- He kawa nui, he kawa roa. He kawa tiketike, he kawa ora. Tenei te ora ka whakapiki. Tenei te ora ka whakakake. Kia tau te ora ki a tatou kato, haumi e, hui e, taiki e. This week, on The Hui ` he talks fast... - You can cut that bit out. - (LAUGHS) Go again. Three, two, one, go. ...but more to the point, he runs fast, and now he's off to the Olympics to be our fastest 1500m runner in the world. - One of my biggest life goals is to get an Olympic medal, and so that'd be pretty` pretty special. - And she's put her hat in the ring for the Tauranga mayoralty race. - We have an opportunity to completely flip the script on that. - We talk one on one with Ria Hall about her vision for the rohe. Plus, former New Zealand weightlifting champion Montel Tivoli is passing on his knowledge to the next generation of rangatahi Maori. - I understand the benefits of this sport, and now I wanna give it back to our kids, and especially to our kura kaupapa Maori kids. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2024 - Te hunga kua nunumi, kua wheriko, kua takahi atu ra i te ara namunamu ki taiao. Haere mai, haere. Tatou kei te pito ora. Tihewa Mauriora, and welcome back to The Hui. The 1500 metres is one of the glamour events at the Olympic Games, and this year's event could feature a Ngapuhi. Sam Tanner is one of the country's bright hopes on the track at the Olympics in Paris later this year, and we caught up with Sam at home in Tauranga to find out what makes this fast-running, fast-talking Tanner tick. - Giving up, there's not even an option. I know I can dig 10% deeper. (ANTICIPATORY MUSIC) There's no excuse for me. How far can I push my body? Cause I know I'm about to take myself through hell. It's so easy to just check out, and then you lose the final. (MUSIC STOPS) - Nickname? - Uh, Tanner... or Crazy Man. (BOTH LAUGH) (INSPIRING MUSIC) - Young Ngapuhi athlete Sam Tanner, Crazy Man, is on track to become our fastest 1500m runner... - Kia ora, team. Uh, Sam Tanner here, about to start the men's 1500m final. - ...rising to prominence at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in 2022. - We are in a golden era of high-performance sport in New Zealand. - I do want to mention in particular Sam Tanner. Sam had a massive personal best of three minutes 31 in the 1500m, the second-fastest 1500m run by a New Zealander ever, and at 21 years of age, represents a new generation of athletes who have emerged at this Games, giving us huge optimism for the future. - That future is here. - It's an absolute pleasure to be here for the athletics announcement of the athletes that will represent us at the Olympics in Paris. - Sam Tanner. (APPLAUSE) - First of all, congratulations. - Thank you. - How do you feel? - Oh, pretty excited. Yeah, it's a true dream. Probably one of my biggest life goals is to get an Olympic medal, and so that'd be pretty` pretty special. - When he was just 18, Sam actually beat his childhood hero, Aotearoa's only two-time 1500m Olympic medallist Nick Willis. - Suddenly, I heard these little footsteps coming behind me. And what do you know? Sam Tanner comes storming home the last 50. So I'm really excited to see Sam continue what will hopefully be the next great middle-distance runner from New Zealand. - How important has he been as an inspiration, as a motivation for you? - Nick Willis has had a pretty special, um, role and kind of my, I guess, eyesight towards the Olympics, and that's one of the reasons why I wanted to be a runner. Yeah, it's definitely pretty special that I start to follow in his footsteps. - In his footsteps takes me to Sam's backyard beach in Papamoa. - Yeah, it's good there, eh? - Only one of us was prepared. I feel like such a tosser walking with my blazer on. - Yeah, on the sand, eh. - (LAUGHS) - It's almost like you've never been to a beach. - (CHUCKLES) - Yeah, I went surfing on Sunday ` big swell. - Sam grew up surfing ` that ocean fitness a secret to his track success. Maybe the surf is why you're such a calm, relaxed dude. I mean, is that why you are so relaxed as an athlete? - The surfing was always my outlet, so I used surfing just to clear my mind. You know, whenever I was stressed, I use surfing as, like, a bit of a break. - Now, OK, we're gonna let you go. - Get out for a wave, eh? - Yeah, yeah. It's this gonna be OK? Like, I'm worried. - Don't be worried, man. Look how small it is. See, this is how` this is how an unathletic I am. That looks big to me. (LAUGHS) - Yeah. (UPBEAT MUSIC) - 'Besides the surf. Sam has another training superpower.' Something people may not know about you. - Um, I'm a Christian. - How important is that? - That's pretty special to me. It helps the mind to kind of stay focused and be like, 'Yep, this is... this is what I'm called to do. 