Tesimoni Fuavao was 20 years old when four palagi (Pākehā) police officers barged into the family’s Grey Lynn home at 4.30am, entered his parents’ room and handcuffed them, accusing them of overstaying their visa.
They were carted away, leaving him and his 6-year-old brother alone for 30 hours while his parents were in custody.
Fuavao has been battling anger and resentment ever since that era of dawn raids, and he only recently told his parents’ 19 grandchildren what had happened.
