I will help kids escape gangs - Tipoki

RUGBY star Rua Tipoki has told of his amazing journey from being exposed to gang life as a child to modern-day youth saviour.

The 33-year-old is one of the best players never to turn out for the All Blacks.

He was a star for the Blues, the Highlanders, the New Zealand Sevens, captained North Harbour to a Ranfurly Shield victory, and was in the New Zealand Maori side which defeated the British and Irish Lions team in 2005 – the first time in the history of Maori rugby. He also played in the Munster team that won the Heineken Cup in 2008.

Tipoki's achievements are all the more spectacular because the house in Gisborne where he lived as a five-year-old was peppered with shotgun blasts from a gang.

"We were all looking at the bullet holes," Tipoki told Sunday News in an exclusive interview.

"My parents had split up. I was staying in the house with my mum – it wasn't a gang pad, but it was where some of the guys went to hang out. I was around it [gangs] all the time when I was growing up. And for kids in a lot of places in our community, it is just a way of life – they don't know anything different.

"We lived at the house for a little while as our mum needed to get us somewhere to stay.

"We were well looked after by mum and a lady that lived in the house. But mum knew if we were in that environment, that Social Welfare would be in more of a hurry to find us somewhere to stay."

Tipoki spoke to Sunday News after returning home to Gisborne following his retirement from Munster because of a hamstring injury. He and wife Mihi are enjoying raising their children – Naera, 11, Manahi, nine, Mihingarangi, seven, and Ngarimu, two. And he is dedicating much of his time to helping save at-risk youth.

He has signed on with Te Runanga O Ngati Porou to deliver Nga Reo Tautoko – Voices of Support – programme – aimed at providing male role models for boys aged 14-16. Tipoki said he would never have been able to achieve on the rugby field had he not had his own role models. "In our neighbourhood, when I was at primary school, one of my friends used to sell drugs for his dad outside our house. This was the stuff we were exposed to growing up," he said.

"I know for a fact I had role models and guidance from adult males, including my uncles John and Robert, who helped keep me on track. There was so much going on, that if I wasn't hanging out with them, whether it was playing touch rugby, doing martial arts, hunting or diving, I would have been hanging out with people of my own age and learning from them. My mum had tried her best, she had me when she was just 16.

"And my dad did the best he could. But I got to that stage where I was at loggerheads with him a lot of the time.

"A couple of people came into my life who helped massively. Sometimes as young fellas you start tuning out to your parents' voices."

As well as his uncles, Zac Te Maro and Taka Maki from the Maori martial arts group Rangataua o Aotearoa, and rugby coaches Pat Makiri and Brian Leach provided the mentoring he needed. The Nga Reo Tautoko programme has a heavy presence in the Gisborne suburb of Kaiti where gang tensions regularly boil over.

During his upbringing in Kaiti, Tipoki said: "Disputes were settled with your fists. You had to fight, otherwise you got a hiding or learned how to get fast at running. I used to have the same mind-set and that's not acceptable.

"Today teenagers are still exposed to the same challenges as I was – alcohol, drugs, violence, crime – but I think the difference now is the stakes are a lot higher; they are carrying knives and stabbing each other." Tipoki said the gangs target some of the local boys as potential recruits. "It is unreal the percentage of solo parent families in Kaiti, families with no adult male in the house. Some of these boys are growing up with no real male role models in their lives," he said.

"In the country you have normally got a strong network. You have got your parents and your uncles around you, traditionally. But in the city some kids have no-one else, they hang around with each other and get themselves into trouble instead of learning off good role models. So hopefully we can build a good network of men."

That "network" so far includes Hurricanes and All Black wing Hosea Gear, boxer Shane Cameron and the Gisborne Fire Service.

- © Fairfax NZ News