It happened so fast. one moment I was watching television with my then partner Simon Campbell and quietly feeding our six-week old baby girl Aorangi. The next, I was hiding down the side of a bed, shielding Aorangi with my body as a group of thugs beat Simon in the room next door.
The knock on the door came early in the evening, and Simon reluctantly got up to answer. We weren’t expecting anyone and just wanted to spend some time with our baby. As he opened the door, I saw four young men with bandanas covering the bottom half of their faces. “Where’s your missus?” one of them demanded. Simon asked who they were and, when they didn’t answer, he stepped back to close the door on them. But they forced their way in, fists flying, and pushed Simon backwards into a chair, then began attacking him. They were screaming gang slogans and threats while kicking him and banging his head against the wall – so hard that it went through the plaster board. I was stunned – who were these people and why did they want me? I had absolutely no idea.
I’m just an ordinary young mum and had nothing to do with people like that. It didn’t make sense. Cuddling Aorangi against me, I ran to the bedroom and hid down beside the bed, curling my body around my little girl to keep her safe. Aorangi was amazing – she snuggled into my neck and drifted off to sleep as I listened for footsteps and prayed Simon was okay. I knew they wanted me, not him, so I made a decision – I would go out and face them. I put Aorangi into her cot, praying she would stay asleep and not cry, alerting the thugs to where she was. Then I took a deep breath and marched into the living room. They were still attacking Simon and I knew I had to do something fast.
“Here I am!” I said, stepping into the room with my head held high. I was scared but I didn’t want them to know that as I looked at them all, straight in the eye. one of the men stopped, stared at me, frowned then turned to the others and said, “That’s enough!” one of the attackers took a while to get the message and continued to lay into Simon as he drifted in and out of consciousness. “No! That’s enough,” the man repeated and the other one finally stopped beating Simon. They left as quickly as they had arrived. Simon was bleeding and was taken to hospital by ambulance. But all he could talk about was how relieved he was that Aorangi and I were okay. “You and Aorangi were all I could think of when they were attacking me,” Simon told me. “I didn’t care about myself, I was really worried about you both…” The police arrived and as we went through the terrible events, I realised why the gang member had called off the attack as soon as he saw me. They had made a mistake and gone to the wrong address.
When I walked into the room, they realised I wasn’t the woman they were looking for. It was so frightening to have those men in the house, hurting my partner, thinking that my baby was going to be next. The amazing thing is, Aorangi slept right through it!
The hospital patched Simon up and told him he had escaped broken bones but he had severe bruising internally and externally. My dad, Henara o’Keefe, is a district councillor in Hastings and organised a hikoi against violence in our community after the ordeal. My mum Pam, Simon’s family and many other people concerned about what had been happening in the area took part. Together, we sent the message that enough is enough and gang violence has to stop. The support was overwhelming. The hikoi was a way of responding to our ordeal with love. It was also a chance to meet other people who had been through violent experiences, and knowing we were not alone made us feel stronger.
Simon and I have split up since the attack in June last year and Aorangi is now a year old. I find it hard to sleep and every little noise in the night has me waking up. The men who were responsible have been dealt with by the court, but it’s very hard to forget that horrible night.