Keeping it clean – in verse
Mele Peaua started work as a cleaner the day she arrived in New Zealand aged 17.
It was May 2, 1987. Born in Tonga, Peaua migrated for a better life for herself and her family. She still remembers the joy of getting her first pay cheque.
She worked three jobs then, plus another in the weekend. Peaua, now 53 and living in the Lower Hutt suburb of Moera, still cleans. She has six children, but only works one job.
Peaua’s writing is featured as part of a new book that will be launched at Parliament’s Great Hall tomorrow.
Somewhere a Cleaner is an anthology of poetry and prose written by 93 Kiwis who have worked as, or are still, cleaners.
They range from published poets to novices, life-long Kiwis to new migrants, and are of all ages. Some work is written in te reo Ma¯ori or Sa¯moan. The aim was to capture the spirit of a job ‘‘both indispensable and invisible’’, editor Adrienne Jansen said.
The launch will be attended by new LabourMPIbrahim Omer, who was born in Eritrea in East Africa. Omer is a former refugee who worked as a cleaner at Victoria University of Wellington to fund his studies.
For people like Peaua, the musings are much more than straightforward tales of hard labour. ‘‘It’s about my family, my heritage,’’ she said.
‘‘Sometimes when you talk about cleaners, no-one will ... care. They go, ‘It’s just a cleaner.’ But if you’re a doctor, people talk about how good you are, or how they’re smart,’’ she said.
‘‘When you’re a cleaner, you’re not really there. That’s how the cleaner looks like. But I’m so proud to be doing something that makes a difference.’’
Peaua is on the council of the E tu¯ union, with which she has been involved since 2004.
She said she’s proud of her collective bargaining efforts for better working conditions and rights for all cleaners.
This year, cleanerswere thrust into the spotlight as they worked long days in high-risk environments as essential workers during the lockdown.
Peaua said that work highlighted the fact that all cleaners deserve to be paid the living wage, as was promised by the Government earlier this year.
‘‘It’s my own experience ... all the pain as a cleaner ... It’s about my journey to come here for a better life,’’ she said.
‘‘It’s not easy or like magic when you get on an aeroplane and come here.
‘‘You have to work for it ... People are looking down, they don’t really care about cleaners.
‘‘But they are important people ... It’s easy for me to understand, because I go through that. ... But I never forget where I come from, where I began.’’
My journey Mele Peaua
I’ma cleaner. That’s who I am.
It’s about my family.
I clean for my children and my grandchildren so they will be well-educated and have a better life.
But I’malso a fighter.
I fight for my brothers and sisters who are cleaners.
I fight for the living wage, for the fair pay agreement.
I work hard for myself but I fight for the collective. When people say ‘‘cleaner’’ they mean little people.
When they ask your job, if you say a doctor, they say ‘Hello’, if you say a cleaner, they say, ‘Hm’. I fight for respect. We need respect. They have to remember that without the cleaner their business can’t open.
If you fight for the cleaner, take the heart of the cleaner with you, love the people you work for then they know and trust you. I’ma cleaner. When I speak to a cleaner
I will touch their heart because they know I’ve been there. Always remember where you’ve been because that’s the light that keeps you going.
Who is listening to this fight?
The cleaners are listening, because they work long hours just to get enough for living. They don’t have enough time for their families.
The labour workers are listening because they get the minimum wage. Half of New Zealand is listening because they are on low wages. But our story will be the story of the living wage.
Another story will be of how grateful we are, because the living wage will be the best for the whole of New Zealand. We came from the Islands Looking for a better home.
But it’s not magic, the better way of life. You have to fight for it.
You set up a goal. You’re in the darkness but you see a bit of light coming up. You follow it and you get to the end. Many Pacific people are cleaners. We do it because New Zealanders don’t want to.
But us, we never say no, we have to. If you don’t work, there’s no food on the table.
Our people have the lowest education.
If you come from a background of low income, you have that strong will to change it. I learnt to speak on behalf of the cleaners
– What do we want? The living wage. – When do we want it? Now. That’s the message we have to deliver.
We have a heart of fighting, and we never give up.