Co-hosts of new podcast: Island Roots Auckland Ways Mariner Fagaiava and Allyssa Verner-Pula. Photo / NZME
Co-hosts of new podcast: Island Roots Auckland Ways Mariner Fagaiava and Allyssa Verner-Pula. Photo / NZME
Growing up as a young Pacific Islander in New Zealand and the kinds of issues affecting a new generation of Pasifika are about to get a fresh focus in a new podcast.
Island Roots Auckland Wayshas been launched by NZME’s Flava radio station and is officially live today; featuring two rising stars and co-hosts: Mariner Fagaiava and Allyssa Verner-Pula.
Born and raised in South Auckland, the 22-year-olds talk about topics and issues affecting Pacific peoples in New Zealand - and specifically, those they and their peers are facing, being young Pasifika growing up away from their motherlands.
The podcast features 12 episodes and across those, they interview a number of young Pacific personalities and people making moves in their respective careers.
“This is more a lifestyle podcast. We talk about stuff like dealing with finances - how poor are we? We talk about love and relationships and destigmatising sex for people who probably can’t have those conversations in the family for the sake of the va (sacred space) and those interpersonal relationships with their parents and such.
“We talk about not knowing your language [and] receiving cultural markings. All of these things that I feel that if you’re a Pacific person in a palagi space, you don’t really get to share that dialogue at all.”
Fagaiava, known as Maz, has been the Flava Drive host for the last few months and follows stints as a reporter for Radio New Zealand, TV1 and Pacific website Coconet TV.
Mariner Fagaiava pictured with proud grandpa Fepulea'i Fa'aso'otauloa Galo and grandmother Finau after graduating with a Bachelor of Communication Studies from AUT. Photo / Supplied
He grew up in Māngere and is a proud product of De La Salle College.
Seeing the continuous stream of negative stories associated with his school in the media resulted in a fierce intent to become a journalist one day - in order to change the narrative.
“I wasn’t doing all of these things in the news, but it was kind of implied that I’d follow the same path.
“So disgruntled at the way that we were being portrayed in the media - like most Māori and Pacific journalists in New Zealand - I undertook that journey to become a reporter. And I did.”
Walking in two worlds
Fellow host Verna-Pula, who is half Samoan, talks about her upbringing with her mum, who is palagi.
“I think I walked through the world, when I was younger, very much as a white girl. I knew I was Samoan, but I didn’t really understand the values.
L-R: Allyssa Verna-Pula pictured with friend Sophie Magasiva, in their St Mary's College days. Photo / Supplied
“I wasn’t super connected to my culture the way that I am now. So I think I’m able to speak of that experience of not really knowing who you are - but also the journey of growth.”
One of the episodes looks at generational differences and the people who make up the Pasifika diaspora; and how they are different to their first-generation Kiwi parents.
They also discuss what is deemed very normal for Pacific communities, but no-so for non-Pacific.
“I live with my mum and my grandparents and my sister - that’s another point we raise: Living at home,” Faigaiava says.
“That’s a very islander thing. When I look around at my peers at Flava and it seems that everyone is flatting or living in a different city than their families.
“My grandparents were pretty much my second set of parents. My grandfather dropped me off and picked me up every single day of school for primary and high school - that was 13 years of chats in the car.”
Passing the baton to the next generation of Pacific media
Newstalk ZB newsreader Niva Retimanu, who is Samoan, is excited about a new generation of Pasifika entering mainstream media.
Retimanu has worked in the industry for 37 years, after leaving school in what was then sixth form and taking up a job as a receptionist and cadet at Radio Network in Invercargill.
She was about 17 years old when someone recognised a low timber in her voice that would steer her towards news reading.
“When I started, I did the Pacific journalism course in Otara and I was one of very, very few. Even now on Newstalk ZB, I’m the only Pacific newsreader.”
She started that course in 1989 at the then Manukau Polytech. It was the only Pacific journalism course of its kind, but which produced a number of graduates who went on to become journalists in New Zealand and around the Pacific region; including 1 News Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver, Tagata Pasifika’s Lisa Taouma and Sandra Kailahi and the Herald’s Joseph Los’e and former columnist Tapu Misa.
A young Niva Retimanu (front left) with some of her fellow Pacific journalism students on placement at the Whakatāne Beacon newspaper in 1989. Photo / Supplied
Retimanu said the new podcast with two young Pasifika presenters was a huge step forward for mainstream media in New Zealand and a fantastic development.
“We play a big part in Aotearoa’s make-up and I’m a big believer, too, that we have to boost Pasefika in terms of where we are in mainstream. If you can see it, you can be it. I’m a true believer in that.
“What happens with Pasefika and young people, will also happen to other people. It’s a learning curve and educational for those who aren’t Pasefika. But it’s another way for Pasefika to actually have a voice and be heard.
“It’s being able to have that brutal honesty - and that is what is going to resonate.”
Retimanu acknowledged that this was the start of yet another generation of Pacific media working in mainstream, this time, in the digital world.
“Who is going to replace us? It’s the future. To have this podcast and having Samoan and Tongan co-hosts in a space of mainstream talking about the issues that affect them as young Pasefika is a fantastic thing.
“It’s a win for Pasefika, it’s a win for Aotearoa.”
