Photo: Nick Monro
Former gang member Sully Paea has overcome a challenging past to dedicate almost five decades to youth work, significantly impacting thousands of lives in Otara, South Auckland.
Alongside his wife Jo-anne and their family Sully established one of Otara's first youth drop-in centres and pioneered one of the first alternative education programmes in New Zealand.
During the Covid lockdowns Sully taught himself how to carve traditional miniature Pasifika vaka. Now, he's opened his first exhibition Tau Vaka He Pasifika: The Canoes of the Pacific, featuring his carvings at Fresh Gallery Otara.
Susie went to visit him at his house where he makes his carvings.
Photo: Nick Monro
