Hugs and Connection. Community Initiatives after a Traumatic Weather Event. Ep.24 Precipice Podcast.

In this episode I speak with Maggie Brott. Maggie was involved in the initial communications and organisation for the community after the cyclone through the creation of a Facebook Group, an email contact, a website and spreadsheets coordinating spaces, queries and outside assistance as well as donated food and supplies.

Maggie talks about sourcing skills from different people and the power of delegating, connecting with people, the changes and developments she has seen in Muriwai since the cyclone and how the event affected her emotionally.

She explains how her role with the census for the cordoned community in the cyclone recovery time allowed her to check in on people, talk to her neighbours and do surreptitious wellness checks. 

Precipice launched on July 20th 2026. 3 seasons will be released across 4 weeks and then the full series of 26 episodes will be available for you to listen to at your leisure.

Season 1: Cyclone Gabrielle Hits Muriwai 

Season 2: Disaster Recovery and Community Restoration                     

Season 3: Community Initiatives after a Cyclone

Listen on You Tube  https://www.youtube.com/@precipicepodcast

Follow on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/precipicepodcast

Hosted and produced by Mandy Jakich. Commissioned and funded by Muriwai Community Association, supported by the Auckland Council Recovery Office.

Transcript

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Mandy 0:10

On the 13th of February 2023, the small, vibrant coastal community of Muturawai Beach, northwest of Auckland, New Zealand, was ripped apart by Cyclone Gabrielle. This podcast captures what happened on the night and in the days, months and years that followed. Join me, Mandy Yakic, as I speak to fellow Muturawai locals, volunteers and those involved in the emergency and recovery effort. Hear about their experiences of loss and upheaval, the impact on their lives, and the community-led initiatives that helped Muduay find a way forward. Welcome to Precipice. In this episode, I speak with Maggie Brot. Maggie was involved in the initial communications and organization for the community after the Cyclone through the creation of a Facebook group, an email contact, a website, and spreadsheets coordinating spaces, queries, and outside assistance, as well as donated food and supplies.

SPEAKER_03 1:25

Whatever there was, we were just trying to, you know, keep a good list so that when somebody showed up looking for baby stuff, furniture, whatever, whatever, we knew who to co who to connect people with.

Mandy 1:37

Maggie talks about sourcing skills from different people and the power of delegating. Connecting with people. Free hugs.

SPEAKER_03 1:46

Here for you if you need one.

Mandy 1:47

The changes and developments she has seen in Murawai since the cyclone.

SPEAKER_03 1:52

Walking through places that, you know, the week before were filled with laughter and families and now we're eerily quiet, that was the weirdest, most profoundly shocking moment for me.

Mandy 2:03

And how the event affected her emotionally. She explains how her role with the census for the cordon community in the cyclone recovery period allowed her to check in on people, talk to her neighbours, and do surreptitious wellness checks.

SPEAKER_03 2:21

Being able to have people that I could put a smile on their face, that made me happy, that made me hopeful, that made me feel like I was doing something positive for my community.

Mandy 2:30

All while building relationships and checking to make sure people felt supported.

SPEAKER_03 2:37

Well, hello. My name is Maggie Brott. I am a resident in Mirawai. I've lived in Mirawai now. Um I think it's 11 years. Uh yes, yes, because my my son was two when we got here, and he's now he'll turn 13 this year. So yeah, we've been here 11 years. At the point of the cyclone, I lived um I lived on a side road and Natira Road in Mirawai, which was one of the which is one of um a road that had little to no damage. So um, so when the cyclone happened, I had a neighbor around the corner, Kenton, um, in YTA, and ended up at the cafe. And while I know my neighbor, it was it was very much he was he just it was that that moment like, oh, I know you, I know you're good, I need some help. Can you help me? And that was pretty much about like I think the question was, you're good with emails, right? And I went, sure. And that was the beginning. Yes. Yeah.

Mandy 3:39

Just going back to Muriwai. How did you actually come to this community? Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 3:45

So if you can't tell from my accent, I didn't actually grow up in New Zealand. So um, yeah, I uh I met my husband who is a Kiwi, Jason, um, in two in December 2000. He was um he had come to the US. He was security for David Tua when Tua was fighting Lennox Lewis, and just through the course of that fight week, um, I met him, fell pretty quickly. He came back to see me for Christmas. We got engaged, and so a year later I moved to New Zealand. The very first day in New Zealand, we had lunch in Ponsonby, and I came out to see, he took brought me out to Mirawai to see the sunset. And he had lived in Mirawai, and it was just one of the and loved the area, and it was just a magical place. And immediately, and I I got it. There was no conversation, it was there was no talking. It was just okay, yeah, I I'm with you. This place is magical and beautiful. So even when we moved, you know, when I moved here, we were married, we're uh had family. We always came to Mirawai and always wanted to live in Mirawai, but like just what was it, the city, Pontabi, in all the other areas. But I'll I'll I I I make the joke. I think we I think I've seen everyone's house because we came to every open home for like six, seven years. So it took a while before we found our place in Mirawai, but from day one, Mirawai was part of my New Zealand life.

