Confessions From the Land of Milk and Honey. - response to Vilsoni Hereniko's The Unfinished Fence

Confessions from the Land of Milk and Honey 
- response to Vilsoni Hereniko's The Unfinished Fence

It was late summer, 1974, and Auckland felt like it had been dropped into a furnace. I recieved a call from the head office telling me I was needed to help with the dawn raids. I had to be down at the station at 5am. A step up from my life working as a traffic warden and finding lost cats. I was finally going to get a bite of the big boy stuff. Muldoon was all over this immigration thing. "Taking a stand",  sending anyone with dark skin back home, getting them out of here. They were over stayers and as far as the government was concerned were taking our jobs and loading up on our social services.

It was still dark as I drove to work. The street lights gave the fog a hazy neon glow. I wound down the window, tasting the ripe breeze, feeling its severe whip against my skin.  Not another car on the road, pushed down hard on the peddle. I felt like a man on a mission. The sonorous vocals of Mick Jagger played through the speakers. "Brown sugar, how come you taste so good' 

When I got to the station one of the senior sergeants was already waiting for me. Ted, a burly man in his early 50’s with a large mustache. I had come across him for time to time in the office. He was well respected but cold to new comers.

“Morning” He said. He had a gruff voice and an overbearing stomach that hung over his belt. “Get in, we’ll grab some coffee on the way.”

I got in his car and we made our first stop was a small bakehouse down the road. They were just setting up, getting the bread out of the oven. We ordered two coffees with milk and gave the waitress a wink.
 "Grab some lunch too" Said Ted. I ordered a chicken roll. 

“What suburb are we going to do today” I asked

“ Epsom.” He said, taking our coffees and ordering a pie and donut. “I found three over stayers last time I went into the area.”

“We going to head there now?” I asked, burning my tongue on the bitter coffee. 

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, it’s your first day. We’ll start with just questioning people on their lunch break. We’ll check the streets out and look at doing the raid tomorrow.”

“Can you talk me through the questioning procedure” I asked.

“It’s all common sense.” He said. “Ain’t no procedure. Just spot a darkie and ask to see their papers.”

I couldn’t tell if he was acting bent and terse to shock and disarm me or if it was his natural demeanor on the job.

“You drive.” He said, handing me his extensive set of keys. “I’ll do the questioning.”

We cruised down Great South Road on our way to Epsom. There were a lot of people out and about. Children with their mothers. Woman in their sundresses, and students still in the uniforms, no doubt skipping class.

A dark-skinned man was walking down the street. His hair was long and wavy and he wore a knit jersey and some cord pants. Ted told me to slow the car down, so we crept behind him no faster the 7km an hour. He looked over his shoulder and then jerked his head away, he started to fasten his pace. One foot after another. Not looking back. “Oi you.” Ted said. “Got some papers to show me?” The man stopped abruptly

 “Bugger off,” And then he walked right up to our car.

 “I’m a Maori. Show me you fucking papers”

“Don’t talk to an officer like that, I’m doing my job, now show me some papers before you have to get down to the station.”

The man pulled out his license and that was no disputing the validity of it. “Go make yourself useful and stop loitering around on the streets.” Ted said.

He wound up his window. “Bloody Maori’s” He said, “you can’t tell them apart from the PI's. Would deport them too if I had a chance, what are people doing out on the street at this time anyway. Dole scum. My tax dollar's paying for all him to sit on his ass all day.”

“All the islanders were pretty useful about ten years ago when we needed the manual labor’ I said.

“Don’t give me any of that left wing bullshit” He said. “Overstaying is overstaying, it’s against the law, we here to enforce the law. Is that why you signed up to be cop- ain't it” I nodded. “I should bloody well hope so, I’ve had enough of people giving us shit for doing our job. Not so bloody high and mighty when they get mugged and assaulted are they, they need the us then.”

“There must be a better way to find overstayers than interrogating Maori, they been here a hell of a lot longer than we have”

“ Listen boy.” He said. “were not in the interrogation room now, so save your good cop, bad cop routine for later”  

We drove around Epsom the opulent streets of Epsom,street with lush trees shading big white villas. The streets were quiet apart from the chirp of birds and the chatter from the Epsom and Grammer school playgrounds.The smell of melting tarmac washed through the air “ We have to get them on the lunch break.” Said Ted. “They’re all at work now.”

 We parked up next to playground and ate our food and I decided to not to try and converse with Ted and be meet with more hostility. We got back in his car and he turned up the radio to listen to the cricket. “Burgess is about the worse captain we ever had” He said. “Too right” I said.

