Purple Plastic Maori

19/06/2026

How did your Maori mother administer discipline?

19/05/2026

51 next week.

05/05/2026

I thought I would fear my 50s. Nah. It’s my best decade yet.

16/02/2026

Podcast out now on YouTube: https://youtu.be/IcwcMbXqvvo?si=WTVdSQ4ZLYeIU3Fr
When my partner of 18 years drove down the road and left Darwin, I was devastated. For three days I howled like a dog. He had been my best friend for 20 years, and the physical separation from him broke me. I haven’t told this story too many people. I went to the worst depression in my life after that.

We were still friends. He was still supporting me through my recovery from methamphetamine addiction. He made the right choice for him, and ultimately the right choice for us. That truth didn’t soften the grief.

For years I had quietly placed the responsibility for my healing on him. I believed he would fix me. How unkind it is to hand someone else the job of becoming yourself? Learning who I am without him has been lonely, but necessary work.

In that loneliness I discovered I am held more than I realised. Friends, community, people who let me sit on their shoulders when I couldn’t stand. Becoming yourself is your responsibility, but you don’t have to do it alone.

06/01/2026

I didn’t know that I was a ‘poofter’, until that’s how I was addressed from about the age of 4. It would normally be delivered by someone who would walk up to me, call me that name and then extend their dominant hand and drop that hand at the wrist. In that moment I was powerless. But I would just keep walking towards the classroom and hope I had enough strength to get through the next time.

16/12/2025

Thank you to Emily who I just met at Vinnie’s in Stuart Park. I’ve gone from feeling very low to feeling worthy of love. Bless you darling! ❤️❤️❤️

06/09/2025

Thank you to all who came out to see the Darwin Festival show.

08/08/2025

HAKA is more than performance — it’s spirit, pride, and connection.
In just 15 days, I want you to feel that wairua with me at Darwin Festival.

I never felt comfortable performing this as a kid because I felt like a 'plastic Maori'. But now, in this show, I invite everyone to join me in reclaiming my MANA - and theirs.

I'm not great at it, but that's not the point.

🎟 One Darwin performance → https://www.darwinfestival.org.au/events/purple-plastic-maori/

07/08/2025

Thanks for being a top engager and making it on to my weekly engagement list! 🎉

Bec Cooney, Esteban Morandeau, Don Wookey

04/08/2025