Te kōrero o Rā , Rā Mason's Story
Rā was interviewed at the Tāne Ora conference held in Blenheim in June 2009. He talked about his involvement in One Heart Many Lives. He also talks about the support he has around him to keep him on this take, for example his dad, his nurse Mary and his trainer Wayne.
Rā also talked about quitting smoking and embarking on some studies.
Q. Tell us about your background; you’re a twenty six year old Māori male?
I was born and raised in Rotorua. Live there with my family. My older brother, older sisters and a younger brother and a younger sister. They’re all average, average size. Average health. All averagely smart, you know [laughs]. We all made it through to year twelve at school. We all done alright. None of us are convicts or anything [laughs]. Most of us have all got jobs, except for the ones who have got kids. Family life was good when I was a kid. My parents are both still alive. My dad’s fifty two. Mum’s fifty this year. Suppose they’re of average health too. They could probably both do with a check up. Especially my dad.
Q. Do you kind of encourage them to go along [to get a check up]?
Well yeah. I always encourage my dad because he’d be the most high risk. I’d say, in my opinion, he’d be the most high risk of CVD (cardio vascular disease). He’s got high cholesterol, stuff like that. And he’s a smoker. And he’s old and a little bit over-weight. He’s living an old person’s lifestyle.
Q. Tell me a little more.
He’s fifty two. It’s like his energy levels are all doddering, and everything. Like he’s an older guy. A stereo-typed older person. Well, he’s not even all that old.
Q. So how do you encourage him then? Is he taking your advice to go along to the doctor?
Yeah, he has been to the doctor. And we had a whānau ora day at a marae in Rotorua. He had his heart checked from the One heart, Many Lives thing. And they told him there was three ratings, the green, orange and red. And they said he was probably one of the reddest that they’d had that day. He was probably one of the most high-risk. His life-style; he eats a lot of fatty red meat, fries, everything. He drinks a lot of booze. Puts salt on everything.
Q. So, after he got this verdict ‘you’re one of the reddest we’d had…’?
Oh, that’s when I started to get him to come to the pools with us, when he got back from his doctor.
Q. He was listening then?
Yeah. He listened to me and he did quit smoking - he was off cigarettes - for two weeks. And he was having the chewing gum; the nicotine gum; the patches. But he didn’t like it and in the end he went back to the cigarettes.
Q. So he could have another go?
Yeah. It’s not really any help for him, my mum she smokes inside and she’s not interested in quitting. She knows and she sees the health benefits of it. She just likes to smoke. She likes spending sixty bucks a week on cigarettes.
Q. So you’re a good example for your dad. Tell me, on the flip side, why is he good for you in terms of supporting you in your goals?
He’s always had good words for me, like encouragement. He’s always encouraged me. He’s helped me out with three days a week, depending on cash flow. He’ll pick me up and we’ll go to the pools and then he’ll drop me off at the gym. After pools in the morning he does aqua jogging when I do swimming.
He has to go to work. He has to work a full day. He’s a tradesman. That is how he justifies his steak, cause he works so hard. And he is probably, physically, maybe the first, second or third strongest person I know. I can’t beat him in an arm wrestle. My brother can’t beat him in an arm wrestle. My brother was a body builder, doing lifts, you know, weights all the time.
Q. So your dad’s very strong?
He spends half a day on his knees, on his back, welding things. Under this, and lifting pipes, and this and that. He’s been at it for over thirty years. He’s getting his exercise. He’s not heavy, but he’s round. And if you push his guts, its hard. (So I wonder what that is, yeah!). Probably all the booze he’s had. If he could – if he was allowed to – he’d drink every day. Like his dad. Even then, he’d still go to work. But, the old lady wouldn’t let him. Ever.
My grand-father – my dad’s dad – he drunk himself silly every day for years and years. He’s stopped drinking every day now, but he’s seventy three. And he still drinks every other day. Yeah, he worked all the time too and that’s how he justified it. ‘I work hard. I’ll do what I want to do. Blah, blah blah…’.
