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Young people can move mountains, provided they are given the chance according to Mirika Flegg. The 28-year-old is already well known for her role at Hibiscus Coast Youth Centre, despite having worked there for less than a year. Her belief in putting the power into young people’s hands and letting them create opportunities for other young people (which she calls ‘youth for youth’) has had big spin offs at the Centre, leading to the involvement of young people at every level of the organisation. Mirika is also a musician, and aims to create more options for other young musicians in the area. She spoke to Terry Moore about the power of youth, and music.
My mother is a musician who used to play with Gordon Lightfoot, back in the day in Canada, and she got me started in music. I started writing my own songs when I was eight and went on to perform them at musical festivals in Canada and Eastern Ontario, and at schools. When I was at college I started ‘open mike’ nights and an interschool battle of the bands which has continued since. It was a great way to get schools participating with each other. I was born in North Bay, but grew up in Brockville in Eastern Ontario near Ottawa. It is a small town, which is why I think I got into a lot of community work and helping youth make things happen. There weren’t a lot of opportunities for bands apart from playing in licensed venues, which often don’t lend themselves to young people. This is one thing I want to see change here as well. Having places to play and hear music that are drug and alcohol free is so important. As a young performer, you don’t often get to play in front of audiences of all ages, which is why I did a lot of festivals. That’s also why as young people in Canada, we organised a lot of shows for ourselves, so we weren’t just performing for adults all the time.
I moved to Montreal for university, studying psychology with a Neuroscience major at Concordia University in French Canada. I chose psychology because it goes to people’s motivations and is a branch of science that is more community driven.
During my studies, I started playing music more professionally, which helped me pay my way through university. I had regular gigs and was Quebec County Songwriter of the Year in 2002. I took a year off and lived in the Czech Republic, working as an actress doing commercials for companies such as Pizza Hut. I was there because my partner at the time was a filmmaker who was working on the Wesley Snipes movie Blade 2. The money I earned there paid for a large part of my schooling. It helped that I was English speaking, although I learned enough Czech to get by. I’d had to learn French when I lived in Montreal, so was used to picking up languages.
After I graduated I moved to Vancouver, where my sister lives. While living there I released my first independent album. Rather than signing with a record label, going independent gives me freedom and control over my own work. I consider myself a lot more of a songwriter than a performer, although I love live performance too.
I got into ‘youth for youth’ programming at that time too, and my plan is to pioneer this as a research topic in New Zealand. It is something that young people are involved in all over the world, but it has never been studied. My interest in this ties together my experiences of youth organising their own music venues, and I also worked in Vancouver as a foster care advocate for an organisation formed by people who had been in care and wanted to support others. I want to do my Masters studying the importance of this in the community. Currently I am doing post-graduate study in Human Resources Management at the Open Polytechnic. Youth are in a unique position as there is no other time when you are so focused on your peers and the transition to employment and adulthood. My study in Human Resources is very relevant to that, and I consider myself fortunate to be able to do this type of study. Education has always been really important to me. I play bass, guitar and drums and next year I’m going to learn keyboards. I try to learn something new every year. This year it is cooking and I’m up to breads now. I always teach myself – all my instrumental skills are self-taught, and I’ve also learned a few languages. By picking a different thing every year it keeps your mind fresh and gives you versatility in life. I have never wanted to get stuck doing one thing.
‘Youth for Youth’ is a big focus for The Youth Centre. We employ young people, and we also have youth on our board and as volunteers. We have just started a youth events committee, with all the members aged 14 to 20, and their first project was to organise the recent Scare Night over Halloween. Susanne and I always make sure they are “set up for success”, and train and support them well. It shows the community that youth are capable, wonderful leaders. If you give a young person an opportunity to show what they have got, they shine.
I came to NZ when I was 24, in 2006. It was supposed to be a holiday and I came here because I’d met so many fantastic Kiwis on my travels. Practically from the moment I stepped off the plane, I wanted to stay. It immediately felt like home – a feeling I don’t even have about Canada. I now have full resident status, and once that came through, it gave me the flexibility to go back to my passion of working with youth. I also play in a band called Click Click Bang – we have been playing together for a few years now and do regular gigs in Auckland. We play my songs – I’m no good at covers. I also write songs for Platinum Music Creations in Arkles Bay, mainly country style. My music ranges across a lot of different styles, including playing with a 90s Hip Hop infused two-piece on the Coast. As a songwriter it’s all about knowing how to tell a story and bring excitement to that story – it doesn’t matter which genre it belongs to. It’s like a costume party – you can take on another character or role for a short time and write from that perspective. That’s why I enjoyed acting in the commercials – it teaches you about music videos, as the two are very similar. Last September I developed RSI and have only recently been able to play music again. The problem started with a dancing accident at a house warming party that pulled my ligaments and when I returned to work, using a computer aggravated the injury.
My partner Brad McLeigh and I bought our first house in July in Red Beach. We have been together since 2006. He’s the director of local company Blueprint Design & Draughting and is the reason we moved to the Coast. He is from Dairy Flat, and at first, because he grew up here, he was a bit dismissive about the area – but as soon as I came here I loved it. We looked all over NZ for somewhere to live, and always ended up coming back to the Coast. I started working at the Youth Centre in Orewa as a volunteer in December last year, initially as a means of making friends and getting to know the community. I called Statistics NZ and discovered there are only 4000 people in my age group living in this area, which didn’t seem many. I figured a lot of them would visit the Youth Centre. I’ve also met some wonderful mentors and friends here, such as Michael Irwin from Massey University in Albany and Youth Centre executive director Suzanne Booth. Working with Suzanne was a huge motivation for me to take this job, because I can learn so much from her.
My aim is to set up a music programme here because there aren’t a lot of musical opportunities on the Coast, whether you are of age, or underage. This has been a dream of mine – to have a place where people can come and practice, learn new music and experiment. There’s quite a lot locally for people who are interested in sport, but not so much for music and the arts/comedy – it’s all licensed venues. We had initial funding from the Perry Foundation, which has been amalgamated with Lions, to purchase instruments including a drum kit, and WINZ paid for a staff member specifically to help build a music and arts programme. We have organised raves, music lessons and workshops. We also have funding from Creative Communities and started live jams last month, where people can come in and practice and bring their friends, and get advice in an informal way. We need more instruments to be donated, especially guitars, bass and microphones. In a few years I would like to see a fully established music programme at the Youth Centre and have it embraced by the community.
