In a powerful address, Lyttelton poet Ben Brown explores the impact of deprivation and cultural estrangement on generations of our boys, as well as the redemptive power of words.

Hear Ben Brown delivering the 2020 Read NZ Te Pou Muramura Pānui

Highlights from the lecture

You're a male, which is not the simple definition it used to be, but let's allow that's what you are. You're a thief, a drug dealer, a bank robber, a murderer. You're a gangsta, staunch as, notorious. You're a lone wolf on the prowl looking for the lambs. You're a screwed up teenage suicidal maniac.

You are the lost cause. You are the found. You're the kid that broke the mould and paved the way. There's a monument out there somewhere got your name on it. Maybe it's true you don't know why you did it. Maybe it's true you don't give a damn why you did, beyond the fact that you got caught in the process.

Statistically, of course, tēnā koe e tama, you're more than likely Māori. You're more than likely poor. Ironically, you've probably been the victim of violent crime in your short life. There's a good chance you've been abused, assaulted, neglected or abandoned.

Gangs and family dysfunction will be common themes for you. So I wouldn't mind at all if you called me Matua, or Uncle even, like 'Uncle, put away the thumb,' if I casually flicked you the shaka sign, forgetting it's the Mob salute and realising by your raised fist that you fight for the other side.

You know already the dark side of addiction, the sinister allure and the spiral to destruction. Anger, fear, help­lessness, and anxiety are emotions familiar to you. They are deep. They are visceral. They speak to the animal in you. Suspicion comes easier than trust. Paranoia follows. You require medication just to keep your head straight and go to sleep at night. You hate the world.

The State picked you up from kindergarten when you were four years old and took you to a stranger's house to live. You have a sister somewhere. You wonder what she looks like now. You are hardcore, resolute in your defiance, determined to walk an unrepentant path, for it is there you earn your scars. You think you're dead already and that's a crying shame because it makes you doubly dangerous. You are bigger than your Father.

You are sweet sixteen and adamant that vengeance will be done. You are young, you want your Mother. You are hard, you want a war. You are seventeen and a father who has yet to see his son. You are fifteen and you'd kill your Mother's boyfriend in a heartbeat. You like to train, it keeps you ready…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details