Q. So, what’s your attitude to drinking, as a twenty six year old young fella?
I used to drink booze a lot, yeah. I used to work in a pub so we had piss on tap. Booze everywhere. The old man had a bar in our garage when we were growing up, with a flash pool table and dart board and stuff. Fridges. We had the best birthday parties when we were teenagers.
Q. And now, going forward?
Still have a drink every now and then. Even sometimes a booze. I call a booze like a session or party. I’ll drink with the boys. Have a drink every now or then, or a booze. Highly irregular now-a-days. I still like it.
[My dad, he’s like] “I’ve always preached a lot about drinking too much. Oh my gout, oh my gout.” He’s got gout in his foot. He’s like “You’re drinking too much. You’re drinking too much”. Malt liquor. And sea food and stuff, yeah.
Q. How does he manage his gout?
He takes pain pills and stops drinking for that week. But apart from that, he takes paradix. (What are they called)? Once the gout’s gone, then he’s cured. [laughs]
He didn’t want to ever go to the doctor. He never went to the doctor. And, my brother said to him… My brother’s got sons and he said to my dad, he was talking about your rights to grow up being a Māori tāne. Being a father to your kids. Teaching the kids of now-a-days. How are they supposed to know to go to the doctor and to get your health sorted? How are they supposed to know to not smoke? To not booze. And to not do this if the role models in their life are the ones that are showing them that’s what you do when you’re a Māori tāne. That’s how you are willing to act. How are my nephews supposed to be the men that we want them to be, that we try hard to be ourselves, when you who are their ‘pāpā’ who they love, whose their favourite, when they see him boozing, smoking and not being flash?
Q. So you think that’s what has the most powerful effect on this older generation, is to see either their mokopuna, or their nephews or nieces. And they want to change their own ways for those nephews, nieces and mokopuna. Do you think that’s a really powerful force?
Yeah. Probably the most powerful. For me. Some Māori tāne don’t hold their family in as high regard, like some do. Some Māori tāne couldn’t even care. Wouldn’t even care less if their kid was crook. Or their descendants were crook.
We’re very close. We even stay in the same neighbourhood [laughs]. I live with my older sister. We live together. I live with her. It’s our house.
Q. Does she have a hand in helping you with your health regime, or maybe is she too busy with her kids?
She’s got a whole bunch of kids, and they’re all young. She’s got a strider which she goes on. She’s doing all right. She’s not over-weight or anything. She probably could drop a kilo. She probably eats the same stuff as me, which is really good now-a-days.
Q. So have you re-educated her?
She said to me “what’s this?”. She’s the one who said to me “aren’t you going to have a veggie?” This was ages ago. “Where’s the veggie”. I wasn’t going to have one; I was just going to have a sausage and a bread for tea. “Hey what’s that? That’s not a tea. What kind of a meal is that? Look you’re going to get CVD”. And it was that, that made me go see my doctor, when she said “blah, b;ah blah..”, You know.
I started eating healthier the week before I went to see my doctor. And the week I went to see my doctor was the week he hooked me up with Mary. And then she hooked me up with Wayne. And it all happened within two weeks.
Q. And what made you go to the doctor?
I didn’t feeling sick or anything. What made me go to the doctor that day was, I had it in mind I had to go to the doctor anyway because I had to get a script for my medicine. That was for my eczema. My sister said you may as well see if there’s something he can help you out with for your health, as well. And I mentioned it to him and he said, there’s this group that he works with. They’re brain-storming team of doctors and stuff. They got a whanau ora programme. That’s what he’s hooked me up with. That was like the Tuesday. It would have been a Tuesday because I always tried to go up on a Tuesday cause it’s pay day. Anyway my doctors on the other side of town. So got to wait for pay day to go and see him.
Q. So that is a problem, the transport to the doctor?
Yeah. I have to wait for pay day. The gas money. Cause I like this doctor even though its way over on the other side of town. Because that’s the doctor that’s at the surgery I been going to, all of my life. He’s been my GP for probably ten years now. He knows the whanau. Because the whanau have been going to that practice for years. Since mum and dad moved to Rotorua.
