Communities around New Zealand are mobilising to 'rescue our young' from being lured into youth gangs. In this first of a five-part series, the Herald reports on headway being made in Otara.
As Isaac Paparoa tells it, joining the Killer Beez was a natural consequence of growing up in Otara early this century.
"We like just grew up with each other," he says.
Mr Paparoa, now a 25-year-old father of four, has the Killer Beez logo tattooed on his upper left arm and a Maori tattoo representing his father on his right arm. His lower arms bear the words "Killer Beez" on one arm and "Otara" on the other.
The logo of the "Fight Right" boxing gym, where he now trains with 274 Youth Core youth worker Johnson Brougham, is a lion.
"All us Otarans have a heart of a lion and the only way to control that is by doing really physical things," he says. "Boxing was for me the only way to let out what I had in me."
Mr Brougham says many youngsters raised in the low-income suburb, whose shops became known after one grisly murder as the "Otara chopping mall", have a fire inside them that drives them to extreme behaviours.
"If you're in a high-speed chase and you get away from the cops, you're known as 'The Man' around here," he says.
"They have a saying out here, 'FTW', 'F*** the world', or 'all-out' - just go all-out in whatever you want to do.
"If you find something they love to do, you've hooked them. But it needs to be nurtured and worked every day."
Mr Paparoa has been boxing for five years now. He has been with the Fight Right club to Wellsford, Whangarei and Taupo. He won the Northland title two years in a row and has set his sights on making the New Zealand team for the 2012 Olympics - a goal Mr Brougham says he has a good chance of reaching.
"I just love boxing. I come every day," Mr Paparoa says.
Travel Patia, 18, was referred to the club after committing a serious crime two years ago and aims to become a professional boxer.
"It's made a big difference," he says. "I'm more fit, stay out of trouble."
Ronnie Atuaia, 16, was also referred through youth justice services but now works with Mr Patia as a butcher.
THE SERIES
Monday: Otara.
- Veteran youth worker never gives up
- Sport takes sting out of Killer Beez
- Social investment pays off in peace on streets
Tuesday: Ihumatao (Mangere).
- Village blooms as kids steered away from crime
Wednesday: Manurewa/Clendon.
- League building girls' trust
Thursday: Kawerau.
- Fighting for a better future
Friday: Kaiti (Gisborne).
- Growing sense of pride erodes mob's influence