We saw a tall dark man wearing white overalls walking down the street. His overalls were splattered with paint, and it was all over the his hands. A white color, as if he had been painting a picket fence.  His skin was as dark as a roasted coffee bean and he had prominent round eyes.

“Here we go” Said Ted

We crept up slowly again Ted wound down his window.

“ We are the po-lice. You un-der-stand”

The man stood staring at him, perhaps too stunned to reply. He body started to become shakey and his checks blushed ever so slightly. He resumed walking.

“Where you going?”

“To the shop” He said, pointing down the road to nothing in particular.

“Your name?”

“Jimi Valiame, I haven’t done nothing wrong” He said, taking out a notebook from his pocket. He stated to walk very fast, His steps were short and fast.  The sweat on his forehead was building.

“Tonga?”

“From Fiji” He looked as though he was going explode. His large white eyes shot red with adrenalin.  

He bolted.  Ran and then turned left onto Arcadia Road. Teddy didn’t rush, “we’ve got him now”, he said and we manoeuvred our car as naturally as a dog rounding up sheep.

We drove down Arcadia and didn’t know which one was his, but then I spotted some paint splattered boots just outside the door that looked just the same as the ones he had been wearing. Teddy got out first and knocked a large burgundy door. I stood behind him. He knocked on the door again but did not hear anything. “Stand back, this door will come down easily”.

He gave it a whooping big boot. Crack. It was knocked off his hinges. We searched around the living room and could see some photos of him and his family back in the islands. There were tapa cloths hanging on the green walls inside. The house had a feminine touch. Fresh picked flowers on the windowsill. A salty fragrance.  I was sure we were in the right one. The living room was decorated with photos and painting. I opened up the bathroom door, and saw his thin silhouette up in the corner of the room.

“Please sir.” He said. “I am just a tourist.”

“Don’t look like a tourist, said Teddy as he entered the room. “Looks like you’ve found yourself a home here”

“We just need to see your papers” I said.

“Papers..papers...” Said Jimi. “yes I will find them now. He went and looked around through documents in the living room. “Who are you living here with?” I asked. His voice began to quivar. “ Just friends” He said. His face ran with hot and sticky sweat. Teddy looked through the photos on the mantel piece and I sat down at the table. Jimi made a run for a door but I bolted out to catch him. I got him before he made it out of the driveway. “We just need to see your papers” I said.

“I’m a tourist” He yelled his voice full of jelly “I haven’t got any papers”

Ted came out. “Put your hands behind your back” He yelled, Jimi obliged, and we cuffed him and put him into the back of the car.

I took the steering wheel again. I looked at him in the rearvision mirror. He held his body so tight I wondered when he would snap. His lips trembled and his eyes were cowered and remorseful. He put his head down and started to say a prayer.” He said. “God have mercy” using his right hand to touch his forehead, his middle, his left shoulder, and then  right. 

“Stop looking at him” said Teddy. “You need to learn not to sympathize with criminals” he said.  “It’s part of the job, it’s not all murders and rapists, it’s not black and white” he said. We got back to the station and Teddy booked him on the first flight back to Fiji. We gave him a phone to tell his family he was coming home, he went off into another room.
"I might book myself a trip too." Said Ted. "Could do with a holiday."

When Jimi came back and saw what almost looked like a smile on his face. His posture had relaxed and he sat quietly and waited to be driven out to the airport. At least he knows he is going home now, and maybe there would be job for him there. But I had never seen Fiji so it felt as distant a lifestyle to me, as the Inuit’s in the North Pole.

At the end of the Day Ted told me we would be going back to the house in the morning to another round up. I wanted to throw the towel in on my whole career when he told me that. But I had spent a few years training to move up and I knew if I did a good job of the dawn raids, all sorts of positions at the top would open up.

“ See you 5 tomorrow” I said. His strode off to his car, his face as angry to be going home as it was to be at work.

________

 “I find it hard to listen to the NZ accent on TV” Janet said, as we sat on the couch, watching an episode of Pukemanu.”

“I’m surprised you’re not used to it by now” I said

“I think that the revival of Maori culture and language is very good for the country” She said. “but I must say I don’t understand Maori’s at all. I can’t see why their parents don’t make them wear shoes, I guess that applies to all you New Zealanders really.”

“We better get married soon” I said. “Everyone is clamping down on Visa’s.” She nodded her head. “We don’t see why you like soccer and insist on talking about class and money.”

“We just have to wait for my parents to get their tickets over here, and then we will be straight down the aisle. You think class is irrelevant over here.” She said. “But it’s not.”

“Send them a letter will you, tell them to come” I said. “Tell them, as soon as possible”