Mandy 5:08

Coming to the Cyclone, Cyclone Gabrielle. Yes. What were you expecting before it actually started to deteriorate?

SPEAKER_03 5:17

All right. Well, all right, this again, sort of interesting things. And I as I was saying to you earlier, everyone comes at it from a different place. When I was in college in America, the my as a freshman, so as an 18-year-old first-year college student, we had, I was um, uh I went to a small college in North Carolina, we had a cyclone that came through and ripped through from Florida all the way up and literally hit the areas we were in. So, you know, I remember very much the devastation of, you know, I remember us, you know, the night before, you know, we were the all the freshman class was studying for a we all had a uh history test, and I remember everyone studying and studying. And then I remember there's a point and it's like the power's gonna go out. We're all going to the gare, you know, we're all now being put into a downstairs basement-y hallway. Like, I don't think we need to study. And sure enough, the power was out for about two days. Um, and it was just that it was it, it was there's devastation. But as a teenager, as a young person, you know, you just go, oh, I don't have class for two days. That wasn't the worst thing. But so when when I was here and I heard Gabrielle coming, and I think, and a lot of New Zealanders, their concept of storms wasn't like wasn't an actual idea of what living through a cyclone, hurricane, that type of thing was actually gonna deliver. But I had, I think, more of an idea and was quite prepared for it to be pretty bad for a little bit, and then we'll see, you know, and then it was the recovery. So funny enough, it was it was it hit the February 13th. That's my husband's birthday. So two days before I went, all right, this is coming. I can remember making a cake like the day before and icing it and getting it all ready just so I could celebrate his birthday with our family, you know, at four. There's a photo of him with like four balloons taped to our bedroom wall, you know, at a happy birthday moment. And, you know, and that was as much of the birthday that happened because then it all became about Gabrielle.

Mandy 7:21

I guess up on Natira Road that's at the top of the village.

SPEAKER_03 7:26

Yes.

Mandy 7:26

Where there wasn't the landslides. Can you talk us through that evening?

SPEAKER_03 7:30

Absolutely. So the whole family, it was the the my myself, my husband, and our two children. Our son fell asleep fairly early, like his normal bedtime, eight-ish. And at that point, there was a lot of wind and rain, but like it wasn't I say devastating. It was it was a big storm and we all knew it was coming, but there wasn't a heightened concern at that point. So he went to sleep. Um, I can remember my daughter not being able to go to sleep, and the two of us actually slept. We were in the bedroom with him. I actually tried to go to bed. Our bedroom was in a the upstairs of a two-bedroom house, and it's just this little pop top that's on top. And that's the only night in the you know, eight, nine years at that point that I couldn't sleep in my room because I felt the winds being just so intense, buffeting and shoving that house in. And the house had been around for it was built in the 80s. I wasn't concerned about the house falling down, but I was very aware that there was a whole lot of storm. And from my bedroom window, I could see the it's it was the palm trees. The palm trees bend and flex, but just watching how much they were swaying and bending over, you're very aware that it was, you know, it the the brunt of everything was hitting us. Did you do anything to papea? I charged, I bought, yeah, so I bought, I would have bought, I would have gone out and bought a bunch of, you know, um battery flash like the actually more lantern flashlights. Um we bought some waters, charged the phones, but nothing outside of those those sort of things. So the next morning when there was no power out and we were all had no power for, you know, a couple of days, and plus it was it was a big shock for everything.

Mandy 9:17

Could you just talk us through, you know, what happened from from the next day and how you s you became involved and um just share some of the things that you were part of that might be interesting for other communities to hear.