'This is what I'm part of and what I'm passionate about, and I know I'm going in the right direction.' I know everybody's journey towards being relaxed before the race is different, but for me, part of it is faith, having` having a knowledge that, you know, I'm part of something greater, and then I can only control what I can control. - With the big day getting closer, what he can control is his daily gym workouts. - 1500 final ` August 6th. You know, every day counts from here on, and we've got to be fit by August 6th. The body's feeling better and better. I'm not fast yet. I'm fit. - OK. - So the next couple of months is just focusing on getting the top-end stuff ready. - Beside every winner, as they say, is a woman. What's it like for your wife, for Melissa? - She's an awesome wife. She supports me in incredible ways, and yeah, she's just pretty committed to making my life as stress-free and fluid as possible. You know, like, if I have a little niggle, I'm like, 'Babe, can you give me an Achilles rub, like, massage or something?' She's like, 'Yeah.' I'm like, 'Oh, legend! I don't have to go to physio tomorrow.' But, um, so she's amazing. - Melissa, Sam comes across as a cool dude who's relaxed and always happy. - (CHUCKLES) - You're already laughing. But what's he really like? - (LAUGHS) I would say that's actually pretty accurate. - Really? - Yeah, a good portion of the time ` as long as he's run. - Yeah. - Yeah. You don't want to see Sam in the afternoon if he hasn't run in the morning. - What's he like if he's not running? - (LAUGHS) - Hectic. - He's just got a lot of energy. He needs to burn it off. - What's it like, though, being with someone who, every four years, he's got this event and he's training for this event? I mean, it must be kind of interesting. - It's quite fun. We both really enjoy active living and being outside. Yeah, just getting out and doing stuff. But yeah, it's hard at the same time because you're probably gonna spend a significant amount of time apart. - Yeah. Put a bit more dirt around it. That should be good. - Yeah, it gets pretty lonely. - Good work. - How important is it going to be to know that she's going to be in the crowd at the Olympics? - I can't describe how important it'll be to have them there. I race a million times better when I know that my family or people I care about are in the... in the stands. - And all of New Zealand will be watching for something unique Sam will bring to that day. You did it at the Commonwealth Games, the pukana. Why do you do that? - Athletics is not just about me; it's about making New Zealand proud. And so it's cool to stand the start line, do a pukana and show, 'Look, I'm a proud Kiwi. Here I am,' and bring some mana on to the start line too, because I'm Maori, and that's something that I can bring in show culturally on the stat line. Ah! - He's going to make us proud on the world stage, but he's firmly grounded here. Tamati no te kainga, tau ana ki te ao. - (WHISTLES IN APPRECIATION) Yeah, we went to the beach the other day for sunset, a little walk. - Look how calm the water is. - It was just the most perfect night, and we were like, 'Yeah, even if we didn't have running or, you know, 'all the fame and success, it'd still be a great life.' - Yeah. - In fact, it might even be better. - Sam's the man. Go Ngapuhi. Taro kau iho ana e tamara ma. Ka noho rainei tetahi manu tioriori hei kahika mo te rohe o Tauranga? We sit down with Ria Hall to discuss her bid to be the Mayor for Tauranga. - Nau mai ano e tamara ma. She's a renowned singer-songwriter, a kaihaka, a master's student and now a mayoral candidate. And as we found out, Ria Hall is more than ready and able to lead the city she grew up in. Ria Hall, tena koe. - Tena koe. - Thank you for your time. I'm not gonna ask you why you're doing this; I'm going to ask you why you think you can win. - Because I'm relatable, and I think that that's... fundamentally what people want to connect with ` relatability, the ability to articulate oneself well, communicate well so that our communities across the board can see themselves in the person that they're voting for. My values stem from my whanau. And that too is an important component ` for me, anyway. No matter what I do, and no matter where I travel or where I go, that the integrity and the values that I bring from the perspective of my own whanau, hapu and iwi always travel well with me. Just because I'm inherently Maori, just because I present Maori wahine moko kauae doesn't mean that that isn't relatable to people of other ethnicities. - Mm. - In fact, I think that's something that will probably galvanise people, to look this way. - So here is the view people have of mayors ` old... - Mm. - ...male... - Mm. - ...white, conservative. - Yeah. - You're