An ex-gang member and youth worker is using hand-carved canoes to help young people to reconnect with who they are.
Sully Paea has overcome a challenging past and gone on to dedicate almost five decades to youth work in South Auckland. He established one of the area's first youth drop-in centres, the Crosspower Ministries Trust, and pioneered one of the first alternative education programmes in Aotearoa.
Now the self-taught carver, who is of Niuean, Tongan and Samoan descent, is exhibiting a range of miniature vaka at Fresh Gallery in Ōtara.
He began carving vaka five years ago during the Covid lockdowns, originally hoping to learn about his own history and culture.
"I never realised that it created something that would take off ... it's been a very interesting, fascinating journey," he told Saturday Morning host Susie Ferguson.
Paea, now 71, grew up in Niue, where he constantly heard the sounds of his neighbours building canoes.
"I was fortunate to be able to grow up in that environment and see first-hand what they do."
Sully Paea with one of his vaka. Photo: Nick Monro
There was a lot of cultural knowledge wrapped in vaka-building, including lessons about the environment, the weather, and the moon and stars, he said.
Paea described Niue as a "great place" but said his childhood "wasn't the best", and there was a lot of abuse.
In the 1960s, he ran away and met up with his grandfather, who had been in New Zealand.
"He told me about the land of milk and honey and I said 'ooh I wanna jump on board, I'll go with you, I wanna get some of that milk and honey'."
Paea moved to Aotearoa, but "I didn't find the milk and honey", he said.
"I found the Lion Red, rock and roll, everything that comes it. All the whisky that you can drink. So that was my life.
"I went straight into that environment of alcohol and became an alcoholic, to a point where I had no life at all. Seven days - drink. That's all I lived for. Until I hit rock bottom."
It took a spiritual experience to set him on a new course, he said.
"I had an encounter with the almighty God that changed my life totally."
He was "pulled out" of a life of drinking, crime and gangs and became a youth worker. At first, there was no pay, so he worked a full-time job during the day, then spent the evenings connecting with young people.
Paea shows Susie Ferguson some of his work. Photo: Nick Monro
Eventually it became a paid gig, and the youth centre followed in 1979.
Paea said the community was being "neglected" today, and he was seeing more young people failing school, or selling drugs at the Ōtara Town Centre.
"The gateway to the gangs is getting bigger and bigger, and you see more and more kids heading in that direction."
He hoped that his exhibition could give Pasifika youth "a glimpse of who we are", he said.
"It's important to know who we are, our identity as people. We're lost in a world that is not us and we need to find ourselves."
Tau Vaka He Pasifika: The Canoes of the Pacific is on at Fresh Gallery Ōtara until 9 November.
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