SPEAKER_03 9:31

Absolutely. So the very first thing I remember happening the next morning when we had no power. I remember us not having power, and I remember everybody sort of like being down at the heading down to the heading down to the the Mirowai, the deli. And they had we had, I was down there with Kathy, and my I actually I got I think I got a text from Kathy, like my daughter was uh um was st has starting to work at the cafe but hadn't had any shifts yet. So at the bottom shop, correct, at the bottom shop, and I think that it was like if you can help come. And so both her and I was like, I was like, come on, let's go. I don't know what we can do, but we're gonna go do it. And so both of us ended up down at the cafe helping out Kathy, and it was very much like whether it was a hug, whether it was a coffee, whether it like no one knew what was going on, and there was a whole lot of us just sort of, you know, trying to be there for each other. The group came down, and I remember then ending up there ending up at the surf club for what was the beginning of the of I call it that that group that worked to liaise and get everything going and to come up with you know that the Mirawai recovery. Yeah, that whole team was there, and so I ended up very quickly starting up that opening a Gmail account and just answering all of the Facebook you know replies and questions that were that everybody in the community was just trying to figure out what was happening because I could do that because I wasn't it I wasn't integral to the solution, so I could communicate.

Mandy 11:06

Yeah, so that was good. And your house you weren't affected um directly, so it was a job that you could do because you weren't worrying about your house. Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I mean that's that it's like the initial sort of communication in the community, yes, which is so important. So can you talk us through exactly what you did? You c you said you created a Gmail account.

SPEAKER_03 11:29

Yep. We we set up the Mirawai, and now I now I can't think of the actual title, which is so but we that that Mirawai Facebook group, which became and still is an active part, which has actually turned into almost like a community open page forum for us. Um that's been that so we we worked to set up a website so that we we we knew we needed to get what people couldn't have. We knew people were didn't have homes. We knew people we knew it we were in that situation where we had had the people evacuate and that they'd come back, but when we had people who were sort of stuck out of their homes without the ability to get whatever they might need. So the community just quickly went, All right, spreadsheet. Like, what can we get? How can we organize it? And it quickly it evolved from that, where we built a website, the the idea of opening the um the opening the shop in the in the garage of the surf shop surf club, um, which that was an amazing thing. What what we were doing is we were reaching out to other organizations and looking for uh things like like um the like the trust and s in situations where they already had they were there were a whole lot of people that were prepared to give us things and we needed to be able to coordinate that and also um just manage anything that was coming in. So we built a website that was that sort of allowed um allowed people to offer and we could put it up and it and both the way you could both see what was available and take and claim things that was that was available. And um lots of other people came in and helped out to help run it. Um so it very much became a situation where we were like, okay, can we get clothes? Can we get food? What you know, what what furniture, linen, baby stuff, whatever there was, we were just trying to you know keep a good list so that when somebody showed up looking for baby stuff, furniture, whatever, whatever, we knew who to co who to connect people with. Yeah.

Mandy 13:51

It was an actual website people could could go to. Yeah. And then how did people get in touch? So if say I needed blankets, what was the process?

SPEAKER_03 14:01

We we uh very quickly promoted that we were gonna have this shop, that it would that everything was gonna be central in one place, and this and the and the the surf club became the best location. So we had both a little, we had a garage space that uh a large group of ladies from the community again, and just people showed up and they're like, I can help. And we started okay, make a list. When can you show up and work? When can you can you shove? What can you do? And anything that was anybody that had the capacity to help us, we we absolutely went, thank you very much, and just you know, figured out where we were. So we had a lot of sort of food that came in that was based in the front shop, but then we had a lot of clothes um and linen, toys, we got um uh school books donated from local charities, and so all of that just had to be coordinated across the different rooms, and everyone just sort of worked it out. It was it was amazing.

Mandy 14:58

It was an incredible thing and a great resource for the community.

SPEAKER_03 15:03

Absolutely.

Mandy 15:03

Yeah, and how did you communicate to the community what was happening with the food hub and all the other things?

SPEAKER_03 15:09

We ended up taking um my food bag and a couple of the uh HelloFresh. I donated foods, and so we we both set we both set up in using the fridge space and the and the facilities within the club. Um I I'm not sure how uh we there was a community the uh notice board that we actually the the physical notice board down at the um down at the deli um we were using. We tried to get that online as well. Um but because that because the Namiroide deli became our hub. The uh it wasn't the deli though, was it the bottom shop? Sorry, sorry, the bottom shop. Yep, yep, yep. Sand dunes. Sand dunes. Sand dunes was the spiritual hub for for everyone coming in. And so that naturally just became between between sand dunes and the golf course. And the golf course had the um was offering uh both because they had generators and had work and were out of harms area, were open open, they opened themselves up to locals. So if you needed a shower, you could go there. Once once they had power and everything, they were happy to help anyone and allow the locals to utilize the space. So those two spaces, sand sand dunes and the golf course, became the place that everybody was naturally, naturally uh gravitated to, even to the point where like the mail, uh, the mail delivery became based at the surf club. So if you wanted mail, because there were so many people who didn't, you know, who weren't at home, the our beautiful mailman sat down there in his van from two to three every day and you could come find your mail. It was amazing. Isn't that amazing?

