1 Captions by Faith Hamblyn. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2016. VIBRANT MUSIC HIP-HOP MUSIC SPLASH! MUSIC CONTINUES The town of Motueka lies on the western shore of Tasman Bay, 45 minutes from Nelson. People from overseas have been drawn to this place for generations ` from Appo Hocton, the first Chinese NZer, to the Yugoslav migrant who founded Talley's Seafood in 1936, which is now one of the biggest employers in town. Add to that the many seasonal workers who roll who roll into town each year from overseas for the harvest, and you can see how each generation of migrants has helped shape the character of the area. HIP-HOP MUSIC CONTINUES My dad's from Samoa. My mum's parents are Scottish. This beautiful place has been the perfect training ground for my career as an endurance athlete. Let's go and explore what makes this community so unique. We'll meet a descendent of one of the first settlers to the area. He was very well-accepted. However, the Chinese that came after Appo, they weren't welcome at all. They just didn't want them here. They called them a filthy lot. A woman from Canada explores the inspiration for her flights of fancy. I was dealing with a lot of anxiety through my 20s, and through the times where that was the hardest to deal with, I would look to the things that actually made me feel alive, and that was all through the expressive arts. We'll join some of the local seasonal workers as they enjoy some downtime. We've had a few nights here when we've had 24 people playing, so four teams, and up to a hundred people standing round the walls, and you can hear it many kilometres away. And a Frenchman shares the secrets to a very European specialty. I love working with chocolate, just because you can play with flavour, you can play with texture. With chocolates, you can do anything your mind wants to do. You can go crazy. I'm Nathan Fa'avae, and this is my Neighbourhood. VIBRANT MUSIC DOOR RATTLES A love of the outdoors really saved me from going down quite a dodgy path as a teenager. Even after three surgeries for a chronic heart condition, captaining NZ's Adventure Racing Team to four world championship victories has been my highlight as a professional athlete. INSPIRATIONAL MUSIC Adventure racing sees teams of four compete over hundreds of kilometres of rough terrain, biking, kayaking and mountain running. It can be brutal. I have raced in 28 countries, from the deserts of Dubai to the jungles of Borneo. Spending so much time in the wilderness has made me appreciate how challenging it must have been for the first people to settle here. A local woman has devoted years to finding out about the adventures of her great-grandfather, and in doing so has revealed the story of the first Chinese migrant to become a NZer. I was brought up as European, of course. And it was probably my mother, who comes from an Irish stock,... and she just mentioned it one day when I was about 21. And she said 'Did you know your father's grandfather was a Chinaman?' I said, 'No!' CONTEMPLATIVE MUSIC My name is Diana Clark,... and I am the great-granddaughter of Appo Hocton, the first Chinese person to... come to NZ. Just starting the research on Appo would have happened probably when I turned 50, which is actually 26 years ago, isn't it? When you get into your 50s, you have this innate curiosity of going back to where your roots were, for some reason. He left China when he was a lad of 9 years. Now, imagine sending your child of 9 years out into the wide world. He was a cabin boy on the Thomas Harrison, which was one of the first ships to land in Nelson. And when he got here, he thought, 'Ooh, I like the look of this nice country,' so he jumped ship. And from then on, he had very little contact with his homeland. CONTEMPLATIVE PIANO MUSIC This letter is from Appo's mother,... in China. It was written in 1876,... and it's begging Appo to come back home to China. Because if he doesn't, he will remain a ghost when he dies roaming around a foreign country. This is one of my pride and joys. This is Appo's tea caddy. Now, he used to grow tea in his front garden and so, obviously, he needed a tea caddy. And we have up here ` we have a window frame from Appo's daughter who's my grandmother, Erina, a window frame from the house that he built. If we look at the whole of the area... where Appo landed and then continued out country, um, he was very well-accepted because he could read and write English and he was very astute,... very handsome, and he could certainly turn his hand to a lot of hard work. However, the Chinese that came after Appo, uh, into the Nelson/Motueka area, they weren't welcome at all. They just didn't want them here. they called them a filthy lot, a filthy, unclean lot. And they were going to load the port guns if necessary to stop them to stop them entering Tasman Bay. SLOW PIANO MUSIC This house belonged to Appo Hocton. They used to call this Chinatown cos all Appo's relatives came and lived here. So I think in all, there are seven houses out here that he either had something to do with or he built. Appo loved this area,... and he called it,... 