A History of Kindness

By Kirstie McKinnon | Posted: Monday Jan 20, 2025

How do we feel loved?

Recently a friend of mine crossed from Te Ika-a-Māui (the North Island) to Te Waipounamu (the South Island). A rough crossing, everyone was scared. The ferry lifted up, thumped down. Up. Down. Bottles of hand-sanitser and vomit bags were cable-tied everywhere. Signs taped to the walls read: please do not use the bathrooms.

There were no seats on the boat. There were seats, but they were occupied: bag on one seat, person on the middle seat, water-bottle on the adjacent seat. Don’t sit here, this space mine. Rows taken up in this way.

‘The country is depressed, you can feel it down the whole land,’ my friend said, ‘Nobody gives up their seat(s). I hope that I would have given up my seat, but I don’t know. I walked around and around. I didn’t even want to sit down, I just wanted something to hang on to. Eventually, I lay on the floor.’

My friend described lying on the floor, her hat pulled down over her eyes, her coat wrapped cocoon-like around her. She closed her eyes and let the boat rock her. She fell asleep to the rocking.

On the bridge the staff held the vessel into the swell.

‘When I woke up I thought: I feel better; and what we need is more creativity, just small things, everybody making them, a creative revival and — cash will flood into the country with all the making — to show the government — if we are just surviving and not putting our energy into creativity, then: we are just surviving.’

Continue reading: How do we feel loved? - by Kirstie McKinnon