The Star: June 30, 2022

The Star Thursday June 30 2022
20
NEWS
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
From YouTuber to ‘full-out’ journalist
• From page 19
As Nick pivoted to dangerous
destinations, he was aware of the
risk and that his family sometimes
worries, but he insists he
takes all reasonable precautions.
“Of course, I always have common
sense. I use a local fixer who
has grown up there and speaks
the language. I’ve had some
amazing people take care of me.
When I was in Venezuela, we
would be walking down a dangerous
slum and my guy Lenny
would always be looking behind
us. I’ve met some of the most
amazing people on my travels
this way.”
He insists there is not a single
country on Earth he wouldn’t be
willing to visit.
For any aspiring filmmakers
his advice is simple: “I would say
you have to just go. You just must
go out there and make all the
standard mistakes and take bad
video and gradually get better as
you go along and learn.”
Nick was in Hungary where
he lives with his girlfriend of five
years when the war in Ukraine
broke out.
“I’ve been to the country about
five or six times. I’ve always loved
Ukraine and its people. They are
always so welcoming and chilled
out, which is not always the case
in this part of the world.”
We had reconnected the
previous year after I’d watched
his videos about the crises in
Lebanon and Venezuela, which
I had reported from in the past.
My mum, who used to help
supervise our old school camps,
connected us after I sent her a
link to one of his videos.
He reached out when he was
planning to come to Ukraine.
When we met for beers at one
of the recently reopened bars in
Kyiv it was perfectly pleasant and
completely surreal. Nearly 20
years had gone by and here we
were in the middle of a war zone
trading old stories about people
we’d known in what felt like a
different lifetime on the other
side of the world.
Nick’s first two videos in
Ukraine are trips through
WAR ZONE: Fisher and Mutch in Ukraine. Below – Fisher interviewing Mykola, who was
born at the outbreak of World War 2.
PHOTOS: TOM MUTCH/NZ HERALD
the reopening of Kyiv and the
suburbs of Irpin and Bucha that
were the scene of serious war
crimes. It is full of evocative and
moving moments. He warns his
viewers as he steps into Bucha:
“I’ve been told to watch my step
for booby traps that the Russians
might have left.” Looking around
at the destruction he tells us:
“It is really quite hard for me to
convey how many bullet holes
there are here… every building I
can see here is destroyed.”
But his best skill has always
been allowing the residents of
places to tell their own stories
and putting himself in the story
as an observer rather than the
protagonist. An elderly woman
he interviews who lived under
the Russian occupation tells him
that “your heart and mine are
close”, asks if he is married and
promises he will have a “lovely
bride” one day.
But while the Russians had
been pushed out of Kyiv, we
decided to see the real war in a
place that was still under heavy
fire and tell the stories of the
civilians sheltering from Russian
artillery and the soldiers defending
their homelands.
On the train to Kharkiv we
scrolled through social media,
checking out old friends and
classmates now scattered around
the world. There was Ann Yoo
who had married my best friend
from high school and had just
given birth to their first child.
There was Alex Upjohn Beatson,
a machine learning engineer living
in the US, and Michael Vink,
a pro-cycling champion.
“It would be so cool to do a roll
call now to see what everyone is
up to,” Wade told us later.
And that was how we found
ourselves outside a deserted
farmhouse in eastern Ukraine
on the frontlines. The carcass
of a destroyed Russian tank lay
in front of it and on the field
behind us a Russian helicopter
had been shot down. We could
hear the crack and boom of the
artillery duel that was taking
place all around us. Russia
had captured these villages in
the first days of its offensive
when the city of Kharkiv was
expected to capitulate. Instead,
the Ukrainians repulsed the
invaders in a desperate battle at
the gates of the city. Since then,
the Russian army had planted its
artillery and pounded the hell
out of Kharkiv.
We met a man in his eighties
named Mykola who was born at
the outbreak of World War 2 and
grew up on his parents’ stories
of the fighting. “This was worse
than World War Two,” he tells
Nick, describing the awesome
power of modern weaponry that
thundered around him.
We didn’t have time to discuss
what our teacher would have
really thought before one of the
Ukrainian army soldiers accompanying
a young lieutenant
named Leila came over to us and
told us to stay alert.
“Stay here and if anything
happens take cover in the bar.
The Russians could locate our artillery
and fire back on us at any
moment.”
And in the middle of a short
clip of Nick talking to the camera
describing the scene, another
rocket barrage streamed over
our heads in the background. I
checked his camera: it had been
one of those rare moments of
lucky film-making magic. The
most liked comment on his new
video is, “You’ve developed from
a regular travel YouTuber to a
full-out modern-day journalist.
Your progress is massive.” His
latest video on Ukraine is the
fastest-watched video he’s had on
his channel.
Wade still remembers him as
the kid she made run so many
laps in phys ed that he threw up
on the classroom couch.
—NZ Herald
Teacher says Fisher was ‘a strong, determined young lad’
• By Chris Barclay
NICK FISHER’S interest in
Genghis Khan while studying
in Jude Wade’s class at Cobham
Intermediate meant his former
teacher wasn’t totally surprised
when an email arrived from the
Ukraine.
It in, Fisher asked if Wade,
now Jude Garrett, a hub teacher
at Oamaru Intermediate School,
had any photos he might be able
to use in the story written by
Tom Mutch (pages 19-20).
“When I got the email I
remembered Nicholas – he was
always Nicholas – absolutely,”
said Garrett, who taught Mutch
and Fisher in 2003 and 2004.
She oversaw a teaching philosophy
dubbed Inquiry for a
34-strong class which, where
possible, gave students “more say
in what they did and how they
did it”.
“We did a lot of stuff out in the
community. One of the inquiries
was around heritage, we looked
at old buildings and Shakespeare,”
Garrett said.
“We did a challenge and crisis
one, we went to the Civil Defence
headquarters, we went to the
City Mission and did volunteer
work.”
It was a learning environment
where Fisher thrived.
“It [Inquiry] created a pathway
of what they wanted to learn
next and I vividly remember
CAREER CHOICE: Jude
Garrett started teaching in
1997 and spent nine years
at Cobham Intermediate
before returning to her
home town, Oamaru.
Nicholas not being swayed to
join any other group,” Garrett
said.
“He set up his own inquiry
about Genghis Khan and what
he was like as a leader.
“The parallels are vaguely
there. Now he’s off doing these
amazing things, he’s making his
own path in the world.
“He was quite a strong, determined
young lad who knew his
mind and wanted to do what he
wanted to do.”
Garrett also recalled Mutch as
another student “that walked to
the beat of their own drum”.
“They were those kind of kids,
it doesn’t surprise me they’re off
doing these things.”
With a personal connection
to Ukraine, Garrett admits she
now views the media coverage
through a different lens, as two
former students willingly place
themselves in danger to document
the conflict.
“It’s pretty frightening. Whenever
it comes up on the news I’m
looking at the photos . . . they’re
doing something that’s incredibly
scary, the world needs people
like that,” said Garrett, who
taught at Cobham Intermediate
between 2002 and 2011.
“I often say to kids, they are
the leaders of the future, they’re
the ones making a difference in
the world and these boys are a
prime example.”