'I have found paradise.' Well, after being cooped up on a ship all those number of years, coming to a place like this, yes, it is paradise. He owned a bullock dray, five bullocks. He could build houses; he worked on the roads in Nelson; he could grow hops; he could grow tobacco; he could, um, mix in with the society, so achievements ` yes, he did, he had a lot of achievements. SLOW PIANO MUSIC CONTINUES BIRDS CHIRP Appo had an unmarked grave. It was very special to me to be able to do something about the headstone for my great-grandfather, because I thought, when I die, if we don't do something now, nobody's going to know where he was buried. So my husband, Tony, he made this part in the shed at home. And we had this plaque engraved in,... uh, bronze so that as it weathered, and as you can see, the writing would stand out. Appo died on the 26th of September 1920. He died sitting up in his armchair at eight minutes past 11 at night. He lived to 103 years. And up to about six months before he died, he was seen in Nelson transacting business at the bank. He was very very old... and quite astute, even at that age. When Appo died, the Nelson Evening Mail did an obituary... about him. And it headed this obituary,... The Death Of A Gentleman. His name in Chinese and translated into English means Little Treasure, and he was indeed one of NZ's little treasures. I feel I could die happy now that I have done what I can to research Appo's life. So I feel very happy and satisfied. I can die a happy woman... (LAUGHS) at 103. (CHUCKLES) BIRDS CHIRP GENTLE TINKLY MUSIC SEAGULLS SQUAWK My mum and dad met in Samoa. Mum was over there setting up Samoa's first preschool. She was a pretty independent young woman, especially for the 60's. One night she went to a social, and Dad walked in. He was a bit of a smooth customer. He said, 'We don't see too many palagis around here'. Well, that got Mum's attention, one way or the other. TINKLY MUSIC CONTINUES I'd like to think I inherited the best of my Samoan and Scottish genes. Dad gave me the laid-back approach to life, and Mum always promoted knuckling down and hard work ` not a bad recipe for success in life, no matter what your cultural heritage. Look at that one. Can you find Daddy? Where's Daddy? Right there, yeah! That's good. So, my name is Yoann Martichon. Uh, I was born in Metz. It's a city in the east part of France. Mm. That's your daddy right there. Mm. Yeah. That's Daddy, yeah? Yeah. I'm living here in NZ with my partner, Laury, and my son, Kenay. Uh, he's 2 years old. ALL SPEAK FRENCH See that? That's all chocolate. It's crazy, right? And that's Daddy, yeah? Probably was about 13, 13 years old. We'd been to NZ 10 years ago, and we just loved the country, so it was always in the back of our mind, uh, to come back at some point. So we said OK, that's the time ` let's go back to NZ. And three weeks after we applied for the residency, we did find out that my partner was pregnant with my son. So, I mean, there was a bonus ` he was going to be a Kiwi. So, yeah, we were more than happy with that. ELECTRONIC POP MUSIC So, when I left school, I was about 14 and a half, so by that time, I mean, like every kid, you're just wondering what you want to do, so I started to be a pastry chef for the first two years. And then my chef at the time asked me if I wanted to enter a chocolate competition, which I did, and I won. That was, for me, a revelation. This is what I wanted to do here. When you woke up in the morning and you tell yourself, 'OK, today I'm going to play with chocolate,' you know, it's not a bad day, you know? So yeah. So, today I'm making a blackcurrant chocolate. It's basically a 70% shell, um, a blackcurrant sour jelly inside and a vinegar ganache. So, when I first fell in love with chocolate, I asked my, uh, chef at the time, 'Can I make a living out of it?' And he said, 'Yes, sure. Um, you can study for it.' So I studied, actually for five years. So I have what we call a master degree in chocolate factory, which is actually the highest diploma you can get in chocolate. So, right now I'm actually decorating, uh, my moulds with cocoa butter. So, cocoa butter, it's actually the fat of the chocolates. Now I'm just adding vodka into it. And then the good thing about that is, uh, when you use cocoa butter at the right temperature, uh, which is 32 degrees, uh, it comes out really shiny. So, the chocolate I'm making here, um, it's what we call a French-style chocolate. We mix a French-style chocolate, it's the ganache inside, the filling ` this is make it French-style chocolate, yeah. I love working with chocolates, just because you can play with flavour; you can play with texture; you can add some crunchiness to it; a bit more sweetness; uh, bitterness; uh, acidity. With chocolates, you can do anything your mind wants to do. You can go crazy. ELECTRONIC POP MUSIC FADES LAID-BACK ELECTRONIC MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUES Not bad, yeah. I'm eating a lot of chocolate every day. On average, it's about 200g, which about two full bars of chocolate a day. That's one of my drugs, with coffee. Yeah, that's one of my drugs, yeah. It's a nice balance of, um, bitterness and sweetness. It's good. It's a nice strong flavour of blackcurrants; nice hint of vanilla; and, um, yeah, with 70% of chocolate, awesome. So now it's good for 600 more, and, um, yeah, it's gonna be a long night. LAID-BACK ELECTRONIC MUSIC FADES BIRDS CHIRP Today I'm in Motueka Markets. I come here every Sunday. Motueka Markets, um, it's pretty much all made