lived in a Flash house and had everything given to them they would find this way too hard to endure but it could be worse you know I I've got so much you know a house has been down we've lost a lot of things but I've got my children they're all alive they're safe they're happy well we ever wanted to be happy enjoying life and being happy with spiritual with each other but I think a place like this brings it out really what living out here too you know they just go and do their own things like a heavier Adventures life fun life I guess to them good but are we you know raising them to be disappointed when they're older because life's just changing and the world's changing I hope my kids grow up to appreciate this life look at that the world still allows us to have a life like this we're just worried that we're gonna raise our kids and life's gonna be not what they expected I'm just gonna you know it's gonna be full of hardships and and and I just not this [Music] but they found necessary to live in it has lots of paddocks so all our horses can stay with us we thought we might have to move to my nana doreen's house that's my mum's mum hopefully tobido wasn't keen on coming back to this year because mum has mum's house got a lot more comforts but when I came here it was just this is home this is where our family function we function here you know we and even the kids are like oh it's so nice to be home my mum I'm like it is you know even though we don't have it we've got to rush up there to the toilet and and everything it's just we function here as a family we have fun here we were together here we can do without children know a lot we think they don't but they know more than what they put out so going bad between Pete's plan at the moment we can't resolve the problem we've had to withdraw ourselves so that we could protect the kids I was always taught we talk about things and we solve problems whereas Peter grab where your opinion didn't matter it was mum and dad right we'd all fell in love with Peter's mother and when you fall in love with that person you fall in love with everything about them whether it's children she's had for someone else and they were young children Peter was probably nine and how could you not love a little nine-year-old How Could You begrudge them that they had a different father foreign [Music] 's the baby personality's growing all the time [Music] she's the only one that has a little baby who really liked me and wanted me yeah and I loved it because it was yeah it was in a time in my life when I was having quite a few trials and when there was this Dark Cloud over me there was that little bright thing there so she she saved my soul [Music] it's funny yeah a little little babe is there when he needed I don't know how people can say there's not a god someone made it happen that way okay so I have a trial and everything's that happened in my life and at the same time there's always a ray of Hope oils or something that's that's bright [Music] so she came at a good time but they all have they've all come at good times they've all come at the right time my wife came into my life at the right time [Music] I say that I'm married above myself and I feel I did I feel that the rest of my life I have to work at being worthy to have my wife [Music] you want your sister to fall um no obviously you do my mum's having another baby and a Warren Corbin wanted to be a girl but me and Elias are hoping it's a bully because you get to do all the work down at the yards and help Dad and stuff like that I'm not so Keen I think I'm not so keen on this having this child and maybe having more because we're in a situation well look we live in a shed home is my kids my husband it's not about a flash building it's just where you find where you you're loved and so yeah I couldn't say I'm homeless no way [Music] my dad's got all the horses out there it's gonna start a business I reckon they'll like it there [Music] just to live the way I want to live I have to buy into this whole aspect of of money and earning money and yeah the other option is that I I could just become a gypsy and live on the road with my horses but that gives us no security so you know the whole society is based on this idea of land ownership our whole society is based and that is that is the truest wealth of owning the actual land so I've gotten to this to the point where I uh I'm gonna have to earn enough money to buy land and say that I own the land and now I can stay on it and I can have my horses on my land it's a conundrum it's not in very deep is it this is where you went wrong Coco you should have come in from the top it's only a baby so scared I don't know better than down the pants to love you there's a saying that there's nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse and that's based on just the side of a horse the beautiful horses is a compelling thing to to do the inside of of one's soul it goes a bit deeper than that for me it's the inside of a horse it's that spirit inside that um it reflects myself it reflects the inner person working a horse represents the same way I can craft myself and form myself because you really you know you're here on Earth to form yourself into something worth being proud oh I can take a horse that's a clean animal and has base instincts and Natural Instincts and I can change those instincts to be of service to me but also to go against what Natural Instincts it has because a horse that lets me hop on its back and ride it and goes off a cliff for me or into a river for me or does all these things that I get them to do is actually going against all its natural instinct [Music] thank you [Applause] if I look at it sometimes I look at it I know I think I'm a slave master basically you're him I get these animals to do what I want and in return they get fed well they get cared for they get loved [Music] it's a fragile relationship but you find yourself coming