Holding the Aces: Adverse Childhood Events in New Zealand

by Glenn Colquhoun

"I live on a beach. It's wide and stretches. All sorts of things wash up there. Me especially. On a good day I can see Ruapehu, Taranaki, the Tararuas and Kapiti. The dead wander by, noisy and full of chat. They stop me being scared. The living are another kettle of fish. Next door is a small town. The mayor runs a bookshop. Old guys wear socks and sandals. Kids say, 'Not even' 'Sweet', 'Hard', 'Matua', 'peeps' and 'Too much'. There's a youth health clinic there too. That's where I work. I am a doctor. Young people tell me their stories. Around the corner there's a movie theatre and a couple of cafes. Two supermarkets. An adventure park. A commerce of dairies. And somewhere in all of that something awful is going on. "

78 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2023

About the author

Glenn Colquhoun is a poet and doctor. He was born in 1964 and grew up in South Auckland. He went to school at the South Auckland Seventh-day-adventist primary school and later the Auckland Adventist High School in Mangere. He went on to study theology for two years at Avondale College, the church’s tertiary institution in Australia and completed a BA in English and Education at Auckland University in 1987. He later attended Auckland Medical School, graduating in 1996.

In 1994 he took a year off his medical training and spent that time in Te Tii, a small Māori community in Northland. This began a lifelong relationship with the community and its people. His first collection of poetry, The art of walking upright, was written about this community. He returned there later to work as a doctor in the Bay of Islands.

In 2010 Colquhoun won a Fulbright Scholarship to Harvard University to study medical humanities and in 2011 he helped to establish the Horowhenua Youth Health Service, where he continues to work in adolescent medicine. In 2012 he was part of the Transit of Venus poetry exchange at the Frankfurt Book Fair and in 2014 represented New Zealand on the Commonwealth Poets United poetry project which celebrated the Glasgow Commonwealth Games that year. Late love - sometimes doctors need saving as much as their patients was published by BWB in 2016.

Currently he lives at Waikawa Beach with his daughter, Olive. He continues to work with young people at the Horowhenua Youth Health Service.

Abridged from Dr Colquhoun's website