here in Motueka. It's local, it's artisan, and it's great. INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS All right. Mint. Let's try some. This one here, it's a creme brulee, a soft caramel I've blended on. Great. < Oh wow. Just beautiful. It's amazing. LAID-BACK ELECTRONIC MUSIC At Motueka Market, yeah, I'm doing a lot of tasters, um, just so people get used to it, you know, to the idea of getting nice chocolate. People are not used to that here. Yeah, I'll get two of that one. Yeah? Sounds good to me. Good choice. Oh, I love the chocolates, yeah, yeah, great. Mmm. There'll be a bit of a fight when we get home ` who gets what. (LAUGHS) We're chocoholics. (LAUGHS) So, my hope for the business in the future, um, would be to see it growing. We are not looking to be rich. I'm just looking to make some nice chocolates people will love. And at the end of the day, chocolate is pretty much the only food in the world that makes everyone happy. FAST PIANO MUSIC Dad was the only Samoan in town in the '70s, when there was a little bit of racism around. He was considered a tough man on the rugby field. One day I remember a woman saying to us, 'Your dad should be sent back to the Islands. He's a savage.' I had no clue what was going on, but I guess I inherited Dad's competitiveness regardless. FAST PIANO MUSIC CONTINUES Once at the Adventure Racing World Championships in Spain, I forgot to pack my hiking shoes, but I didn't let that stop me. I climbed a mountain in my mountain-bike shoes and walked back down in my socks. People were gobsmacked, but it was no problem for me. I grew up in bare feet. I do love the way the influences we absorb when we're young can become such a guiding force in our adult lives. BIRDS CHIRP Dance, for me, is a place where I feel it is transcendent. CONTEMPLATIVE GUITAR MUSIC I feel it transcends time and place and that when I'm dancing, I could be in any time, in any culture. Um, it's also another language, that you can share with people, that isn't our verbal language or written language. BIRDS CHIRP CONTEMPLATIVE GUITAR MUSIC CONTINUES WHOOSH! MUSIC CONTINUES BIRDS CHIRP I've studied a lot a lot of West African dance and studied it in West Africa, North Indian classical dance, Chinese classical dance, Capoeira martial arts/dance, a bit of hip-hop, a bit of modern dance and the Butoh. The first time I saw I saw aerial silks, I knew I had to do it. CONTEMPLATIVE GUITAR MUSIC CONTINUES I was dealing with a lot of anxiety through my 20s, and through the times where that was the hardest to deal with, I would look to the things that actually made me feel alive, and that was all through the expressive arts. And so it was more about following my nose in terms of what actually felt right. It took me a while to find a teacher, but, um, I pursued it and actually eventually ended up learning it in Perth, Western Australia. CONTEMPLATIVE GUITAR MUSIC CONTINUES With the silks, I love working on the vertical plane. You can do leaps, you can be an acrobat and be upside down, tumbling. It adds that speed; it adds that, uh, thrill and danger, um, as well as the sensuality of working with a piece of fabric that's wrapped around my body. CONTEMPLATIVE MUSIC CONTINUES I've actually always dreamt of flying, as a kid, right up until an adult, and so, short of sprouting wings, this is kind of the best I can get. TINKLY MUSIC I was born in Edmonton, Alberta in Canada. Oh, Edmonton was a pretty good place to grow up. Um, as far as cities are concerned, sort of a small city ` 700,000, but a lot going for it in terms of arts. Um, known as a festival city, so there was a fringe festival, cinema festivals, arts festivals, a great big music festival that I feel like I grew up on and cultured me through my earliest days, and, um, I went to a multilingual multicultural primary school and junior high school. And that was a big influence for me. Just having lots of other cultures around me and being raised with just knowing how diverse the world is, um, has definitely informed my artistic path. I came to NZ in January 1st of 2004... as a way of not going back to Canada in the middle of winter, because I needed to leave Australia ` my visa had run out. By, um, a stroke of fate, I ended up in the South Island, in Christchurch, needed some money right away and came up to do some apple thinning in this area. So, now I live at Riverside Community, which is 7km out of Motueka, and I live with my partner, Che, and my daughter, Kiwa. There's about 60 people living here, including the children. I'd like to say that I contribute to the community by bringing in a lot of, um, creativity. Put your, um, elbows on the ground, and try to push your feet forward. I run eight classes a week up in the centre, and they're here to learn all manner of skills to do in the circus realm, such as acrobatics and the aerial silks and walking on stilts and group balances, and they're building their flexibility and their strength and their co-ordination and their trust. They're balancing on each others' backs. I mean, these guys have lots of practice with using their strength and their balance, so I'm comfortable with them jumping up. TINKLY MUSIC CONTINUES I love the excitement in the kids' faces when they're learning something new, that sense of anticipation and a little bit of fear, and then they're going