to a relationship with the horse where it gets close to equal and you love the animal you know I've got a few horses here that I love dearly those places [Music] that keeps most of his horses up in the mountains he's been breeding them for a long time some of them are still Wild we come up hunting and check on them and see the new foals in the spring and be watch them grow and sometimes I come up here and it's you know we might have had a hard winter or some heavy snows or something and you lose some you might see an old mirror that you might find a dead somewhere and yeah it can be a bit sad sometimes but go up and catch him and handle them and take him out sell them and now we've got the business with the horse trekking on the beach we're gonna need most of them so I'll probably still sell the couple there comes some rain as long as it rains just drizzling like that and it's not blowing then it's good for hunting it keeps the animals calm [Music] [Applause] [Music] you see an animal a living being and you're gonna continue your life or sustain your life by taking the life of that other living thing I'm taking everything from this animal from taking its life it's not a quick Guiltless process I want to take all care to kill this animal in one shot I think there's a responsibility or an onus on me to do that because of what the animal who is giving me this is the difference between hunting to kill something and hunting to sustain yourself I've got great memories of my childhood when I was young coming up into the mountains here with my dad great memory shot me and my wife before we were even caught him we were good friends who needs to come up here it's been long periods up here we just come up here and bring food and stay till the food ran out or Colleen might say that she felt like a fizzy drink or a fresh Monroe ice cream so we pack up and ride out all of a sudden I have to spend in a few weeks in here yeah [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] schools again but our new school was cool and there's this one and we learned Maori English and Spanish it's really nice to have a home that's spacious [Music] but with more room we tend to want more space the children tend to go to their rooms and play with their things and we've kind of divided whereas in our little shed we were only in one room we were more content to be with one another kids I liked it better I felt there was more happiness in the smaller home than I do and a bigger one you can get out the window me and Pete talk together about our parenting all the time and you know how we can improve and often I pray about it about about things actually quite often I do you know things that bother me or I feel like I'm not doing right I'll pray about it [Music] as parents all we teach them is right and wrong and they learn from the brothers and sisters call them right up to Club Island all our teachings Salem things and she makes choices and she sees things and watches things and they advise her and then she starts learning because children want to learn they do [Music] [Music] I knew something was wrong and I had my Midwife come over and she just checked me over and said it didn't look good she says it looked like baby had died and my kids just boosted up crying which was yeah and he said we just sat there for a while crying [Applause] thank you you're right a year I stayed away from it I came and had a quick look and then and since I've stayed away from it because it gets a it gets a fury up in me [Music] oh man that'll teach me for not looking in here when it first burned down just staying away and stalking about it oh we thought we lost all of these oh man Colleen is going to be so happy with my first born there's me with my son and my mother me is 16 years old there was photos of my dad photos and brothers photos of all of our family we'd sit down in that Lounge room there with all the children just with a big box of photos just pulling the photos out and the kids would look at and what was this horse's name what was this dog's name is that Dad is that Mum who's that is that Uncle Carrie is that Papa yeah spend the whole night doing that yeah it was something special we do now and again we're dead for the trespass to order against me apparently he did it when I was living here how can you give the tenant to trespass notice he did it because he was angry he acts out of anger a lot be honest I don't know why he really really does hate Pete his number one goal now is he wants to destroy Peter to the point he's even telling people of reason that the horse wrecking business is his that all the horses are his and that Peter owes him big time and it's like we're totally withdrawn ourselves so that he has nothing to do with us but he's going out there to do it Carl come and look what I found all right these guys are all the negatives listen while he was a baby oh really I walked in the house and I see this photo here sitting on the ground see I found pages of this before I don't know yeah because I was sulking and didn't go through everything I didn't pull open boxes like people have been doing look at these foreign [Music] [Applause] Come On Son created [Music] and just slowly take a couple of steps forward [Music] that light when we got to the Hat all our dad's wild horses were missing I resolved myself to the fact that um they're gone they were stolen anybody I don't know if there's another name for it you take someone else's horses they're stolen you come in here and take them and away somewhere as your property that's theft we'll go have a look there might be something here and he told me not that I just keep practicing good enough almost pain my finger [Music] yeah I got heaps just little bits of hair oh no oh my God he's gone 50 all right you're wrong well he picks up on everything I do and if I gotta really really check myself for a long time you know I saw all these good things in them that