Monty Shares his Journey with Depression
I am Monty Collins,
I am the director of SDO Custom Designs
and we're based out here in Mangere, South Auckland.
We're basically a company t...
I am Monty Collins,
I am the director of SDO Custom Designs
and we're based out here in Mangere, South Auckland.
We're basically a company that does logos, murals
and uniforms and garments, basically anything.
I think for the first Covid, that was a stressful time
There was potential business happening
Everything was starting to flow
and then (snap)
all of a sudden, you’re getting notices, like emails
"sorry we can't do this", "sorry we can't do this",
"sorry we can't do this".
For us, well, for me personally
I just had to sit in my corner
and in my own little mind space and
somewhat, just look past it
and just realize, look, everyone is going through a hard time.
Me personally, I got depression so,
it didn’t help, you know like, my business,
my artwork, is my stress relief
and to hear that potential business was going
that stressed me out.
The things that went through me head were
my family,
food,
rent,
especially rent, you know.
At the same time, just working on what we can do
so we started doing preorders for hoodies and all that stuff
and it was really good
that helped put some, ease that, there’s still potential out there.
Our people we're, we are vocal
but we're not emotionally vocal or mentally vocal.
When I say mentally vocal,
I think the words depression, mental health,
mental illness is not in our vocab
You know how it is, it's basically like
Toughen up, you know, blah blah
but they don’t realize that it’s an actual condition
and some people, even though they toughen it out
sometimes they don't live to see the next day,
cause it just gets too much,
and I've lost a few friends from it
purely because either
one, they don’t want to put on their act that they need help,
two, they don’t know who to talk to,
three, they've just changed so much because
of the metal state that they've had
that they hide, you know and then
if you don't keep in contact with those ones
you will never see them again.
I think there should be a massive awareness about
peoples mental state
especially within the lockdown and the stresses of,
expensive housing and minimum wage and
just getting food on the table
is sometimes stressful for people.
It's the reason why I want to do my bit
within this campaign
and express it the way I know how to
and that's with art.
I've been given a wall out in Otara
and certain cultures, a Tiki is somewhat a symbol of strength
and what I've done there is I've done a laughing Tiki
saying cheers, with the kava cup
because the kava bowl is utilized as a
device for conversation amongst men
it's the way men communicate back in the day
You know, clap twice you get another cup
makes it easier to talk
the waves represent Covid and the hardships
that everyone's going through
and basically, what I am trying to portray is that
there's always light at the end of the tunnel
just gotta stand strong and communicate more with your families.

Mana Pasifika