the complete antithesis of all of that, which leads people to suppose there's no way in Christendom you're going to win. - But isn't that an exciting prospect? - Yeah. - That I'm the antithesis of everything that the status quo has provided ` and has it worked? Has the status quo worked for Tauranga over the last few iterations of council? Has it ever worked, in fact, for Tauranga? My answer to that would be I don't think so. But now we have an opportunity to completely flip the script on that in someone like me. - You can action the things that this beautiful city, this beautiful place needs, right? So here's a couple of things straight off the bat ` - Mm. - infrastructure, housing is a major issue, employment is an issue, youth is a major issue for this place. - Mm. - How are you going to fix those issues? - Well, I think a lot of the... uh, problem that has stemmed from not fixing those issues is that council hasn't listened properly to their constituents. They haven't been on the ground in the community listening, actively listening to what people actually want. And I understand that you're not always going to please everyone. You have to find a happy medium So infrastructure, as you've outlined, abysmal here. Town planning, planning for this place didn't account for the fact that we are an expanding, ever-expanding city. - Massive population growth. - Huge population. - Particularly Maori. - Yeah, absolutely. And you can understand why ` this place is beautiful. People wanna move here. They wanna bring up their families here, and I'd like to think that we can` can continue to do that, that we can continue to attract people to Tauranga, because this place offers so much. It offers opportunity, it offers diversity, it offers inclusivity. It offers all those beautiful kind of buffers that make this place beautiful and a liveable city. So there's lots to work on. My job is to ensure that the people are heard and act on what the people want, because that's our role. - But one of the biggest criticisms people will raise against your case to be mayor will be lack of experience, 'doesn't have the experience...' - Yep. - '...hasn't worked on council.' - Mm-hm, mm-hm. - What's your response? - That's probably a good thing from my perspective, because I'm not tainted by the old iterations of thinking that council has had previously. I come in with something dynamic, something fresh, a new way of doing things, a new way of moving. I would like to encourage people to take this as an opportunity to have something that they've never had before in the way that we view leadership, uh, here in Tauranga and the way that we position people here in Tauranga to make a difference. I feel like the time is now, and the time is upon us, which is why I threw my name into this kaupapa in the first place, because I knew that if there was gonna be a time to bring about change in Tauranga, it was going to be at this election, and so, yeah, I put my hand up. - There's also, of course, the issue that you have to face if you are successful, is that you have to lead not just on behalf of this place, but also work with national government, a government that, I think, clearly you might have a view on (CHUCKLES)... - Mm. - ...in terms of its Maori policy. - Yeah. - That's going to be tricky, isn't it? - Yeah, I think it's probably going to be as tricky as you enable it to be for yourself. I think that at the core of what I have to do is to advocate ` advocate for Tauranga, advocate for our relationships with central government. So I feel like I'm already front-footing the ability to have central government communicate effectively with us and vice versa. Um, yeah, there will be struggles along the way, no doubt, but I think a lot of that is to track it as we go. - This government says it needs to move the dial, it needs to get things done and built. Could you work with a government that has the power of veto over projects and will look at fast-track legislation in a real and substantive way? - Well, I want to get the job done here in the Moana. There's a myriad of problems here, and I want to get the job done. That's at the top of mind. I want to ensure that our advocating, um, from Tauranga to central government is heard loud and clear, but I'm also unequivocally about the taiao, about our environment. We need to ensure that our housing is created with biodiversity in mind, um, because we want to keep Tauranga green, we want to keep it beautiful. We want to keep our impact on the taiao at a minimum. - How do you achieve that balance? Because there's a real need` The word 'intensification' comes. - Mm, tika. - How do you balance that? - Well, I think this is the beauty of being someone that's raised here in the Moana with a different perspective. And