Code of Funding Practice transcript - Joseph

Text on screen: This is Joseph’s story

Voice over:
My name is Joseph.

I am the youngest of the nine childrens. I slept with my Mum and Dad um. My Mum and Dad carried me on my backpack, and they had the coffin ready for me, and then there was family around my coffin and then after that they put water on top of me and I was…alive. And then I gave a big yell, um yell, and then I um screamed like hell.

And then after that I went to um Christopher Park um. I went there for 25 years and then after that, I went to many schools around Hamilton and then made crates and that. And I do scrub-cutting, cutting lawns and then, um Christopher Park closed down, and then I made woodwork and do all sorts, then make toys, and then after that, um the girls make aprons and all kinds of things and then in my past.

And then after that, I went to doing speak to people on the street about my life and what I do, and then I went to um Gateway church and um my girlfriend um Renee um.

And then after that I do cleaning. And when the boss tells me what to do, I listen to him. I do picking up sawdust and then I um I go to work about 1 o’clock and then after that I do um mag wheels, making all sorts of kinds of things and making and doing screws that hold fast, and then after that I went to making, um doing singing, doing carving. Um I do singing and that and my whakapapa. And then after that I went to doing speak to peoples, speak to peoples. They had um a respect for me.

And then after that I went to um um, my life went to the Islands, and I went to um, to um the Cook Islands, Tokelau and then after that I went to many the Islands and that, and then my Aunty and Uncles in New Zealand and then, that’s it.

Text on screen:
Thank you to everyone for helping me tell my story.