Connecting with WHĀNAU

Michele makes it her Matariki mission to learn more about her ancestry

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The conversation our country has been having about Te Tiriti o Waitangi is making me think harder about my own whakapapa - about when and why different branches of my family came here, and what kind of people they were.

I grew up knowing the story of my mother's family - great-grandparents who sailed here in 1914 with three children to find something brighter than life in Oldham and to continue their work with the Salvation Army. The Captains Edith and John Rogers were good people by all accounts, believers in social justice and community. We have photos and stories that make them real for me.