when I say different, I mean from a matauranga Maori perspective, how we keep them mana of the taiao intact, because that's the reason why people move here ` really. If they're not from here, the reason that people move here and want to create their lives here and bring up their families here and play here and, you know, live out the rest of their days here, is because we've got an incredibly beautiful environment that we want to look after. So that will always be at the forefront of the thinking, and matauranga Maori is fundamental to our taiao. - How do you get turnout? Not just Maori turnout, because quite obviously, I think, you'd want a mandate not just from the wider community... - Mm. - ...but particularly from a Maori community for you as mayor. Uh, how do you get Maori turnout? We know we don't turn out to local government elections. How do you get young people to turn out? - We connect to them. We go to them. - How do you do that? - Well, we go to our kura. We go... We hit, um, the kura across Tauranga Moana, we go to the university. We're a university city. We've got Waikato University here. We speak to our university students. We make it engaging. We do things that make our rangatahi want to engage in the process, and I think that that hasn't been ` well, not in the history of Tauranga politics, anyway ` that hasn't been utilised to its fullest effect. And again, opportunity here to utilise what I have to its fullest effect in order to engage our young people, because our young people aren't being taught civics in schools. We need to` Well, I'm in a position where I can encourage civic education, um, and I will, and I know the other kaitono Maori will as well. - You're doing your masters. - Mm. (CHUCKLES) - You're still working on a couple of contracts. - Yep. - You're still a much sought-after entertainer-singer... - Mm. - ...whose talents as a songwriter are also much sought after. You're a mum of one, two, three. - (CHUCKLES) - So how does this work? - There's a lot of opportunity in that as well, because I can take my whanau for the ride, and I've always taken them on all my journeys, my entire` my entire whanau. Um, I'm really good at time management, because I have to be. I've been a business owner for most of my adult life. I've, um, worked incredibly hard all of my adult life. I'm self-made, so I am pragmatic, I'm practical. I'm realistic too. I know that there's a few things on my plate there, but I know that I can, uh... I can time-manage everything as I need to, and this mayoralty race requires my time, Tauranga Moana requires my time and attention, and so ka huri te kei o tenei waka ki taku iwi ki te hapori whanui o Tauranga Moana i tenei wa tonu. - You lost your father quite a young age. - Yep. - What do you think... they/he would make... of their girl... - Mm. - ...standing for mayor, potentially being the mayor of the city of the whanau Hall. What would they think? - I don't think he could actually fathom that has baby... - (CHUCKLES) ...that he raised as a single father would be contesting the mayoralty of Tauranga. I think my tuakana... are still coming to terms with this... - (LAUGHS) - ...but they know me well enough to know that if someone out of our whanau is gonna do it, it's definitely gonna be me. - (LAUGHS) - But I know Dad would be... Yeah, he'd be incredibly proud. Um, he'd be waving the Te Puna Pirirakau flag from here and there. (BOTH LAUGH) So, yeah, it's a cool time. He'd be stoked. - Tauranga Moana Tauranga tangata. Ka pai. E haere ake ana e te iwi, he mahi whakangungu tinana, whakangungu rangatahi ano hoki. Montel Tivoli training rangatahi Maori in te reo Maori. - Kia ora mai ano. For many who have not grown up in te ao Maori, the journey to reconnect to their identity can be a challenging one. Montel Tivoli isn't afraid of a challenge. He's been one of the best weightlifters in the world, but it took years of struggle before his work in the gym helped him to fully embrace te ao Maori. Mea nei te purongo a D'Angelo Martin. (DYNAMIC MUSIC) - D'ANGELO MARTIN: Weightlifting, CrossFit, in the gym, under the bar. - When I'm lifting, it's sort of a state of being free. It's been a lifesaver since I picked up the bar. (MUSIC STOPS) - Kia ora. Ko Montel Tivoli toku ingoa. He uri tenei no Ngati Porou, Ngati Whatua ki Kaipara no Hamoa ano hoki. - Every morning I do this, look out into the beautiful Roto. I was born here in New Zealand. At the age of 1, me and my whanau moved over to Australia. I spent most of my primary school years there. Hoki mai matou ki Aotearoa when I was 11, sort of feeling a bit disconnected to who I was. It was hard. I didn't even know I was Maori. I thought I was straight Samoan. All my friends were all Samoan Islanders. Come back to New Zealand, I