Newsletter March 2024 Māori Cosmic

In the heat of the day, the truth is the same.

Video metro with intro, more details about making a Police complaint and ROC to Oranga Tamariki about family harm, what's the process like? Cover the issues of complaints, cover the health stuff doctor, eyes, foot. Wall of silence from Property Managers, is it real? Including the transformation process, change of personality in what racism does to Māori Cosmic, mitigate stereotyping the lack of Professional Maori in the CBD, when I see them and they don’t see me, the rejection buckles my sense of self. Breaking up with brands again. And…M I K I… My first Māori Cosmic work of fiction.

Mitigate stereotyping the lack of Maori in the CBD when I see them and they don’t see me, the rejection buckles my sense of self.

CosWah from the podcast The Cosmic Wāhine Guide to Living in Tāmaki Makaurau CBD talked about the experiences of profiling, stereotyping and what Māori Cosmic would term ‘Projections of the shadow.’ 

New World and the ordeals of dealing with private security guard’s modus operandi, faulty photo recognition and the stereotyping of the CosWah. 

As  shared in CiChi two of season two what the current New World metro Queen Street experience is like. A letter was written this month and sent to Foodstuffs attention “Pams” Click the link to read the letter. Breaking up with brands again. “I don’t know if the letter got in front of anyone who could make a change?”

There was also a complaint written to the owner operator and that complaint has since been resolved. Yet the matter of their chosen private security guards remains a concern for the CosWah. The issues are more than simple. They revolve around the unspoken actions of stereotyping.

Woolworths: It’s a kick in gut when they decide our fates. She towers herself over the customers as they depart the store. It’s me she’s wanting to haunt. Me like a good sheep passing through the bar code detector, that’ll scream if it detects anything not scanned and paid for.

Woolworths private security guards have been the most focussed this past month. During my short shopping excursions I’ve been followed after whilst in store. My complaints were made to the PSPLA and just to note, that for a lay person, you can’t actually appeal the decision. So just watch out for that. Make sure this is the path you want to take before you decide the PSPLA over the Human Rights Commission.

Once you set off that alarm though? Your time in the Metro shop is over.

This month I was able to escalate the complaint of racism to the Human Rights Commission. It’ll be another tiresome waiting period. There will be denials and challenges for me to face. Taking the matter further to the Tribunal and applying to the director of the human rights proceedings for representation, will take more time.

I noticed the Private Security Guards from Allied, following me right from the start of their engagement with Woolworths Metro Auckland CBD. That would have been approximately December 2023.

From my research methods of collecting data. I noted they set a target to eliminate the most obvious to them. As Māori in the CBD are seen mostly as Tangata Streeters or disguised, bear-mind this is their shadow and not mine. It’s not how I think of myself. They are selective.

It’s no coincidence that Tangata Pacifika are the choosen ones to act as security guards with the power to decide the fates of Tangata Whenua. The irony is not lost on me.

This kaupapa will not be so straightforward to apply the measures of racism to. Because evidence is scattered. It’d need to include months of CCTV footage to view. It’ll be looking for variations in the behaviours that I’ve listed in my complaints, from the staff and security. Never-the-less it’s stressful and can leave a person feeling defeated.

Reporting Family harm within complicated groups of people and situations. Like apartment buildings with Body Corporates and Building Managers.

This has posed CosMāo a great deal of anxiety. Firstly because gathering evidence and collecting data is complicated by a language and culture barrier. There is also the added pressure of not understanding what the relationships are.

The important lesson is about gathering evidence. That means to record the family tensions when the screaming and yelling at young people is able to be overheard from the apartment I’m living in. That’s important to understand. To differentiate between privacy and breach of peace leveling up to concern of young people being at the center of the screaming. Being the ones abused.

The data must be collected over a period of time and the evidence stored safely. Many of us can feel fearful about doing this. But if you're not enjoying your life in your apartment. Then spare a thought for the young people in their home / apartment. From my apartment it sounds like they’re sharing it with an angry out of control parent, without judging the parent. This can be difficult.

