Last year, as representatives of Lads without Labels, George and I were invited to kōrero at No Small Talk by Neighbourhood.

We spoke alongside two amazing people, Cameron Haylock and Raghiiboii Baxtor. It was an intimate event over some kai, and as soon as you walked into the venue, you felt included and listened to. We all came together to support Men’s Mental Health, start those hard conversations, and gather knowledge, understanding and wisdom from others.

It was one of those body-shivering, heart-full and warm-fuzzy events.

I truly enjoyed listening to Cameron and Raghii’s whys and how they take action for men’s mental health. Whether that is by connecting with the youth through surfing and providing them with an opportunity to grow and understand more about themselves or about finding themselves and educating others about their transgender journey. There was a lot to take home from this event. From simply being reminded to be kind and respectful to everyone because you don’t know what the person is going through and there is no ‘one size fits all’ method in taking care of yourself. What one method may work for someone might not work for you and that’s totally normal. The deeper you understand yourself like understanding what scenarios make you feel angry or what kind of exercise you like and etc, help you in finding tools that can help your wellbeing.

Another big thing for me I learnt through this event was being an advocate for mental health or really anything can look like many different things. You don’t have to feel the guilt and pressure to do something grand for a cause. You can purely share knowledge with your mates and become more open about having these types of conversations. I believe that still makes a big impact. Overall, it was an amazing night where we all got to meet new people and connect with each other and learn a thing or two.

Thank you to Neighbourhood for putting on a lovely, safe and comfortable event :))

You can check out more of what they do here https://www.neighbourhoodnz.com/

By Aki Shimahara