Q. Has he got a good listening ear when you’re there to tell him stuff?
Yeah he’s really good. Before he was my doctor, I had another doctor. He died. He probably wasn’t as flash as this one. Doctor Firth he’s very good.
Q. So how about when he’s explaining complicated medical things to you. Sometimes it’s hard to understand. How does he make it into plain speak for you?
He talks with his hands a lot. He breaks it down, you know. He knows that I’m not going to know what this and that medical term is. So he’ll say what it is in people talk. He knows I don’t work in the health sector.
Q. So you’ve got a handle on what’s happening with your body and the medication. What’s his advice for your asthma for example?
Yeah, I’ve had asthma problems since I was three. Was when they first diagnosed me. And maybe one hospital visit a year since then, you know. Sometimes the asthma pump just won’t work. Like maybe I’ve had hay fever. And the asthma pump won’t work with hay fever.
Q. And other pills or medication that you take?
Just for my eczema. Just cream.
Q. That’s where the rongoā came in. Tell us about that, with the eczuma?
I was using, for my eczema, there’s a cream called Locoid. I was using that for awhile and I ran out one day. And my trainer Wayne said we should visit Te Wao Nui a Tane(the god of the forest). Took me to the place and they did a healing. Laying on of the hands. A lady came and coughed in my ear and sucked the badness out. Freaked me out a little bit [laughs].
Anyway they gave me some kawakawa juice to put in the bath. And if it got really bad just get some cotton and dab it on.
Q. So you go back to Te Wao Nui a Tāne For a top up of the kawakawa juice?
No, I got such a huge bottle and my eczema’s really good so I haven’t had to.
Q. And do you add the juice to the Locoid cream or do you put the juice on with a dab?
Yeah, I still use the Locoid. But I only use it every other day. Not every day. It doesn’t have to go on every day. I put it on so it doesn’t get dry. More like a preventer and a reliever.
Q. Now tell me bit more about Wayne this trainer because he sounds like he’s been amazing?
Yeah he’s cool. I hooked up with him, it would have been, early October last year. Would have been the week after I met Mary. Mary referred me to Wayne and he called me up on the telephone. And he said “blah, blah blah, Wayne Roger. Give me your number we’ll come and visit you at your house and see if we can get you onto a workout plan. Maybe in the house, we can do some cardio boxing at the house.” And I said that’ll be cool. And he came around home the next day. We had a bit of a chit-chat.
And then he said “How do you feel about swimming and going to the pools and running? Running in the outside pool as its only a meter and a bit in depth. Just walking or jogging backwards and forwards”. I said “Oh yeah. That’ll be sweet as. We’ll give that one a go”. So we started doing that, Wayne and I. While I was there, Anz was there at the same time. He’s [Anz] like a machine. I’ve known Anz for a while now. Probably five years and he’s lost a lot of weight (thanks to his girlfriend). He, and Tamati [Davis], they’re inspirational to me. Cause they know what I’m going through and I can see their successes. Anz is still a huge bloke. He’s six foot six; six foot something. He’s a bit taller than me and I’m six, I’m sure. He a huge guy, but he can move. He can run. He can star jump, you know. He’s probably fitter than a lot of people of his size. He’s very fit for a huge guy.
Wayne picks me up every day, and we went everyday, everyday, everyday. And we did that for three weeks with Monday to Friday. Every day. And then on the fourth week, through his work, they were able to fund me a concession ticket for the pools. Which was awesome.
Went to the pools every day. And then in week three, was when I was able to convince my dad that maybe he should come to the pools. Wayne and I were going at a later time at 9 or 10 am. But with my dad, cause he’s a tradesman, he gotta go to work at seven sometimes six in the morning. So we’d be going to the pools at a quarter to six in the morning. And we’d do that every day, Monday through Friday, because I had a concession ticket still.
Then I said to my dad “Why don’t we join a gym?”. In a gym you want people who use their initiative. People who aren’t going to judge you, as your instructors. That’s their job. To help people that need to be there, or who want to be there. And we found that at the gym where we go now. The membership was expensive [laughs]. I’m still paying for that one myself.
