13/09/2024
Te Hoe Whakatere - Steering the Way Workshop
My WHY - Below is a short version of WHY I am doing this Workshop and more to come in the near future.
Kia Ora Koutou 💜
For those of you who don’t know, I am a Mum to a son, who is a 501 deportee (2020)
In 2018 my son was arrested and released on bail, until his sentencing. In January 2019 he was sentenced to 5 years & 6 months in a Brisbane Magistrate Court and ordered to serve 18 months to be deported upon release.
On the day of his release he was escorted to the Brisbane Immigration Detention Centre where he had to stay until there was an available flight to return him back to Aotearoa.
Fast forward to March 2023 we find ourselves navigating another imprisonment with a sentence of 4 years.
I will not go in to detail as this part is my son’s story to tell.
I am Mum to 3 sons, whom are all my world, so you could imagine the devastation I felt and continue to feel having one of my sons going through this.
Not only did I have to deal with the incarceration of my son, I had to try and navigate my way through this process.
In the process I lost respect for those I thought would be in my corner supporting me. I lost trust in those I thought were “family”!
Through the loss I found so much more and learnt to utilise the tools I had been given long before this new phase in life began.
This is MY STORY and the journey I have taken as a Mother of an incarcerated son and how I had to create my own support group (Te Hoe Whakatere - Steering the Way) to help with my healing. We, the whanau of the “criminal” are the forgotten ones, there was no support for us.
However I am hoping that this Support Group is going to be the change, that we need to support our selves and continue to support our loved ones on the other side of the gates.
I would like to invite you to join me “Let’s Row & Grow together” in a safe space💜🙏🏽
