Dame Cindy Kiro THE PAIN THAT DRIVES ME

SHE’LL ALWAYS WATCH OUT FOR SOCIETY’S MOST VULNERABLE

- Leena Tailor

Going hungry, experiencing racism or witnessing a young cousin get a broom broken over him may sound like hardships encountered by the troubled Kiwi kids who Dame Cindy Kiro has helped over the years. But as the former Children’s Commissioner begins a powerful new role serving New Zealand as Governor-General, she’s opening up about the trauma of such scenarios in her own childhood.

“It’s a big motivation,” she tells the Weekly. “I learned early on that I’d never tolerate violence in my household because I didn’t want that feeling of constantly being on-guard and never feeling safe. I don’t want other children to go through it.”

Cindy’s Māori mother was only 20 when she and Cindy’s British father welcomed her in 1958, so under a whāngai arrangement, Cindy spent her first three years with her grandparents, who had a “profound and lasting” impact.

Returning to her parents, Cindy became big sister to five siblings. At 11, she ran away back to her grandparents, where she was also the oldest. “In both my family groupings, I was the eldest, so was expected to care for others. When you’re 11 and have to change your siblings’ nappies or make their meals, that’s not fun.”

Although her father, who she credits for her interest in reading and world affairs, and grandparents were hard working manual labourers, the family struggled financially.

“You wouldn’t think so looking at me these days, but I know what it’s like to be hungry and how much pressure that puts adults under,” she says.