Having a Hāngi with the Mongrel Mob

Last weekend, I was invited to Hastings with the South Island Fatherland chapter of the Mongrel Mob to take pictures of their 1st anniversary event. The trip would be my first time in North Island, and so I was very interested to see what it was like in comparison to the South. We drove up from Invercargill, which is pretty much at the bottom of the country; the journey took around 20 hours.

The day after we arrived, a load of new members were patched up. Every time a member was called up to collect their patch, they would drink from a motorcycle boot filled with beer and would then bark out to their brothers like a dog.

A member lets out an uncannily dog-like bark

A patching day is a very special occasion for the mob and their Whanau, and on this day the Hastings chapter cooked up a Hangi for everyone. A Hangi is a traditional Maori way of cooking food, where a cage of meat and veg is placed atop heated rocks and then cooked in the earth underground while covered with wet cloths and soil.

Unfortunately I didn’t get to stay to try the Hangi for myself, as when I was shooting outside the pad, a member got out his taser and started zapping it next to my leg. After some consideration, I thought it might be time to leave.

Other than that last time, the Mongrel Mob did really make me feel very welcome. I went into a number of members’ personal homes and was always made to feel at ease, despite being surrounded by ‘vicious dogs’ as one member put it.

Thank you to the mob for a great experience.