An Island Bay activist – Ken Findlay

Ken Findlay, you would think, knows everyone in Island Bay. He does not, of course, but if you stand chatting with him on the street it seems every second passer-by knows him and has some news to offer and wants to hear what Ken has been up to. He has often been seen with a placard in his hand supporting different causes in the Southern Bays, throughout Wellington and further afield. And politicians and other activists on the left have known Ken as a force to be reckoned with for well over half a century. 

Ken was born in Queenstown in 1938 to Benjamin Randolph Findlay also known as Pani Kaimanu and Mary Catherine Howard Findlay, nee Ensor. His parents had married in 1936. Their oldest child Vincent died in 1937 at five months. Ken followed the next year, Robin in 1940, Mary in 1942 and Joy in 1950. 

On his father’s side Ken descends from the Ngāti Pahuwera hapū of Ngāti Kahungunu based near Napier, and also from Te Rarawa, based at Herekino, near Kaitaia. His father was also of Scots descent while his mother, who was born in Wellington, had ancestors from Norfolk in England.

Ken went to play centre as a child a part of the first intake of the war years, and went to Miramar North School, Rongotai College and Victoria and Canterbury universities. His first working experiences were labouring jobs during holidays, and working in pea harvesting and canning. But most of his life would be spent in the freezing works at Ngāuranga; Westfield (Auckland) and Whakatū (Hawkes Bay) or in the Freezing Workers Union. He retired from full-time work in 1999.

Ken is married to Marion Findlay, a life member of the Historical Association and a prolific writer who has contributed many articles to Southern Bays and whose research forms a valuable part of the Society’s collection. 

Southern Bays talked to Ken about his life and times:

Tell me about your early life and family – how would you describe your family? 

I had a happy childhood in Miramar in a white working class community: it was poor by prevailing New Zealand working class urban standards. The people were poorly educated, bigoted, racist, misogynist, anti-Catholic and Labour voting. But the community was also full of camaraderie – when money ran out before payday neighbours lent each other food -especially flour, milk and eggs. Such lending would always be repaid. Families would normally have three to six kids but up to 21 also (they were very poor). My family gained status because my father was a primary school teacher and not a manual worker. On the other hand he earned less than our neighbours – all tradesmen. 

How did you come to Island Bay – what are the high points of your, and Marion’s life here? 

Marion and I spent every weekend for two months looking for a section at a price we could afford  before buying a largish (1/2 hectare) section with difficult access but a superb view and a piece of hillside no one wanted. [The section, 36 Freeling St, is on the west side of the valley just south of Medway St and is the highest property (at present) on that side-Ed]. We lived at 123a Clyde St from 1961 until 1965 when our house was built and we could move in. In 2001 the section was subdivided and a house for our daughter Rachael built. 

High points of our life in Island Bay of course include the birth of our children: Rachael (1962) and Marama (1964). The people of Island Bay in those days were not very rich and not very poor. These days things have changed somewhat. When I leaflet for the Labour Party on bottle collection days I notice people in Brooklyn still drink beer but in Island Bay it’s wine!  

We enjoyed getting native trees to grow on our section despite the salt-laden southerlies, and attracting many species of native birds -  have so far counted 37 species

For much of your working life you were a trade unionist. How did that begin? What roles did you have? What big events/disputes etc were you involved in? 

I first saw unions in action working on construction sites during school and university holidays. The union delegate would call everyone off when it started to rain – something he tested with an agreed number of drops of rain on his shovel when he poked it out the door of the lunchroom. 

Later, I found the Freezing Workers Union to be truly democratic. I worked my way up by election from department level (60 workers) to shed level (600 women and men) and then to branch level (5,000 women and men). So I was a shop steward, a shed president,  and then branch secretary. I was also a member of the national executive, an award assessor [member of the negotiating team – Ed] and Trades Council delegate. I also had the opportunity to represent the Federation of Labour overseas. 

You are also well-known as an activist – often seen at demonstrations with a placard. What were some of the events you recall participating in?

I was active in the ‘No Māoris no Tour’ campaign of 1959-1960. We were rallying people around the idea that the racist South African government should not be allowed to dictate to New Zealand who would make up our rugby teams. I continued to oppose apartheid until its fall, including during the famous 1981 Springbok tour of New Zealand. 

What are some of the causes you have supported in Island Bay? 