I that were the good things in me that I liked and now he's starting to pick up some of the bad things in me that I don't like a paper cut all right but it stinks of course I'd like him to live by morals that I think are right but you know he may see things a bit different than I see them so I'm hoping that he you know fortified in his own conscience that he he'll use it to dictate the decisions he makes in his life you see how that's easier to keep quiet don't expect them it's funny yeah when I was young you know I got in trouble when the old man was a diary keeper and he keep things in a diary and I remember like getting in trouble over something and you put the diary out and start going through a list of things that I've done wrong okay even now he'll bring up things I did you know 20 odd years ago you know when I was a kid I used to sit there and and he'd be talking to someone and he'd tell a story about some magnificent shot that he pulled off when he was out there stalking I remember he used to say to me hey Peter you remember that and I'd be there and I'd be like I'd be like no that was John who said who did that yeah it was someone else's story and then he'd go Kevin ziggums I can squats and holes in my hunts and and he he told us earlier that that was that that was the sign for if we were saying the wrong thing thank you this this is at home he pulls us aside and he says if you hear me say this that means you need to shut your mouth because you're saying the wrong things and you're going to get it when you get home okay that was the sign and so we've been a conversation like that you know any people talking to someone and I'd say the wrong thing like no no John pulled off that shot or Paul or or Dave or someone yeah well now Dave did that yeah and this is a 10 12 year old kid and he'd bust out Kevin ziggums Argos cross and Olson maintenance and people would be like what the hell and then he just go back to normal like telling a story you know then I'd be thinking oh I'm in trouble when I get home I've said the wrong thing I've done the wrong thing yeah I saw that all the time it's just but at the same time he could be as a horse at the same time he could be um be quote unique sort of interesting person he's all awesome be careful come down here and sit down we'll go down around me if she's down there there might be more so they don't mean to see without him she's a baby no Chestnut all right [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] 35 horses or something with those ones and then the foals that I hadn't seen this year our place is empty hello what's the lesson to be learned yeah what is the lesson to be meek is it my lesson because I have been up till now I've had a lot of things done to me and wanted to lash out and haven't done it someone burns down my house threatens my family steals my horses yeah I think I've been pretty passive about it and maybe they take advantage of that maybe they take advantage of my good nature or is that the lesson that maybe I should fight maybe hey quite for what what's what's right and you you know stand up for what you're believing I've done it in a passive way up till now behind me see he knows I'm being Meek about it he knows that I could be hard [Music] there's no taking things back because your words can't be taken back the same with your children you can't you can't take back how you treated them I think there's a huge price to pay for people who who don't get things right in this life and don't treat their children right or their spouses right or that their fellow men right or themselves right raising children if you treat them In fairness I treat my children how I would like to have been raised now that I have hindsight to look back on it [Music] for a dollar [Music] who did you hear [Music] foreign [Music] go to the same church too the kids love their grandparents check your shirt inside they haven't been able to love them as much as and to grow with them as much as they should one two three four five six you know there's been times where their nannies what person I saw my my son Malachi grab her head it's neat they they reach out to them turn it off and turn it away I Know Who You Are [Music] used to live and it's not Marissa that's my white side all right there's a difference that's right I don't either but there's something for someone else [Music] foreign [Applause] are committed understand that huh you're the hood of the doctrine or the script on a right father and my mother and that's the underpinning principle of which I talk about this when you understand that it comes did you burn it down no I didn't I have a feeling in my heart to be burnt again but one day someone put to make an account of it one day definitely wasn't me [Music] [Music] there's been a lot of people live here my dad's parents their parents and their parents before them what did I do I didn't agree with my dad on some things yeah didn't have to be that way yeah [Music] our house at burnt down was really special it was warm it was loving and we had lots of fun there foreign [Music] would you like it if someone did that to you yeah no do you think it's fair that you do it to them no yeah that's always the answer except maybe Malachi sometimes yes why is it fair yeah yeah I grew up with this with this thing on us that we had to we owed our parents and my dad still says that we owe him we we owe him some great debt because of how he brought us up and what he did for us yeah and it's early days yet you know my oldest is in his 11th year but I don't see him owing me anything if anything I owe him I owe All My Children [Music]

Channel: SLICE

Views: 217,965

Keywords: documentary, documentaries, shortdoc, shortdocs, slice, slicedocs, free documentary, full documentary, sustainable way of life, maori family, horses, off-grid living

Id: jm-3F0qdiWc

Length: 45min 45sec (2745 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 09 2022