Mandy 16:50

Yeah, yeah. And little things like that. There's so many little things that happen that are actually great to know about, you know, for future events because even that, you know, not everyone will have noticed or will have known that he was doing that.

SPEAKER_03 17:03

Absolutely, absolutely. But that's that's how our community works together. It's like, okay, where can you get to? There's parking here, there's power here. All right, we'll make it work. Yeah, and that was beautiful.

Mandy 17:13

Did you communicate to the community through Facebook through the community Facebook page? Was that one of the areas?

SPEAKER_03 17:19

Yes. Because I sort of got moved around to different things. I I very much remember tapping out and um there was uh there's a lovely, there's a couple of lovely ladies that um that were um that are a personal assistance by nature who helped. There was always somebody who had skills that went, okay, I can do that. So like when we when we're trying to build our when we were trying to build that spreadsheet, one of the community leaders was from from Vodafone and was just was like, I know how to do this. It's just like, okay, fine, you may. And that's why everything worked, because any if you could find a way to help, you did. And and it just magically was a beautiful coordination without people trying, it wasn't there what no one was out for a personal gain. It was very much like, what can I do to help my people? That's so amazing.

Mandy 18:08

And it was such a it it was like we had all the skills in the community. We did.

SPEAKER_03 18:12

Oh, and then and I think I I I'm sure it's probably the case with most communities that you end up with a vast arrange of people with a lot of different skills, but I know that that is so true in Mirawai, and that absolutely came out when we needed each other.

Mandy 18:29

Yeah, it really did. How did that experience affect you emotionally?

SPEAKER_03 18:34

I I wanted to just hug everyone. Like I think if you know me, uh, you probably got a hug from me at some point, whether you needed it or not, because I might have needed to just give somebody a hug. So that was that was good. What I remember happening in the early days, um, I wasn't doing any work at that point. Um, so I had the opportunity to take up take what was available and quickly we we had the census was one of the things that was going on that came up quickly. I had applied to do a census role and wasn't uh and I don't think I'd actually got a reply, but then when when Mirawai got locked down because of of the cyclone, I went back and I went, hey, hold on. I want to do this role, and you guys can't get anybody in here. You literally can't get anybody to come through. So if you want them, you know, want this done, I I ended up with a role, which I appreciated because it my goal wasn't wasn't my I was hired to make sure that people were filling out their census forms, and and that was easy. But what I actually appreciated was that Auckland Council was paying me to go and talk to my neighbors, and so I decided that part of that also was more about welfare welfare checks. So I did, so I had specific people that I needed to see as part of the census role, but because I'm just literally walking the neighborhood, you know, I would happily talk to anybody who was around, anybody, you know, and you know, how are you? What are you doing? And saw lots saw lots of neighbors and friends, and even ended up one of the stories, one of one of the stories that I will tell you, one of the things that stuck with me, there was a lady I ended up meeting through it was a sense, it was literally a census cult. Um, and she was in a situation where um she's it's her and her and her husband, and they're just in a more limited capacity. They were there the whole time, but they couldn't leave. There was just and they hadn't had anybody come check on them. And I think by the time I actually met her, it had probably been maybe maybe a week, ten days at this point. So it had been over a week, and she had been there with her husband, sorting her life and sorting themselves, but hadn't had any outside help from the community because she was didn't go down to the search club, wasn't on Facebook, as as you're pointing out. And I appreciated getting to chat with her and coming back and talking to her just because nobody else could. Nobody else needed to go to her, but she still needed to be commute to be contacted by the community. She needed support. Absolutely.

Mandy 21:18

Yeah, absolutely. And you were so good at that. I remember you up white here. We need a person like that in that kind of situation. Free hugs. Here for you if you need one. Exactly. And do you feel like, you know, just back to you, did it did it affect you then or or has it affected you at a later time emotionally?

