Gumboot Friday was yesterday but you can put your best foot forward any day to help others in need.
Gumboot Friday was yesterday but you can put your best foot forward any day to help others in need.
My apologies to Fred Dagg.
Actually, it should be apologies to Billy Connolly - it's a myth that Fred Dagg wrote the The Gumboot Song. Connolly penned it as "If it wisnae fur yer wellys".
But here goes.
Gumboots they are wonderful, gumboots they are swell. Not only do they keep feet dry, they're great for mental health So put your best foot forward, and tell your mates as well It's time to get your feet, in your gumboots
Cos if it weren't for your gumboots where would you be? You'd be missing out on mental health empathy. So slip them on, cmon cmon And let the country see It's time to get your feet, in your gumboots
Yesterday was NZ's inaugural Gumboot Friday. It's the brainchild of Mike King, a funny guy with a serious side who has opened up about his experience with depression.
Comedians are blessed with the lateral thought that enables someone like King to come up with the metaphor "having depression is like walking through mud every day".
Mike King is leader of the I Am Hope campaign and the founder of Gumboot Friday.
(Grammarians will note that it's not a metaphor, it's actually a simile. But no one says something is a simile for life).
And if you are walking through mud, what's your best protection? Gumboots. What do most Kiwis own a pair of? Gumboots.
What do most Kiwis need to talk more about? Mental health.
At the Napier Port Hawke's Bay Primary Sector Awards last Thursday, the impact of mental anxiety and depression on the rural community was alluded to when an award was made to a rural support worker, but it was subtle.
It took CHB Mayor Alex Walker to confront the issue head on, and talk openly on stage about more people dying in CHB from suicide than on the region's roads, yet funding and attention flows freely for roading and road safety, which begs the question, are we doing enough for mental health?
It was a powerful message to the room. And it left a few people wondering why, when an award is presented to a stalwart of the Rural Support Network, we still don't talk about suicide and depression more openly.
Particularly, when the 2017 Farmer Of The Year award, the big prize at the Primary Sector Awards, was won by Maraekakaho's Paul Renton, who tragically took his life last year.
It's bloody hard sometimes, to talk about the S word.
Or the D word: depression.
NZME - Hawke's Bay Today's parent company - ran a series in 2017 called Break The Silence.
It was tough work, it had a profound impact on the people who worked on the series and the stories, and no one involved would want to think it had a negative impact on anyone who encountered it.
But there is a school of thought that believes that we shouldn't talk about suicide and depression publicly, or overtly.
Perhaps the safest thing we can talk about openly without hurting anyone is that there is a way back from depression, it is not a dead-end street.
And we shouldn't be afraid to talk to people we think are hurting, and listen.
If you're not sure where to go, start online with people like Mike Smith or John Kirwan. Or go to a GP.
Depression can indeed be like walking through mud.
But if the depression gumboot is on someone else's foot, it's not hard to put your own best foot forward and reach out a helping hand to someone you think might be struggling.
