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Meet Dylan & Quentin Hope - Tokomaru Bay, Auckland.

Dylan & Quentin Hope

Meet Dylan & Quentin Hope - Tokomaru Bay, Auckland.


What do you like doing?

Dylan: Kapa haka, anything cultural, skating, music, design, anything that connects us to another.

 

What do you enjoy about skating?

Dylan: It’s liberating, it’s free, you’re not operating on a schedule. You just roam with your friends.

 

and Kapa haka?

Quentin: It’s Maori and it’s an ancient. It connects us to our ancestors, because that’s what they did back in the day. Plus it’s fun. It’s fun going all out. I don’t think it gets much recognition beyond the immediate function of being a performing art. It’s actually quite spiritual as well and with pretty much any political issue that exists or has existed - there’s been a haka written about it. It’s a great stage and a cultural way to voice those issues.

 

Culture is obviously important to you, can you tell us about that?

Dylan: It is. It’s our identity. It’s what differentiates person from person. Without culture, there would be no diversity within society.

Quentin: Culture brings union. If each individual was left to their own devices and to roam in their own way, we wouldn’t have that community. Culture is a meeting ground. It’s relatability. We all grow together.

 

How do you stay motivated?

Quentin: It’s all about love, because motivation is a feeling. If you’re not aligned with that feeling, you’re not going to feel motivated. We don’t ‘think’ motivation, we ‘feel’ it. So get in contact with the things you feel passionate about, and what’s real to you. You won’t prosper if it’s not ‘real’. Love is real.

 

How do you figure out what your passionate about?

Quentin: One way is trial and error. You’ll always hear people say “use you gifts, use your gifts,” but it’s not like we’re all just born with gifts, you have to put time into them.

 

What does your heritage mean to you?

Dylan: Heritage refers a lot to ancestry. We are the culmination of yesterday. We are everything proceeding this current moment. The legacy that our ancestors left is something we need to bring forth. They worked so hard to get us to where we are now and if we don’t let them echo through us, then they’re not living.

 

What does home mean to you?

Dylan: Well we’re from Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast of New Zealand from the Makea family line and we’re also from Rarotonga. That’s where our roots are, but we’ve grown up in Auckland.

Quentin: People are a product of their environment and ancestors. There's a real connection for us too. If we make a step with our left foot, the step that we made with our right foot comes from the step we made with our left foot. Our home is our left foot.

 

What comes to mind when you think of a kiwi summer?

Dylan and Quentin: Ice blocks, dairies, local mountains, jandals, pohutukawa, sandy picnic mats, family.

 

What’s great about living in this generation?

Quentin: We’re exposed to a lot more and we may as well use it, for our victory. If you see something, be open to it, let it take you higher.

Dylan: But be humble. If you’re too proud, you can't learn nothing.

 

What are your goals… what do you want to do?

Quentin: Make art and make people smile.

Dylan: I think it would be cool if we reached a state where we’re just ‘blissfully aware.’ People say that ‘ignorance is bliss,’ but let’s scrap that. We’re aware, but we’re also blissful. In the past we were motivated to do things, but we had no focus. Now we have a focus.

2 Comments

  1. Awesome write up and good to see plenty of content. I am a very proud oldest sister :)
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  2. Good role models for our young folk not only in Toko but for the whole coast. Plenty kids skate be good to meet these 2 about their passion and skill. Mauriora. Nau mai hoki mai ki tou turangawaewae korua.
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