Q. And what’s the difference at your new gym?
It’s pretty cool. The lady I did my set up with, she’s the senior trainer. She’s and ex-professional athlete, for the first twenty years of her adult life. She’s a machine; she’s Rambo. She puts me through my paces.
She come’s and stands by me and tells me I’m a little girl. Come and stand next to me and talk... have a chit-chat. “How’s it going with the training? How’s your diet going?” All that sort of stuff. She’s what the other gym needed. She knows what I must have needed. Someone to stand there, correct my form, tell me when I’m hopeless. Tell me to push harder.
We were at the gym [at Tane Ora] this morning, walking around looking a bit lost. I said to Anz and Tamati on the way here, they said “how did you like that workout?”. I said I was kind of lost. Needed someone yelling at me. Needed someone to stand next to me and yell. I was unfamiliar with the machines they had there. The one that we go to is heaps heaps flasher, you know. The gears are newer. They go wider range of stuff. Heaps more things that I don’t even get on. Free weights and stuff.
Q. Now you’ve been very successful because you’ve nailed smoking on the head nine months ago. And it hasn’t been a temptation to come back?
No. Since the day I had my last smoke, I’ve never had a relapse. It’s been really good.
Q. What do you think was the magic thing for you, that you could do it just like that, where other people have to try it many times, with different programmes?
It was the threat from my GP that if I didn’t quit then there would be no chance that a doctor would give me the Bariatric surgery. Which is the weight loss surgery. That’s what I’m working towards now. He said there’s no way they’d even contemplate putting you under if you’re a smoker. And he said “You’re going to have to get a bit fitter. They’ll want you to be healthier, so there’s more of a chance that they’ll be able to wake you up at the other end.” And he said there’s no way they’ll do it if you’re a smoker.
I had a smoke that day, and then I had a smoke afterwards. And then the day when I met Wayne – which was two days after that appointment - he said “Do you smoke?”. And I said “Yep”. And he goes “I’m not going to work with you if you smoke”. And I said “Right, well I’ll quit. I’m done”. And I haven’t had a smoke since then.
Q. You seem to react well to people who are tough on you?
The GP said it in a matter-of-fact kind of way. Not in a threatening kind of a way. For myself, I used it as a threat. But from him, he wasn’t saying it as a threat. It was the facts and that what I used as my fuel.
Q. You’ve obviously got some goals to nail along the way?
Yeah, I’m there now. I’m just waiting on the DHB to suss me with some funding. I had a visit with a local MP and he’s sussed up some funding.
Q. Who teed that up for you?
There was a panui in the One Heart, Many Lives room about Todd McLay coming to town. We had a visit with him. One Heart Many Lives - Mamara Parore [Pharmac] - did a presentation, telling them about what they were doing. But he [Todd] seemed interested and he gave a bit of a chat of how it’s for me. And it was mentioned in the talk, (my nurse and I and Todd were talking) and it was him who said to us “Come for a visit, we’ll see what we can do to help you out”.
We haven’t really approached the DHB yet. First I have to go to see a doctor. I’ll probably go private because the wait in the public health system is so long that I’ll probably be dead by then. My GP told me it’s eighteen months, plus [wait in the public sector]. That’s on the short-term to sort that out. It’s up to $22k depending on where I go and what I get. There’s different procedures and different clinics. There’s a private place in Tauranga. There’s a private place in Auckland. And Hamilton, and Wellington. There’s nothing in Rotorua that does that.
Q. Is that scary for you?
No, it’s something that I’ve always thought about. Its always been in the back of my mind, maybe one day I’ll get that. And I’m not afraid of going to the doctor and stuff like that. I’ve always thought when you’re sick that where you went.
Right after I started on my journey, on Inside New Zealand, they played a documentary about a boy who was a teenager and he had the surgery. He must have only been fifteen or sixteen. East Coast kid. And he got that and it showed him eighteen months later. Completely changed. This kid was 160 kilos, 170 kilos, and he was just sixteen. He was the statistic. He was me ten years ago, but he got caught.
