Tributes flow for Taitā Mongrel Mob identity Fats Moke

Saturday, 26 October 2024

Anaru Moke, known as Fats, is remembered as a larger than life character who ran an annual Christmas event in one of New Zealand’s poorest suburbs. Moke died earlier this week.

For many years, he was the face of the Taitā/Pomare Mongrel Mob regularly appearing in the media and at public events.

He last featured in the then Dominion Post in an article about his health and battle with type-2 diabetes in 2017.

Only recently diagnosed with diabetes, he said he was determined to turn his life around.

He had lost his own father to diabetes when he was young, and didn't want that to happen to his own family, he said.

“I just want to live. I want to see (my children's) 21sts, watch my mokos grow up, play rugby league … take them on trips to the beach, take them diving. I just want to be there for them. Simple as that,“ Moke said.

“I wanna be that example because I've got a lot of unhealthy whānau and friends.”

In the late 2000s he was involved in a high profile dispute with Housing New Zealand over the eviction of female tenants, who were alleged to have gang connections.

HNZ wanted to demolish housing in an area of Pomare that had a strong Mongrel Mob presence and said the men that the women were linked to had committed crimes.

One of the women evicted was his sister Patria Tamaka (who had no gang connections).

Asked why people like her brother join a gang she responded: “Mostly people turn to gangs because they are looking for a family. They have grown up in dysfunctional families and they just want to be part of something.”

When it was put to Moke at the time that the women were paying the price for associating with “losers” like him he responded: “That is pretty much the picture we have painted for ourselves.”

To him, the Mongrel Mob was his family and he said its members treated him with respect. Calling them losers was 'just a point of view' and a meaningless label, he said.

Former Pomare School principal Chris Worsley described Moke as a “genuine bloke” who worked hard for his community and who always looked for opportunities to create a better life for whānau and young people.

Involved in all aspects of the school, he helped with holiday programmes, encouraged kids to do art and learn to play an instrument, as well as running Christmas in the Hood.

One of his favourite memories of Moke involved his five-year-old daughter. On the first day she caught the school bus home, Worsley got tied up with a parent and was not able to meet her.

Realising his mistake, Worsley hurriedly took off and quickly ran into Moke.

“Coming around the corner was Fats with my baby on his shoulder and he said he was ‘bringing her home to me’.”

Sky commentator and regional councillor Ken Laban got to know Moke well during a period working for the Waiwhetū-based runanga.

Running programmes that targeted children living in poverty, he said it was inevitable that he got to know Moke.

“Fats was at the heart of a lot of the successful work we did in the community.”

His motivation was always to look for ways to give children in the Taitā/Pomare area a better life.

Although Fats was involved in the Mongrel Mob, Laban said he was never aggressive or confrontational. He could only judge him by the work he did trying to give young people a good start in life.

Laban visited him in the hospice this week. “I just thanked him for everything he did and for the positive influence he had on the children in the programmes we ran.”

Moke was a stalwart of rugby league in the Hutt Valley and heavily involved in supporting junior teams.

In a 2023, interview on social media platform WhanauFluence Moke said he was born in Te Kuiti in 1973 and had 18 siblings.

His Mongrel Mob influence began in Upper Hutt before joining the Mongrel Mob Notorious Hawke’s Bay.

He said he had fathered 31 children and was happily living alone.

Describing himself as “approachable as” he urged people not to judge people like him by what they read in the media.

Whānau and community, he said, was at the heart of everything he did and that was how he wanted to be remembered.

“If you look after the community, the community will look after you.”

Asked what he would say if he met Christopher Luxon, Moke said he would invite him in for a cup of tea and tell him “we are just trying to survive bro”.