'Impossible' by Stan Walker
I read ‘Impossible’ by Stan Walker, loved it, yet struggled to compile my impressions.
Stan Walker was interviewed on Radio NZ . An impressive young man with more than one story to tell. Talented, scarred, honest, self-confident, well grounded in his whanau, his ahurea tuakiri. The book is gripping, it holds and keeps my attention from the first few sentences. I can see the little boy of the Prologue “I am eight years old, all skinny and wild, dressed in yesterday’s clothes. My body bruised, my feet bare.”
‘Impossible’ by Stan Walker is the story of this skinny little boy growing into a musician, an adult, it’s about his love and connection to music, to places and its people...
The first chapter opens with Stan’s win of Australian Idol in 2008. His experience, his thoughts, his pivotal moment. His look back at the young Stan who had changed in a few months, had lost his rat’s tail - previously his pride and joy, representing the world he came from, had no place in the world he now entered. His family is there - all 300 (!!) of them breaking into the Haka to share his joy, show their pride. Reading the book I stopped, watched that pivotal moment, saw the young Stan. It then moves back to the skinny little boy of the prologue, and details the trauma experienced. It also moves forward, 12 years from that pivotal moment - years in the music industry, cancer treatment, movies - a full rich life.
The book, written with support of bestselling NZ ghostwriter Margie Thomson, is a joy to read. The language sounds real, colloquial, the dialogue is a joy. It’s a book full of people; nana and koko, uncles and aunties, cousins. The physical and sexual abuse is central to the story and omnipresent - Stan Walker takes us through the layers of healing from trauma. In his big whanau are many death; the cancer is taking his koko, his cousin, and also affects Stan - he gets sick, gets his stomach taken out - and is still performing.
Stan's energy and determination emanate from the book - 5 albums, 5 movies, cancer treatment, travel - his family and his faith keep him grounded, stable and creating the life he wants. The title is apt - it seems impossible, this happy ending - his parents are still together, his father has addressed and overcome his violence, the poor abused boy has become a NZ star. All along he comes across in the book as humble, kind, and grateful.
In a time when discussions are ripe about the practice of ‘uplifting Maori children’ and removing them from their families this book is an important read. It’s an insight into the harrowing abuse within family. At the same time it portrays the love, support, mentorship and connection to the wider family. Removing a Maori child from the abusive nuclear family also instigates the loss of the wider whanau, the culture, the belonging. Stan in his book describes his confusion, his experience. The love. The violence. The support. The connection. His description of watching TV - he names the family of Mum, Dad, five children - "and whoever else was living with us at the time.“ And - "The red, the language, and the music are the two things that were like the air that I breathed in since forever.”
The story, well told in this book, is an insight into a world unknown, a peek what lies beneath the terms domestic violence, and what else is going on in the wider family that never makes the headlines. Great book; highly recommended.