Nick Mailau17:05, Jul 20 2021
SUPPLIED
Teacher Nick Mailau says perspectives that opportunities are equal for all school students, particularly non-Pākehā ones, are wrong.
OPINION: My parents separated when I was 7 years old, and Dad moved in with kāinga (the village) on Tripoli Road in Glen Innes in Auckland. Many of my aunties, uncles and cousins lived there too, about 16 of them under a roof in a cold, mouldy, broken-down state house. Rats scampered in the ceiling at night, like a percussion instrument among the rhythm of police sirens and helicopters outside. My Tongan fāmili (family) were some of the hardest-working people I knew. Dad was a construction worker, who left home at 5am and got back about 12 hours later.