The ups and downs of an amateur women's club football side in Wellington have been chronicled in a docoseries, The Journey North, with the theme 'If you can see it, you can be it'. Aiden McLaughlin reports.
When Kimberley Kan took a year off playing football for the North Wellington FC women’s premier team, she didn’t know her teammates would soon become the subject of her new creative project.
Kan had a rough end to 2021. Her grandmother passed away and she struggled with her mental health. Her team had been promoted to the Ultra Football Women’s Capital Premier division, but, after just four years playing the game, the thought of playing at that level was daunting for her.
Even after deciding not to play in 2022, she was still involved with the club – the professional videographer producing graphics for the top men's and women's teams at North Wellington.
Her coach, Paul Hallett, had previously watched a British series about non-league football called ‘Bunch of Amateurs’ and discussed the concept with Kan. But with her playing, there wasn’t an opportunity to take the idea forward – until now.
“Paul and I were talking about how this could be an opportunity for us to create a docuseries surrounding the women’s game at an amateur level, because there are quite a few already out there about the men’s game, but there are very few about women,” says Kan.
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The result of those discussions is the 14-part docuseries called ‘The Journey North’. It’s helped Kan remember why she played - the overall hauora (health and wellbeing) benefits, the social benefits, being around people who support you and are there for you, an escape, and a place to work on your own football journey.
“I wanted to create more visibility for women’s sport in the media and I really wanted to encourage people to get into football,” says Kan.
“With players from this level we wanted to make it relatable to your everyday person, so they could see themselves in those players. As the saying goes: If you can see it, you can be it.”
Kan became interested in football watching the US women’s national team on YouTube.
“I see what they do in America with the national team. They put out such incredible stuff,” she says. “That visibility, that promotion, it gets you all hyped – it got me hyped. I just hope that New Zealand Football and all the smaller federations get on board and realise that media and video is such an important way to get involved in the game.”
As Kan developed her vision for the series, she reached out to New Zealand Football, Capital Football and the Oceania Football Confederation for funding, with no joy. With costs to meet and a passion project to produce, she set up a Givealittle page with a target of $14,000. She took two weeks’ unpaid leave to complete the series.
Episodes of ‘The Journey North’ were released weekly on YouTube, and Capital Football have got on board, promoting the series.
The first takes us to the start of the women’s premier season. Following their promotion from division one in 2021, there’s a mix of returning and new players as their campaign gets underway. After an introduction to the new season from coach Hallett, it dives into the action of the first game.
From then on, each episode starts with an interview with one of the North Wellington players before featuring insights from another of their matches. It’s a chance to learn about the players within the group and understand their backgrounds and motivations for being a part of the team, while also tracking their overall season.
“Learning all these stories has been incredible,” says Kan. “I felt for everyone it was a little therapy session. People do have stories and genuinely want to share them. I think it was quite a nice reflective thing for everyone who took part.
“It really made me realise all the different reasons why people get into football. Yes, there’s the fitness side of things, but [it can be an] escape from everyday life, and you can gain a new social group.”
Episode three introduces Rowan Harvey, one of the team’s central midfielders. A wife to Jake and a mother to Imogen, Lexie and Georgia, Harvey also works as a product manager at New Zealand Trade and Enterprise.
Harvey started playing football when she was 13 and played all through high school and university. When she started to work, she switched to indoor football, but after having her children, football took a back seat. About three years ago, she realised she wasn’t done playing the game and joined North Wellington.
“In the rest of my life I’m always being something for someone, so I wanted something that was just purely for me,” says Harvey.
“That means I get my time to go training, [it] gets me out of the door to make sure I actually commit to having that me time, which is super important I think for mental health.”
For Harvey, it was really interesting to uncover some of the stories the squad didn’t know about each other. They also adjusted to being filmed and interviewed as time went on.
“Overall, there was excitement and enthusiasm for sure. It was a bit weird when Kim started [filming] but we all got used to it. I was really excited and I guess it lent a legitimacy to what we were doing,” Harvey says.
“Traditionally the women’s side just doesn’t get as much [coverage] as the men’s side. To have this as part of our team was awesome.”
An important result of Harvey’s involvement in the series was that her children got to understand more about what football meant to her.
“It was empowering. It gave visibility to everyone and everything. It was awesome for my kids to see that come out,” she says. “They could see that mum is part of something and all those other girls are part of something and that doing this is normal.”
The profile of women’s football in New Zealand is expected to grow hugely in 2023 with the FIFA Women's World Cup here and in Australia in July and August. Sports Minister Grant Robertson confirmed nearly $19 million has been put aside to upgrade sporting facilities earmarked for the tournament, not only in the regions that will host matches (Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Dunedin) but also the regions that will only host team camps (Napier, Christchurch, Tauranga and Palmerston North).
"These upgrades are critical to ensure the success of the tournament, but will also benefit local communities, football clubs and many different sporting codes that use these facilities, which is another great reason to invest in them," Robertson said.
For Kan, and all involved in the game in New Zealand, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the world’s largest women’s sporting event on home soil.
“With the women’s World Cup coming up next year, that is massive and I hope people get involved in the game, especially in the lead-up,” says Kan.
“I had the amazing opportunity to see the last World Cup in France [in 2019], and it’s such an incredible environment. All the teams coming in, all the supporters coming in.
“New Zealand has such an incredible opportunity next year and I just really hope people can get along and experience it when it happens.”
*All episodes of ‘The Journey North’ are available to watch now on YouTube.