SPEAKER_03 21:37

When I was most profoundly and emotionally shocked isn't the word, but like we so as we point out, parts of Mirawai were still quite accessible, but um the further part of Mototara where the slips had happened, there were so from the golf club back around that all that part. Was closed off about on Mototara. So when I ended up walking through that area, you know, looking for sense people, you know, but you know, walking through a closed area where you're literally looking at devastation, where you where you can see the sand, where you can see the trails of debris, where you walk by and you see a driveway and you see now it's actually caved in and you actually can't drive to the house. I I can remember going past the house of one of my daughter's friends, and they had moved out because the slip had come through their house. And so just walking through places that, you know, the week before were filled with laughter and families and now we're eerily quiet, that was the weirdest, most profoundly shocking moment for me.

Mandy 22:47

Yeah. I remember actually on a similar thing seeing from the golf club at night looking out over to the hills, which would normally all be lit up in lines of the home, you know, houses with lights on. And it was just like a few lights and then just black. Yeah. And then a few more lights, black. And that just really hit me because you're just thinking these poor people aren't in their homes tonight.

SPEAKER_03 23:14

Yeah.

Mandy 23:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:16

Yeah. And then even, you know, even little bits, you know, you think, okay, so the family got out, you know, because we do know that we had deaths in our community, and I mean every death is painful. And the fact that it was community workers, it was our firemen who came out to support us, who were locals, that was heartbreaking. But I think the fact that we didn't lose life of residence, that was probably the one piece that we could hold on to, you know, and that that made a difference. And I think it still sits with me that we have lost so much in our community. We've lost so many families from our community, but at least, you know, the majority of us can rebuild, move on, keep going. What I remember was actually a a moment later on, um, there was a group of lovely people. Uh, because we have a we have a very strong art community in Mirowai. So several of the locals got together and ended up there there was a shelter built where you could distribute anything extra. So uh sorry, let me be more specific. If you were growing, i if in your garden you've got tomatoes and you've got extra tomatoes, you could bring them down and let them, it was sort of like the take what you need, leave what you want, leave what you can moment.

SPEAKER_00 24:47

And that I absolutely thought was beautiful.

Mandy 25:06

Absolutely, absolutely. Which I think is really nice. It was formed out of the cyclone but then continues to operate and and those women are still running running it.

SPEAKER_03 25:15

Yes, those sort of things that our community was able to put in, uh things that weren't about grief, but it was about bringing the community back together and re-establishing our connection and those things that have endured, those are the beautiful things that we should share.

Mandy 25:28

Yeah, absolutely. Do you think there are impacts of the cyclone to this community that people might not see or understand?

SPEAKER_03 25:38

Absolutely. I mentioned previously about how much Mirawai has lost. We we are a smaller community now. We will there will be new people that come in, but there are you know, there are I want to say something like 50 less houses. 68. So it there are less of us, and there will always be less of us now. There are now houses that plenty of us would have driven by, might, you know, know families of, might have played on, might have visited, you know, and they're gone now. We lived, as I said, I lived on us on a Natira in Miroai when the cyclone happened. We ended up selling our house afterwards, um, and you know, uh ended up and we were able to sell it back to another local who had lost their house, and that was pretty much like we didn't need to sell, we sort of got approached with somebody who needed a house. And there was no reason why we we I can move again. I can I don't I don't it was more important for us to move out of the way, which sounds really weird. It's my house, I love my house, but it was more I felt more important for us to let that family stay because we could move and still be someplace else, and they needed to be there.

Mandy 26:56

Oh, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 26:58

And you found another house. Yes, and we ended up we ended up we had um a neighbor who had um who had a house that was that he uh that was a rental, so we ended up moving in the rental. The rental at that point was considered totally safe by council. And in the six months that we were there, the council changed their mind and said, no, this house has to go too. And so it was weird being based in a house for eight, nine, ten years, and then moving for the first time, and then six months later I had to move again, and that house not being gone, and even when they took the house down, and this is like the council have to make the best choices, you know, with the information they have. And if they don't have all the information, they still have to make the best choice. So they chose to err on the side of caution, but and it's like I love that house, I miss that house so much. It's yeah, yeah. So and even now, driving around, their people gone, their houses gone. You know, the sand dunes, sand dunes is gone. Sand dunes was such a huge part of our community for so long. And between COVID and the cyclone, it just became not a feasible opportunity for the business for you know for the lady running it. And I totally understand, but that was a huge loss for everybody in the community. It's like my daughter worked there, and you know, her job got gone. The you know I I me I miss so much of the food, I miss the people. There's there's so there's so much that's the community's changed.