There are all kinds of noise and disruptions as part of daily life. These are sounds all of us can live with. The sounds of family tensions and fighting, for some are also amongst daily life. Yet if we want to individually create a better society and future for ourselves, and, let's go big here, the planet. Then it has to start with us. You and me.

Evidence and data are what the authorities need to establish a position for the complaint of ROC that is made. Without these it’s important again to remember that we can’t make baseless accusations about other people. They’d be in a good position to deny any and all of the claims. 

Collecting data and gathering evidence, audio and video recordings, can seem like being a nark. It takes a huge amount of energy. However the outcome of safety and peace for all concerned. Makes it worth the mahi.

Dealing with Oranga Tāmariki reporting processes goes without feedback to the one raising the ROC. At least in my experience.

So it can feel like the rug being pulled out from under you when you get no contact back from OT. I think the best gauge is when the family fighting and issues go silent. However, privacy will remain tight with OT. I made an enquiry with the Privacy Commission to get a clear picture on where the boundaries are. Please click to read the email response.

Adding to the problem of notifying the property manager/building manager is that they know the other tenants. They know them from a different perspective from our own. Because we’re dealing with the coal face. They can present the best of themselves to their property manager and if they have a job that’s high up in the corporate world. Then it becomes your word against theirs. So gather evidence and collect data.

Don’t hold your breath for the outcome of the police report. The most you’ll be striving for is to make a complaint of breach of the peace. Especially if the family concerned are apartment owners. All this comes with consequences though. It can be seen as the CosMāo being a difficult tenant. And we don’t really know if breach of peace is a possibility to stop the noise/abuse. (It seems so judgemental and scary to say ‘abuse’)

But what’s at stake here? More than just the young people. We’re getting into the dysfunctions of families. The way they relate, move and have meaning around and for each other. Who doesn’t know family dynamics right? It depends on each individual in these situations. 

From this text you’ll see how involved it can be. What it can evolve us into. The mucky stuff of it, the privacy matters, the law and overall are we as individuals comfortable with that? We might not be and therefore living with these situations become our circumstances for change in our own lives.

Including the transformation process, change of personality in what racism does to Māori Cosmic.

There are cultural manners that are different from mine. The CBD is certainly busy with inclusivity. It’s not however Manukau City or East Aucks. There are particular finesses to this area. After living here immersed in it. I still struggle with the way I’ve adjusted my voice. That I’ve become sweeter in an unhealthy way that isn’t natural for me.

As a local who will visit the same shops and spaces in the CBD. I’ve had to make changes in my personality that aren’t necessarily true. I’m not interacting with Māori or so many Pakeha. As I am more with female South Asian people. Especially in the supermarkets. The temperaments are probably what I would term as, gentler, softer maybe. They’re not gruff or harsh. I get that English is not so strong either. Therefore fewer words are exchanged, if at all. So this really alters the customer service experience that I’ve read often about in google reviews.

I’ve never been forced sweet or saccharin for the sake of trying to win over people, places and things. That sounds like I’m judging. Yet I find this is part of the mannerisms I encounter within retail, businesses, health and wellbeing. I’m not use this. It would have felt the same for my ancestors. Getting used to new people coming into the country. It’s been tough and worrying me. That this is all part of the same theme, just said in different ways.

The first 100 pages of Māori Cosmic - M I K I.

The book that finally speaks about Māori Cosmic. The writing process with my work of fiction has been slow and deliberately so. I’ve had to consider the audience. Who is the Colonised Child and has very little time to spare for reading. They’re on the move and grooving. They are varied in shapes, sizes and knowledge.

The idea of writing about the subject in non academic, high-pha-lootin lingo. Was so that it appealed to everyone on that vulnerable layer of our lives. The I’ve often used in my podcasts has been ‘The path of destruction’ Which actually means vulnerable. So yes the book is written for us who are vulnerable in our western collective material capitalist world. 

