Watch: Steve Kenny – growing up in a Police house, a son’s perspective

Transcript

Tēnei te mihi nui ki a koutou. Malo e lelei. Ko Steve Kenny taku ingoa.

I'm born and raised here in Takapūwāhia in Porirua and I just wanted to share a little bit of perspective around the Dawn Raids in Porirua back in the 70s.

This is a picture of my father, Constable Tom Kenny. He was a policeman from 1966 to 1976, here in Porirua as a dog handler.

When we grew up, we actually grew up at 3 Driver Cres because it was a police house until we moved into our family whare here in Takapūwāhia.

So, from the perspective of a young kid watching his pāpā go to work every day and also we had the police dogs at our house so we were raised in that environment of the police.

And even then as children, my two brothers and I we would always wait for our pāpā to return from work and try and hang out with him as much as we could.

Even as a ten-year-old, I remember the impact of the Dawn Raids on my father.

He was ordered in to do some horrible things and he along with a few of the other Māori police dog trainers at the time there was Wayne Taurima, Aporo Joyce ended up becoming a dog handler as well and quite a few other Māori police here, and this was at a time when the government were changing, the police were changing.

The priority here in 1975 was the land march here, and they all ended up here, Takapūwāhia Marae.

There was a whole lot of civil unrest, and with the Dawn Raids in particular it was an ugly time in our history.

It was like a bit of a stone in the pond and it ripples and they go out from the effects of these policies and it lasted a long time, and it impacted on lots of ainga, whānau.

And it affected our family. It affected the police and it affected – a lot of things happened during that period of time.

One night Dad came home a little flustered and he called myself and my two brothers together and we just had a little talk.

It was actually the first conversation where it ever happened really and he asked us if he should stay in the police.

And I remember him being quite down, and we were just kids and we didn't know what was going on in his mind.

After that he left the police force – 1976.

I actually thought that he was one of the ones that went to Bastion Point because also at that time they rounded up all the Māori police officers to march them up to Bastion Point in Auckland and once again they were made do some horrible things, which was to form that big ring around the protesters, gather them up, and to arrest them.

Many years later I asked my Dad about that and he just talked about the work that affected him and the racism that was going through the police at that time period anyway, and through the government.

And I remember one day over here, I was standing next to Dad and they had one of the commissioners, and were having his pōwhiri here and one of these guys with all these clips on his shoulders saw him and after the pōwhiri he went to go and shake his hand and I saw my Dad shuffle his feet around into a position like if the guy got any closer he was going to clock him and then the guy went ‘uh’, just carried on, because he knew he was wild.

That was the kind of things that my Dad kind of carried with him even twenty something years later, after that incident – officers sending them in and to do a bloody horrible job.

One thing about my pāpā is that he always tried to make up for those things.

Like here on this marae ten years ago, him and Taku Parai where the kaumātua that organised the pōwhiri for all of our Pacific nations living here in Porirua and I asked him what it was about, and he just shook his head and said that they couldn't believe in that, and they hadn't done it before because these are all of his rugby mates and people that he grew up with and he knew and so he tried to make amends for all of those things just to carry on the good work that he wanted to do working in education.

But that's my Dad, Tom Kenny, police officer from 1966 to 1976 that was present and part of that whole terrible time in our history here in Porirua and also somebody that made right on those things.

Sometimes when those ripples happen, instead of – we just have to absorb them and make things different and change it all, and I feel that that's what he's done.

So I just wanted to share with you the story and the impact that not only happened on the ainga, and those families but also on those who were forced to go and police it.

Kia ora.