Bariz Shah, author of Beyond Hope, spoke to a crowd of about 20 people at the library, sharing his life story.
Growing up as a Muslim in a post-9/11 world, Mr Shah found himself spiralling until he eventually landed in Auckland Prison at the age of 18.
Mr Shah said his book was about the power of the human spirit.
"It’s about how negative energy can be transformed, and used as fuel for positive change," he said.
Mr Shah, who now sits firmly on the straight and narrow, raising a family and working as an engineer, said it was simple to help people change.
"For me, my number one thing is giving people hope they can redeem themselves and change.
"Currently the system we have, there is no hope. You go to prison once, you can never have your record clear," he said.
Mr Shah said he would like a change to the prison system, to incentivise criminals to change their ways and come back into lawful society.
"When we’re telling our citizens that, that no matter what they do they can never have their record clear, we’re snatching away hope from people.
"For me it was different. When I went to prison, before, someone told me if I got out and didn’t commit a crime for seven years, my record would be cleared," he said.
This ended up becoming a litmus for change for Mr Shah, and he righted his path.
During his time at university, he found out his record would never be wiped.
Mr Shah said if he had known earlier this would have impacted his rehabilitation.
"The people inside were telling me once a criminal, always a criminal.
"But I thought no, I’ll work my ass off and I’m going to have my record cleared.
"If I had that information going into or coming out of prison, I wouldn’t have had that same hope," he said.
Mr Shah said he would like a change to the system.
"It’s a very simple thing we can do as a starting point, if you don’t commit a crime in seven, ten years, you can have your record cleared.
"If we don’t give them hope, why do we expect them to behave?
"We’re saying we’ll never look at you differently, no matter what you do, what do you think will make them act differently?" he said.
Mr Shah said another aspect to his rehabilitation was his religion.
"It was my faith in Islam that grounded me," he said.
Mr Shah said Islamophobia was lurking in New Zealand, even after the terrorist attack in 2019.
"It’s a tough question to answer. With my wife’s experiences after March 15th, as she wears a hijab, she’s had multiple instance of people coming up to her, trying to threaten her."
Mr Shah said the silence over issues Islamic people faced in the country was deafening.
"Now with Israel and Gaza, where people are being absolutely slaughtered, the majority of New Zealand doesn’t want to talk about it. That gives you a good idea of the current situation," he said.
He is on a book tour at present, speaking in multiple towns around the country.
Mr Shah said he hoped to help broaden perspectives, especially around Islam, in small communities.
"I wanted to take my story to small towns and share my story.
Mr Shah said it was important to help educate people on Islam, from a personal perspective.
"You can feel, I guess, in the conversations that people haven’t had the exposure to Islam, what it is.
"They only know what they’ve seen on TV, what’s been sold to them is what they’ve taken on.
"So when someone comes and shares their stories, paints it in a new light, I think people are responsive to it," he said.
Mr Shah said the discussion at the library went well, and he greatly enjoyed it.
"I had a really good time in Gore. The people were really responsive, they asked really good questions.
"We had a really good, intimate session. I was really pleased I came," he said.
The tour had gone well so far, and Mr Shah said the responsiveness was fantastic.
"It’s been really positive so far with the experiences I’ve had.
"People are very appreciative of the rawness of the story.
"I don’t hold back, I talk about my experiences growing up and people appreciate it, for the different perspective it gives."
Mr Shah thanked the Gore District Library and all those who attended.
