Backyard Gang Wars: Thuggery or a way to heal, doco asks

Organised backyard fights are nothing new, having returned to the spotlight in recent months since UFC star Dan "The Hangman" Hooker hosted the inaugural "King of the Streets".

The 32-man, one minute fist-fight tournament in Auckland prompted New Zealand's Boxing Coaches Association president Billy Meehan to call the event "straight-out thuggery".

But during production of her TVNZ series Backyard Gang Wars, 1 News In Depth reporter Indira Stewart says what she found at most backyard fight events were police being actively engaged by organisers, medics, referees, nurses on hand - and a clear effort to make sure they were as safe as possible.

The two-part series is an investigation into the many fight clubs that have occurred across the country, often involving gang members and mired by controversy.

Speaking to Checkpoint earlier this year on one of Hooker's backyard fights, Police Minister Mark Mitchell said, "gang members tend to be violent, and they tend to not want to stick to the rules".

But Jon Paul "Fight Dog" Te Rito - known as JP - had organised his own event called Fight for Life and said they were actually about healing, connecting, and role modelling a better way for the following generations.

"If we keep doing what we've always done we're always going to keep getting what we've got, which is prison and a cycle of negativity. So the only thing we can do is roll more positive change," he told RNZ's Nine to Noon.

Ngā Kete Wānanga

The seed was planted after Stewart was invited to visit a tikanga Māori-based rehab programme by Matilda Kahotea, someone she had interviewed for a previous series Gang Mums and the person behind Ngā Kete Wānanga Solutions.

"I went over there. They welcomed me over to their rehabilitation programme centre with a powhiri. I sat down, they gave us food.

"I was just blown away ... there were so many elements of surprise when I first met them."

She said she felt totally safe, and despite the preconceptions people might have given their criminal past, described the men as "soft gentlemen".

"The way they communicated their stories, their journeys, their paths, was surprising to me, and the types of things they said in terms of practising mindfulness. I didn't think I would ever sit with a gang member who would talk to me about the practice of mindfulness.

"You try and go into these spaces with an open mind. You know the narratives that exist everywhere and ... it's not a community that I've always been around, but you go in with an open mind to learn, and try and understand the perspectives and experiences of people in worlds that are different to yours."

JP said the rehabilitation programme had helped to make him more self-aware and more mindful.

"Since I've been at Ngā Kete I've actually started doing a whole lot of soul searching and realigning myself with my whakapapa, which has been really empowering - especially with the guidance of our rangatira, Whaea Matilda Kahotea, just helping me ... reconnect with my tikanga.

"Being gifted this space, this safe space to be able to heal and realign has been a gift in itself at Ngā Kete Wānanga."

'Keep it in the ring'

Backyard fights between gang members were not a recent thing, tracing their heritage back to the Far North in 2017, Stewart said.

There had been several gang killings in the region, and rival gang members came together for a hui to try to work out how to keep their whānau safe, she said.

"One member, Herbert Rata - who is in the documentary - said, 'why don't we have a fight night and just, keep it in the ring'.

"And so that's what it became, Keep it in the Ring, and it evolved over the years into Backyard Wars, and lots of other people began doing their own fight clubs too."

Through the documentary process, it became clear to her that the kaupapa of the backyard fights "was healing some of those relationships and healing in communities".

"One of the things that, I suppose, was surprising to us, was seeing rival gang members, gangs that have been historically rivals for generations, in the same room, cheering for their different opponents, but also cheering for each other.

"There are hugs, fist bumps, high fives between Head Hunters, Black Powers, Mongrel Mobs, it's such a different story to what we've known and heard for so many years."

There was never any indication that the fights could have spilled out of the ring, she said.

'We still carry him with mana'

The name of his competition, Fight for Light, was inspired by a brother of his, who took his own life earlier in the year, JP said.

"He was a real nurturing brother, he was a rangatira of our whānau.

"He was once there in my life where he helped me fight for my light, and because I wasn't able to be there to help him fight for his light, you know, we still carry him with mana."

JP said he was inspired to start organising his own backyard fights after he was invited to one of Herbert Rata's fights up in Takahiwai.

"To be a part of it, and then to feel the empowered by it, and then to take the connection element of it, bring it back down to Ngā Kete, and then create our own healing environment through way of expression."

The fact that gang members had to live side by side when they were in prison showed them all that perhaps they could get along after all, JP said.

"We're connected in prison, and so because we've lived with each other in prison for long periods of time, now we've come out and, you know, if we can do it in there, we can do it out here."

However, it was important to break that cycle, he said.

"If we want our kids to do it out here, live out here, rather than going in there and having to connect, we have to role model that."

Beyond the connection, fighting also helped with mental heath, JP said.

"My normal is totally different to to, you know, maybe your normal ... what I think is normal, you might think is outrageous.

"And because I'm trying to stick to what, you know, your normal may be, it's actually quite hard for me. So, that's the built-up energy that I'm talking about.

"It's a positive thing, you know, because if it doesn't challenge you, it won't change you."

Waking up each day to those challenges was a beautiful thing, and he was trying to role model that for his rangatahi, he said.

Even after her documentary was complete, there were still questions and concerns with the safety of some events, Stewart said.

"There was one particular event that we filmed out in South Auckland and there were quite a few knockouts in those rounds. And, some of the pairings of particular fighters, some were very, very experienced with someone that was not experienced or, 15 kgs heavier with someone that was, a lot lighter and not, not as fit."

Hooker's events could be particularly dangerous because of the high prize money, she said.

"Heimuli is a 10 time world champion MMA coach. And one thing he said is that when you put a carrot like that in front of some of these people, you might get some people who are just not ready to be in that space, and it can be very dangerous."

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