through their comfort zone, and then they've gotten it and they've gotten through something that they didn't know they could achieve. And it's quite exhilarating for them, and it's quite a rush for me at the same time. I love to play, and it's an invitation to other people to play with me in a context that I adore. And I'm just, kind of, doing what I know best and trying to follow my passion and keep... keep a sane head on my shoulders. Um, but at the same time, it delights me. TINKLY MUSIC FADES LAID-BACK ELECTRONIC MUSIC Dad was the eldest son of a minister in Samoa. In the '60s, they sent him out to NZ to go to university. After getting his degree, he went back to the Islands. They expected him to go back with new-found knowledge, but instead, he met Mum, they fell in love, and they decided to make a new life here. LAID-BACK ELECTRONIC MUSIC CONTINUES I have been back to Samoa a couple of times with the kids. To be honest, I find it a little bit awkward. Cos there is a big expectation that NZ Samoans leave money there. The Samoan economy relies heavily on workers in NZ sending money back to the villages, to the elders and to the churches. That's certainly the expectation of the hundreds of seasonal workers who come here each year to Motueka to work on the orchards. BIRDS CHIRP MEN SING IN SAMOAN 'My name is Oliver. 'I am born in Samoa. 'Four times I have been here, working here at the Birdhurst company.' The Birdhurst is a orchards. Mm. I have four kids ` two sons and two daughters. It's very important for me to help my family, take some more money and help my wife and country and church. TINKLY MUSIC So, Oliver is one of our, uh, RSE Samoan boys who works, uh, out in the orchard full-time. The RSE scheme, the Recognised Seasonal Employers scheme was set up, uh, around 2007. In 2009, after the tsunami event in, uh, Lalomanu and the surrounding villages in Upolu in Samoa, we had a local Kiwi boy, Samoan-born, who, uh, came to us and asked whether we would be able to employ some, um, men from his village in Lalomanu, um, to assist with the rebuild, um, post-tsunami. So we did that, and in 2010, we had our first, uh, 12 Samoan boys come over. Today we now have, uh, 200 staff, RSE, all from Vanuatu and Samoa. (SPEAKS SAMOAN) I'm trying to learn more and take the experience from the other boys. (SPEAKS SAMOAN) The companies plans ` I want to move on, supervisor this year. The remuneration savings that, uh, the RSE, um, staff take home is extremely important, um, for the benefits that they can then provide for their families back home, whether that be, uh, paying school fees, uh, medical issues, um, improving their housing, transport, and in many cases now, starting up small businesses at home. Many times when you take money home, maybe 11,000 for the seven months... we came here. The challenges for the RSE staff is the amount of time that they are away from their families. I came here the seven months. I know it's not easy for me, but I miss my family, and I miss my wife and my childrens. Yeah. BIRDS CHIRP PEOPLE YELL INDISTINCTLY So, I'm working for an organisation called Volleyball Motueka Golden Bay, and we run a Tuesday night competition through the harvest season for, um, Pacific Island workers that are working in the orchards around Motueka. Some of the other boys working on the orchards will be doing night classes, learning English or operating solar water-heating systems or solar-energy systems or a whole variety of things. The competition here becomes pretty competitive. If it's a Tongan team playing a Samoan team, then there's some national pride involved as well. I know the Tongans hold our shield last year, but I know this year, I want to... I want to win this year for the shield. PEOPLE YELL INDISTINCTLY We've had a few nights here where we've had 24 people playing, so four teams, and up to a hundred people standing round the walls, and you can hear it many kilometres away. The orchardists like us as a sport because we're a low-injury sport, whereas unfortunately, rugby or rugby league, our contact sports, um, they're more likely to get knocked around and, um, affect their availability for work. PEACEFUL MUSIC 15 boys stay here. Uh, schedule's just up the front here, so three boys cook every day. MEN CHAT IN SAMOAN Many of the people are Samoan. Uh, we trust in God and pray every day. MEN SING IN SAMOAN SYNTHESISED BEAT PLAYS I'm asking God for help my family, protect my wife and my kids. MEN SING IN SAMOAN Different places we'll be staying in Samoa. MEN SING IN SAMOAN We came here, it's one Samoa and one team,... eat together and prayer together ` yeah, that is the lifestyle of Samoa. ALL CHANT IN SAMOAN LAUGHTER FIRE CRACKLES I live just out of Motueka, at a place called Kina Beach. The ocean is literally on my doorstep. The cycling is the best in the country, and it's close to three national parks. LAID-BACK MUSIC The environment I grew up in really helped shape my career as an adventure racer. There was lots of times with Dad out camping, gathering seafood, diving, sleeping on the ground, drinking from streams and cooking on fires, and I do the same things with my kids today. There's nothing that I don't like about this place ` only that it's getting busier. BIRDS CHIRP Captions by Faith Hamblyn. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2016.