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After being voted into a leadership role at her Catholic parish, a 78-year old nana decided she had to get her driver’s licence.
She faced a few challenges, though. English is her second language.
Sepiuta Skudder had never had a licence or even driven a car.
Her husband or one of the children always drove her around Auckland. She didn’t know much about the Road Code.
She hadn’t had much formal education either.
Skudder grew up in Tonga and left school when she was eight to help support the family by cooking and cleaning while her siblings and parents worked on a plantation.
Studying and learning the Road Code in English and the tough questions in Tongan was not an easy task.
But last week, the day before her 78th birthday, Skudder passed her Learner’s test with a 100 per cent score.
She is now just one test away from a restricted driver’s licence and the freedom to drive when and where she wants.
“I was happy with myself when I pass the test,” she says.
“I still have to have my daughter in the car as a learner driver but I will go for my restricted licence in May and then I will be able to drive to my church meetings and to visit my husband at the cemetery when I want and not have to bother the children or grandchildren.”
Skudder, her husband and three children migrated to Aotearoa from Tonga in 1970.
For the next 50-plus years they set up the family home in Mangere, raising five children.
Her husband died in 2021.
Mourning him, his funeral and his unveiling occupied her for the first two years.
Skudder realised she needed to become more independent when she was voted into a leadership position in the Tongan Catholic Church in Mangere.
“Because Mum was voted leader of the Legion of Mary group, they travel to different homes for prayer nights each week,” her daughter Ella Skudder says.
Sepiuta Skudder enrolled in the Manukau Urban Māori Authority (MUMA) Drivers Licensing Programme.
The Ministry of Social Development course has helped hundreds of Māori, Pasifika and Pakeha get licences.
The course offers a multilingual approach, enabling Skudder to study in English and Tongan.
Ella accompanied her mother to the classes, and the pair would go through each session reviewing the questions Skudder got wrong.
She scored 15 out of 50 on her first test, then 24 out of 50 on the second.
“I come home and study my mistake (sic) and I tried and tried and see where I went wrong,” she says.
“The next day we went and we test again and the last day, I got them all right and got my learner’s licence.
“I’m so happy.”
As MUMA CEO Tania Rangiheuea says, “is not just a driver’s licence but a passport to life,”
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