THE LONG ROAD HOME
Filipa Payne’s hīkoi begins at the end – the end of a 501 deportee’s life. For the first five weeks of this year, justice advocate Payne and her sidekick, Shinfayne “Kiwi” Te Namu, embarked on a 27-stop tour to the homes of people deported to New Zealand because their visas were cancelled after the 2014 overhaul of section 501 of Australia’s Migration Act – with its infamous “character test”.
Their hīkoi aims to draw public attention to a class-action lawsuit the so-called 501s are formulating against the Australian Government.
The hīkoi is also an opportunity for Payne to wrap her arms around the heartbroken hard men she has befriended and let them know her support is real.
The launching point is the Waltham housing unit of Shayne Forrester. Christchurch, where Payne now lives, is also home to hundreds of deportees, so she and Te Namu begin there on Monday, January 3.
After Forrester, Payne visits her next 501 deportee in Ōamaru on January 5. Then it’s on to other locations, including Invercargill, Greymouth, Westport, Wellington, Palmerston North, Whanganui, New Plymouth, Napier and Rotorua, before finishing in Kaikohe, after which Payne has a ceremonial whakamutunga/closing planned for Auckland on February 5.
Forrester, 55, is a significant case to start with. He’s mature, gracious and cheeky, getting up with a grin and a ciggy clenched between his teeth to welcome visitors to his Kāinga Ora state housing unit. It’s one of the nicer units in
