MA¯TAI SM ITH REVEALS ‘HOW TRAGEDY TRANSFORMED ME’

When TV presenter Matai Smith was a kid in Gisborne in the ’90s, life was tough. “I grew up in quite a poverty-stricken area,” he recalls. “The Mongrel Mob was down our street, Black Power lived near my grandparents and gangs were just part of my environment.”

But Matai’s parents worked incredibly hard to give him and baby brother Hakim everything they needed. “Dad worked at the fisheries and mum was at Wattie’s, so we weren’t the richest wha¯nau in our neighbourhood, but we were rich in aroha. Mum and Dad also did their darndest for us to have the best education. If there were school trips, we went on them and there was always