In the 1960s we campaigned to get low circular concrete walls around the pōhutukawa trees on The Parade and planted them with flowers They are 

now cracked and overgrown. There were the environmental campaigns with people like Robert Logan over the Tawatawa and Paekawakawa Reserves, the preservation of Erskine College and Save the Point – Te Raekaihou. And of course, I supported the cycleway. 

What drives you to activism?

During quiet periods on parliament’s forecourt I reflected on that question. I concluded I was the only one who was truly free – of all the people to-ing and fro-ing everyone was beholden to someone else. They were frightened of someone else. Those in support would give a little concealed wave of the hand, a friendly smile, or a barely audible expression of support. Those opposed would shuffle quickly past – avoiding eye contact. I was free to express my views – they were not. 

On another level, when Marion is expressing the not-unreasonable view that I should be doing things around the house rather than standing outside parliament – I realise that I’m never happier than when I am down there with my placard – whether I win, or whether I lose, which I mostly I do. My mother taught me that if something is important to you, you should support it even if the whole world does not. 

I was and still am inspired by a secondary school history teacher who lived by my mother’s advice even at personal cost. I was an obnoxious teenager and that’s being generous to myself. I was always in trouble with parents and teachers. My childhood was happy but not my adolescence! A.H. (Bonk) Scotney was the teacher. 

I once asked him about a novel I had read and he responded in a very aggressive way, telling me how wrong I was.  What impressed me was that the next day, having no doubt consulted with other teachers such as Doug Edwards and Peter Morris, he came into class and delivered a full apology, saying he had been entirely wrong in what he had said.  No other adult had ever apologised to me. So I was very impressed. He was very charismatic and later the leader of the secondary teachers’ union the PPTA. I have never been a member of a political party and I think that came from the example of Bonk Scotney: he was of the left but never gave his total support to any party. Both of us of course have been said by others to have been members – of the Communist and other parties – but I certainly never was and I think the same is true of him. [A.H. (Bonk) Scotney was born in Island Bay and became the first editor of the student newspaper ‘Salient’. He was the author of one of the first works of news media criticism in New Zealand – ‘The Left Was Right: Studies in Anti-Soviet Propaganda’. -Ed]

What other activists/unionists/politicians do you recall working with (or against) in Island Bay?

Harry Midgely of the  1960s of the Progressive Association from the 1960s and organiser of Island Bay Festivals; Alan Brunton in the 1970s of Red Mole Theatre; Ron Smith of the Peace Council and Trades Council; Con Devitt of the Boilermakers Union in the 1990s; Ivan Reddish of the Post Office Union; Robert Logan on environmental issues; Perry Rush, Principal of Island Bay School led the Principals’ Federation and the campaign against imposed national standards; Peter Harris and Peter Conway of the Council of Trade Unions; Paul Tolich and Sue Ryall of the Labour Party; Colin Feslier of the PSA & Southern Bays historian; Angie Belich of the Senior Doctors Union; Joris de Bres of the PSA and a Race Relations Commissioner. 

You are keenly interested in society – how has Island Bay changed?

In 1960 just about everybody in my street worked with their hands. In 2020 nobody in my street works with their hands. In 1960 trams conveyed most people to work. Now buses and cars convey most people to work. The huge increase in cars is also the direct cause of many problems – health safety and the environment. In the 1960s very few people in Island Bay had ever heard of climate change now almost everybody has, although reactions remain mixed, especially along generational lines. 

Although politically Island Bay has remained solid Labour territory throughout this period, support for the Green movement has gone from nothing to a sizeable minority – often corresponding to age and education. From my working as an enumerator for three censuses I learnt that the classic Kiwi nuclear family is well and truly dead in Island Bay – there are all manner of ‘families’ in Island Bay so it is almost impossible to categorise them for census purposes. We are a kindly lot. With my walking stick complete strangers offer to help me cross The Parade safely. On the other hand, some surviving attitudes can only be described as ‘out of the ark’. Some examples: ‘All Asians should be nuked. There are too many of them”. “What possible use is history” The root of all the world’s problems are universities; people who go through them use long words we can’t understand, which they use to exploit us. Therefore if all universities in the world were closed, all the problems would disappear’. 

After all the activism, have you made a difference?

I don’t know. I have great faith in the next generation of leaders: Sophie Handsford, who organised the first student strike for the climate, and Kyra Holt and Micah Geiringer, who while still at school were leaders of environmental protests.  What I do know is that if you throw a stone into a pond you don’t know where the ripples will end. 

Would you do it all again?

Of course.