Making Xmas happier
Busker in bra offers Christmas cheer to thousands waiting hours for gifts and food
Sometimes Christmas cheer comes dressed in a red sparkly bra and black lace mask, flinging homemade poi. And her name is Rudolph. Ramona Eliza Hapai Rudolph was yesterday afternoon bringing festive spirit to the long queue of people waiting for gifts and food parcels at Auckland City Mission.
Numbers in need have surged this week and 4000 people are expected to have visited the mission by Friday.
Rudolph was at the City Mission collecting her own Christmas food parcel when she decided to start performing.
“I came to spread my love with those waiting hours . . . for a parcel.
“I was just thinking of the families and kids. They’re crying, waiting in line. So I thought I would put some music into their lives.”
Rudolph, 56, knows all about hard times. She escaped an abusive relationship in 2013 when she moved from Australia to New Zealand. She was homeless for four months before the City Mission helped find her a home.
In 2015, a week before Christmas, she lost her job at a supermarket due to mental health issues and has been on a sickness benefit since then. Rudolph, who is of Ngapuhi descent and hails from Pupuke in the Far North, says she has $60 left each week after rent and bills.
Rudolph has been busking for the last year after she met a man from Yorkshire who was busking with his son. He inspired her to create her own show where she channels the poi dancing she learned from her grandmother as a child and pairs it with upbeat Maori music.
She makes her poi out of cotton wool and rubbish bags and every dance is “impromptu”. Rudolph wants to share her love of music and Maori culture and believes as long as you know your roots you are rich in wairua [spirit] and mana [power].
“I was struggling on my own but I’ve . . . found my calling. It’s all in the music.
“I wanted to get out there for other inspiring wahine.”
Rudolph’s message to all this Christmas is to love one another.
“Don’t hit your wives or belittle your children. Bring your tamariki up. You have to love, read and sign to them. Teach them the poi. It’s better than hitting them.”
With only a week to go until Christmas, the City Mission expects to assist at least a further 1300 people by Friday, and the need for donations is critical because these funds help not only over Christmas but over the New Year when many people struggle. The mission has raised only a third of the $1.3 million Christmas appeal target, and is urging Aucklanders to donate to help a fellow Kiwi this Christmas. Simon Jobe, 30, waited for three hours at the City Mission yesterday to get gifts for his children aged between 4 and 7. He works as a roofer and his partner cares for the kids fulltime at their Panmure house. He said they were struggling with extra expenses at Christmas and the food parcel will “make Christmas a hell of a lot better”.