was in all the Samoan units, so had a strong connection to my Samoan side with my old man being Samoan. - Montel's perception of what it meant to be Maori was all negative. - I never seen being Maori or something cool or something I aspired to be. A lot of the decisions I made were based off my emotions of not knowing who I was. - At just 11 years old, he picked up a barbell. - Weightlifting, to me, has been a lifesaver. Coming up as a young'un, I used to use weightlifting as an escape from life's traumas, a lot of built-up feelings and emotions... from all types of experiences that I went through as a kid, and letting myself unleash all of that trauma. - Within two years, he was representing Aotearoa at the Oceania Champs. - That very first come over in Oceania in New Caledonia, my bro ended up getting gold, and I got bronze. So not only was it, you know, our first international comp, but we both podiumed. And over the next sort of four, five years, I travelled the world doing weightlifting ` Oceania Games, Pacific Games, Commonwealth Games, and every competition, I medalled. My last international comp was actually the Commonwealth Champs, 17 years of age. I snatched 124, and I clean-and-jerked 165 kilos. Heaviest lift I have done as a 200 kilo jerk. (ALL CHEER RAUCOUSLY) Yeah! I take pride in that cos I know I'm the first Maori in New Zealand weightlifting history to ever do it. - But sporting success only concealed his struggle. - In high school, I was still very disconnected, sort of struggling to find out who I was ` an Australian, a Samoan or a Maori. I couldn't quite nail that on the head. Whoo! I took myself down to the marae, to the kapa haka, and that was the first time I experienced Maoritanga. - Montel took a leap of faith, putting competitive weightlifting on the back burner, and enrolled in a full-immersion te reo Maori course. - Ka mutu ana te kura ka haere au ki te whare wananga ki te Wananga Takiura, ki reira ako ai te reo me ona tikanga. Trying to change whakaaro pakeha to whakaaro Maori, it was a tough year but one of the best years I've ever had in terms of growing as a person and learning more about myself. - His reo journey ` a sacrifice that has paid off. - You know all these things I dreamed about all coming into fruition, so I feel like my whole world was fully immersed in te ao Maori now. Wareware tonu ana. - Montel returned to weightlifting, but with a new goal. - Whainga ne ka torotika te hikina katoa. I'm at a point now where I understand the benefits of the sport, and now I want to give it back to our kids, and especially to our kura kaupapa Maori kids. - Every morning, you'll find Montel here at CrossFit Rotorua, training these rangatahi Maori. - These kids have belief in themselves now. They believe that they can do these kinds of movements. - Easy. (APPLAUSE) - Yoo-hoo! - Ae, bro. - CrossFit isn't easy. It's mentally tough, and it's physically hard. So they're also building resilience within themselves. Along with the resilience is the confidence. - They've been training under Montel for less than a year. - One thing we know for sure is Maori kids know who they are, where they come from. Where I feel like I'm an asset in terms of bringing weightlifting and my teachings to our rangatahi Maori is providing another avenue or another opportunity to explore deeper into themselves - He tohunga he rangatira. He tangata ngakau nui ki nga tamariki ki te tangata. Tangata hatakehi ka hiahia nga tamariki te mahi i enei mahi, ahakoa te uaua. - With his own life transformed, Montel is now solely focused on the next generation. - Ko taku aronga matua i tenei wa kia whakatauirahia ki aku tamariki me nga rangatahi o te motu. Me whakapono ki a koe ano me whakapono hoki ki to tuakiritanga. Haumi e, hui e. - ALL: Taiki e! - Pukanga! - Tena koe, e hoa. That is us, e te iwi. To close out tonight's show and New Zealand Music Month, we feature the whanaunga singer-songwriter Anna Coddington's new waiata, Katuarehe. Kia mau, ki te turanga o Taputapuatea, haumi e, hui e, taiki e. (ANNA CODDINGTON'S 'KATUAREHE') - (SINGS IN TE REO MAORI) (SINGS IN TE REO MAORI) # Uh, uh. # Katuarehe. # You ain't ready. # We're not flying on the same plane. # Uh, uh. # Katuarehe. # You ain't ready. # I see you try, and it's a damn shame. # I'm the one to make you tear your eyes out. # Don't go looking straight into the sun. # You might get a minute in my limelight, darling, # but you won't be the only one. # Oh, # the nerve on ya. # You're Double Brown, baby. I'm champagne. # Oh. (SINGS IN TE REO MAORI) # Child, swish your mouth before you say my name. # Uh, uh. # Katuarehe. # You ain't ready... www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2024 - Ko te reo, te taki. - Na Te Puna Whakatongarewa Te Hui i tautoko.