Mandy 28:27

That was the one gathering point, and and we've lost that apart from the day up in the weekend, which is amazing, or from Thursday on at the moment, but yeah, we we don't have that daily meeting place. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:39

And even you know, it's like we you'll you'll remember, you'll know that it's uh we called it the the mirror the coffee club, so like the the the the old guys, you know, yeah but there was every morning you could go down and there was a group of older Miroye locals that were always out there with the coffee, and just you know, it it's gone. And yes, some of them are still here, some of them aren't, and there are still plenty of places to get coffee, but that moment's gone. Yeah.

Mandy 29:09

And it's so sad that it hasn't been sort of recreated by the council for the community.

SPEAKER_03 29:15

And I I am I am on a committee that I do nothing with, I where I just listen, I know, and they're the Auckland Council are trying to bring back that moment for us, but it will take time and it will be an entirely different. But I'm excited about the prospect. I know we've got uh a local architect who knows the space, who knows, who knows how we used it, who's looking to try and come up with options. So, you know, again, we will rebuild, we will find a way, and it's just it's it's it'll be a matter of time and it will be different. But I love that no one from this community is letting things go.

Mandy 29:54

No, that's so true. And I think we're so good at forming the committee that is needed to get the solution that we want. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 30:03

We are very good at we're very good at taking charge of our own future. We're not we are in this community because we love it and we're not letting it go. We understand it has to change, but we are very, very active in making sure that's still a good place for all of us. But two of the cool people that I ended up coming across the the resources in the community that often it's the old timers. It's the people that you may not think. I ended up sitting with two different two different locals who'd been here for ages. One was an older, lovely older couple who um who live further down, uh further down on Oaya. He had been the one who had written all of the maps for us. And so like I ended up talking to his wife and just but just having somebody who was, I was like, oh, okay, I know who I know who needs to talk to you. I'll come back to you. But just finding out, you know, finding all of the local resources and all the people who have made, who've been part of making this community and just keeping them here and keeping them connected to some of the new people who were looking for answers or looking for uh there's another fireman that I found likewise, and you know, just just chatting with all of those. This is I loved, I love that. I love finding out more about you know what was my home and what you know what was here and the people who had made that.

Mandy 31:33

And it almost seemed like you were a bit of a conduit between people.

SPEAKER_03 31:37

I tried to be, if I if I could be.

Mandy 31:39

Yeah, I think you really were. And is there something hopeful or meaningful that you'd like to leave us with?

SPEAKER_03 31:45

I'll tell you what I ended up doing, which is again, this is one of those things. So, as I said, when I was looking, when I going through, I ended up finding the lady who hadn't had the contact. Through my very own, with literally no one, with no one's suggestion, I decided I'd make a little group for myself. And there's a couple of older ladies. One of them's one's a widow, widower. There was the lady who who I met. There was two or three people, uh women, and and I went, okay, I I think I need to be their fairy. So so what I did is I decided that so for Christmas and for Valentine's Day, I would randomly get a couple of things and swing by, knock on the door, just drop off things because I wanted to. And I know I it it was the surprise on the face. It uh it started the lady, the the lady who I who I had to ra harass about her um her census form, um, and and she hadn't had the contact the community. I went two or three times. The last time I went, I I said it wasn't about filling out the census form. It was just about talking to her. So I when I showed up the last time, we were heading, we were almost into Easter, and I knocked on her, came to her door, knocked on her door, had my hands behind my back, and she was like, I hadn't started, I hadn't filled out. I said, No, no, I know you haven't. I said, I said, traditional or chocolate. She's like, What? And from behind my back, I pull out two different hot crossbuns, and I'm like, you'll do your form when you do your form, but you need something positive. So do you want traditional hot cross buns or chocolate? And just that whole point, it wasn't about me taking something from her, it wasn't about, you know, what she needed to do. It was just thank you. That's the moment. And so, yeah, I and you know, just being able to have people that I could put a smile on their face, that made me happy, that made me hopeful, that made me feel like I was doing something positive for my community. And that's that's what I that's the one message I probably like to pass on. No matter who you are, even if you you don't have to make a giant difference in everybody's lives. You just need to make somebody smile. So if you can do something for your neighbor, if you can do for some something for your neighbor who you don't know, that's even better. But I think that is the richest thing that I've taken away. Getting to know new neighbors, getting to know new places, and just meeting people and being able to help out. I love that.

Mandy 34:34

Precipice was commissioned and funded by Mudawai Community Association, supported by the Auckland Council Recovery Office. Artwork by Taylor Williams, soundtrack by local Mudawai band Tin People, written in response to Cyclone Gabrielle. Nam Mahi, thank you to the Midwai community for their input and bravery and for sharing their stories. And thank you for listening.