When the Soul calls for a time to spend away from the glaring Matrix. If those who are lost within its programme are searching for a way forward. Into the design of their own lives. For something more tangible and sustainable. I hope my books will be one the hand’s reached out to.

These stories are for the Members of the Lost Generation. Whose minds are affected by trauma. Whose brains, organs and bodies were harmed in wombs by drugs, alcohol, forgetfulness, family battlegrounds, bullied in schools, perpetrated on by gangs and harmed indelibly by systemic racism.

The stories are about family. They’re about universes and worlds that sit side by side. They’re not mirrored like the usual Sci-Fi. And that they are Sci-Fi soul natural. The world where the main characters live is not our earth as we know, Papatūānuku. Instead the worlds are divided into three separate spheres. They’re still interconnected and one will affect the other and the other thing is, they’re filled with mystery, twists and turns.

The plan is that they’re free and available on Waimātou later this month. Book one will be up before I know it. And book two close on its heels. From there the wind will take hold of the Creative Role Model and the mood will decide the fateful timings of the remaining books of M I K I.

The health of Māori Cosmic.

Once again, I changed Doctors this month. I’ve gone from the Fono to the CityMed Albert Street.

There’s a code to crack in getting our health on the right track. Diet has been the exquisite agony. To understand how food works in our systems. When it’s taken for granted for so long? Take it from the CosMāo, it aint easy. Balance, balance, balance with protein, carb and greens/veges with every meal.

Eye examinations have been beneficial. New perscription glasses and sunnies. The modern and flash kind. These essentials have altered my experience of the outdoors. Because that’s when I wear them. Indoors around my small home? It’s not needed. I’m loving the two pairs I got.

The eye test revealed cataracts forming in the back of the eye. This is due to living in dark spaces. That’d be true. Especially while I was in fulltime study. My hours were all up the whoops. I worked on assignments at night and slept during the day. Compound that with living in cheap accommodation for the sake of affordance. Then that’d be a eye recipe for dysfunctions.

The remedy: To live in a bright sunny home with plenty of good warm nourishing day light.

To want the perfect fitness in a body, be weary for ever of gyms, public pools, spas and saunas. Oh and if you’ve been through any skin and beauty treatments for malasma or pigmentation. Then definately stay away from anything that creates thermal heat. Because these will bring all the sun damage that’s sitting below the skins surface to the top layers of the epidermis on the face.

The CosMāo has learned the lesson in foot care involves not going where tinea and fungus live. That’d be in public showers, swimming pools, saunas and spa. I think times have changed so much haven’t they. Viruses are so virulent.

The care to bring everything back into balance however. That is expensive indeed. The output of energy isn’t just the pharmacy treatments or medical. Both of which is a standard fee. There’s all the bloody washing that has to be done. Sheets, socks, towels, shower stalls, bathroom floors. Practically anything that the foot touches.

There isn’t a person on this earth today who hasn’t had or come across the virus and fungus’ of the human family. As a mature soul, I’m not interested in any of my energy going towards that nuisance. So I don’t go where, I want to say angels, but they’re not on my fractal. So I’ll say instead the wise CosMāo.

Dental care has been front and centre this past month and for some of the previous month. I’m thoroughly enjoying Auckland Parnell Family Dental. The dentist is easy to communicate with. There isn’t that sense of desperate non-committal feeling.

I attended to a good teeth cleaning experience. It worked better than I thought it would. So much so the commitment from me for once every six months is now locked in.

This last one encouraged me to reinvest in Health Insurance again. I’ve avoided it for many years. Putting savings away for my medical costs was a better option when I studied fulltime and worked part time. The increase in medical care requirements however, now including more dental work. Southern Cross Health Insurance’s HealthEssential is suitable for now.

I can see myself increasing to the next plan up next year. Till then and next month when I talk about the short doco. This is the CosMāo signing out.