Q. And you just slipped on through the system?
Yes. Through the system. And there was no bloody hauora warriors back then.
Q. Tell me about the study. This is a new thing in your life?
I’ve been doing national certificate in Māori, level one, two and three. That’s through Mauri Ora. One in Te Reo. That’s a correspondence course. I’ve got all passes on all my papers. The Kaiako who comes around he’s really good. He’s a really good tutor. Comes around every other week. We talk about what I need to do. We look through the resources. You get heaps of cool resources with that. Michael King books. The book called Haka. There an DVD in the box. That alone was like sixty bucks. I’ve read all the books that they’ve sent me.
I never really applied my self at school. I got school C, English, Maths and New Bio. But didn’t do anything with it. When I left school I went from bum job, after bum job, after bum job. I did a bit of study here and there. I flunked out of Poly Tech, And then another bum job. On the booze. On the dole for a little while. Longest job I held (I did two jobs at once) was with a taxi company. This was years ago now. I worked for them for about two years.
My most recent job was the job I liked the most cause I got to work with my brother. Worked in a different department, but you know, still there. Get to see him all the time. That was armed guarding.
Q. When you see yourself in five years, or ten years, what’s your vision, what’s your dreams and hopes?
I’ve been thinking all this morning, and all yesterday. And I’ve been thinking since I heard the talk this morning [at Tane Ora] and all this stuff. And all these people are way into their Maori health and the Maori health sector. And I saw brochures for “Do you want to work for the Māori health sector?”. And I was thinking that might be something that I’d like to look into. I’d line to, once I’ve finished this course, go to a course where its an actual classroom. Where I could learn something proactively.
Q. So that’s something you are going to follow up?
Yeah, I talked to the guy at the kiosk for the Wānanga. But he only had information for the courses that they got here (in Blenheim).
Q. When you picture yourself in five or ten years time, what do you see?
I see a successful, smaller, healthier, happier person.
Q. And your advice to others Rā in the same situation as you?
My advice is probably for the generation above mine, and my generation - the people who are having their tamariki – and to the older ones. Try to be for them, what you would have wanted for yourself. If you could have controlled what you got, when you were a kid, try to be that for your kids.
Q. So it’s changing the conditions that they were brought up in, and the messages that they got?
Yeah. Awanuiārangi said it all this morning [speaking at the Tāne Ora conference]. He said it all. When I listened to him speak I was thinking “look, this guy knows what he is on about; this guy teaches all the kids”. Actively teaches the tamariki. The boys and the girls. How to be what you want them to be. And you don’t want them to be criminals, and stuff.
He was talking about (showing slide shows), the gang members. Gang members in jail. A lot of the Māori men are the ones going to jail. How’s that for their kids, the ones that are in jail. That’s going to be their cycle. Their kids are going to be the ones in jail if they don’t suss it up.
Q. You’re young enough to make a great feast of life ahead of you.
Yeah, I want to be the inspiration for my nephews. For my sister’s kids. I spend a lot of time with my older nephew. He’s eleven. He’s just turning twelve. He’s a New Year’s Eve boy. I’ve been teaching him how to play the drums. I picked it up over the years. The old man had a drum, when we were kids. Everything in the garage, eh? [laughs]. Drum kit, pool table, Harley, Ford. Pretty good. Guitars and stuff.
I’ve got my own drums. After I moved out of the old man’s, I missed jamming on this. They’re in the garage at my house. We don’t drink at my house. We haven’t had a drink at my house since October. Since I’ve gotten onto my journey. I’ve been for drinks around other places.
Q. So you keep the drinking away from your place?
Yeah. Cause I’ve got a very addictive personality. If I have something a couple of times, well then I want it. So that’s why, when I go at something, I go at it hardcore or nothing at all.
Q. And Hone Harawira [MP] says he hasn’t drunk for twenty years. It sounds like ‘nothing at all’ is the way to go?
Yeah. Twenty years on, it was good to hear him speak.