Tina Cross felt sick. It was August 2016 and the legendary Kiwi singer had just watched an item on the TV news about the tragic death of Taupo boy Moko Rangitoheriri.
She couldn’t stop thinking about the horrific abuse the three-year-old had suffered at the hands of a couple who were meant to be looking after him, but beat him so badly, he was left with dozens of terrible injuries, including a swollen brain and ruptured bowel. She found herself jotting down her feelings, including the words, “Not another little one.”
“I was shocked that here was yet another case of a New Zealand child who had been abused and died as a result. We’ve had too many of these and it is just heartbreaking.”
Over the next few hours, the words she wrote became lyrics as she composed a moving song called Another Little One.
A protester holding up a photo of Moko
“I really felt it was something I had to do – that there was a really important message to get across,” she says. “We need to be thinking and talking about what is happening to children like Moko, and trying to stop it.”
Tina travelled to Sydney a couple of months later to record the song, but wasn’t sure of the best way to share it publicly. Then she came up with the idea of giving the song to domestic abuse charity Shine, to help raise money and awareness.
“It is my gift to them and I feel very humbled by the fact that they are so grateful for it,” says Tina (58). “They do an amazing job, so it is wonderful to be able to support them.”
Moko, who died in 2015, is not mentioned by name, nor are any of the youngsters on the devastating roll-call of Kiwi children who’ve been killed by abusive adults, such as Delcelia Witika, Nia Glassie and James Whakaruru. But Tina, who is mum to Sean (27) and Leah (24), hopes the song’s words will touch people.
A performer for 42 years, she only started writing songs about five years ago. “There was never any need to write my own material. When I started out in television, I was given songs to sing. When I recorded my first album, my record label Polygram found me the songs.”
Much of her career has involved performing in musical theatre, headlining in shows such as Cats and Chicago, or singing covers at corporate events alongside Jackie Clarke and Suzanne Lynch as part of the group The Ladykillers, so it wasn’t vital to have her own numbers.
“But in about 2012, I started writing songs,” she tells.
“I am not a Dave Dobbyn, Don McGlashan or an Anika Moa, but I felt there were some songs in me. I realised that I had enough for an album, but I didn’t know if they were any good.”
The following year, she worked with Barbara Griffin, who was in the ’80s band The Holidaymakers and is now a composer, musician and producer based in Sydney. Tina mentioned she had a “bunch of songs I’ve recorded on my phone”.
“She told me to shoot them through to her and she’d have a listen. I was nervous about someone judging my songwriting but she said, ‘Why are you even questioning this? These are great.'”
Tina ended up recording an album of her original songs in 2014, called Lay Down Your Heart. The lead song, Walk Away, was also about domestic violence – this time aimed at women stuck in abusive relationships, as well as men who need to control their tempers.
She was inspired to write that song as a result of work she does as an ambassador for Women’s Refuge.
“I came home one night after a show thinking about what they do and the women they help, and I kept hearing the words, ‘Give her a voice’. I wrote Walk Away very quickly, using that line. I find it easy to write songs when they are about subjects I am passionate about.”
Tina, who has been happily married to husband Wayne Sullivan (68) for nearly 30 years, has never been a victim of domestic violence herself.
Tina with her gorgeous Ladykillers bandmates Jackie Clarke (left) and Suzanne Lynch.
“I don’t come from a disadvantaged background and there was never any violence in our house when I was growing up. But I was brought up in Otara [in South Auckland] and I saw the effects of violence in some of the kids I went to primary school with. You knew they had issues at home and when you went over to play with them, you could feel the atmosphere in the house.
“By the time I was about 16, I decided I wanted to be a social worker. I was planning on studying psychology and social welfare, but then I started singing professionally and went off in another direction. But I’ve always had a strong social conscience and now I feel as if I have come full circle with what I’ve done with Walk Away and Another Little One.”
Tina’s desire to make a difference was partly fuelled by her great aunt, Dame Mira Szaszy. New Zealand’s first Maori woman university graduate, Mira championed the cause of Maori women, including working closely with Dame Whina Cooper in the Maori Women’s Welfare League.
“She did so much to try to improve people’s situations – she was an incredible woman and a huge inspiration to me,” says Tina, whose heritage is Maori, Croatian and Scottish.
“She really impressed upon me as a young girl that there was a need to be of service and to use whatever skills you had to do that. In her case, it was brains, which is not the case for me! But I have music and it is the vehicle I use to reach people.”
Her eyes were further opened to how hard life is for some people when she played Beth Heke in a musical version of Once Were Warriors that toured New Zealand in 2004. Not only was it harrowing subject matter to tackle, but some of the young cast members came from similar backgrounds to the characters. Hearing their stories was heartbreaking, she says.
Tina has supported Women’s Refuge for many years and since 2014 has performed Walk Away to help get the organisation’s message across. After singing it at the National Police Awards three years ago, she was approached by the Counties Manukau District Commander’s Police Choir and invited to perform regularly with them at police events.
“We do quite a few songs – we do a great version of Hallelujah, but when we sing Walk Away together, that blows everyone away. It is so powerful.”
Tina has recently become a patron for police recruits and, as part of her work with them, has sat in on sessions about family violence, which includes watching interviews with men talking about why they have been abusive.
“That has been a real eye-opener,” she admits.
And for the past year, she has been teaching singing workshops in prisons. Tina came up with the idea for the programme, called The Power of Song, herself, and has been able to work in both men’s and women’s prisons in Auckland thanks to the backing of MAINZ, the Music and Audio Institute of New Zealand.
“I am able to provide a unit standard to the inmates, so when they complete the course, they gain a credit,” explains Tina.
During the three-day course, Tina teaches as much as she can about different aspects of music, such as writing lyrics and performing harmonies, to the prisoners, who get to perform at the end. The police choir also sings with Tina and the inmates on the final day.
While the prisoners learn about music and singing, the workshops are also a way of getting them to work as a group, embrace creativity, talk about feelings and develop confidence.
“We talk about the messages behind songs, including Walk Away, which I teach them, and that can be quite confronting. I’ve had people get quite upset because they have come from that background themselves.
“I don’t know what they are in prison for – I don’t need to know. But I don’t skirt around the topic of domestic violence when I talk about Walk Away.”
She also teaches another song she has written called Breaking Free, which is based on a poem sent to her by a woman who suffered from terrible abuse.
“I tell them that this is someone’s real story, from their heart, and that has quite an impact.”
But she doesn’t teach Another Little One to the inmates. “It’s about children and the message is too potent.”
However, she does join the police choir to perform it on the final day.
“You can see with some of them, the penny drops, and it makes them really think about our children who have died this way.”
Tina finds Another Little One very emotional to perform and still gets tearful whenever she thinks about little Moko.
“I just cannot fathom why those two people did what they did to that little boy. I’ll never understand how anybody could hurt any of the children who have been abused. But I can do my bit, which is to put a song out there and say, ‘I think we need to listen to this.’ We’ve got to own this problem and do something about it. We don’t want any more Mokos.”
