Te kōrero o Ray Bishop , Ray Bishop’s story
The theme of Ray’s kōrero is about the legacy that he’s inherited from his dad and also the example he set himself in terms of hauora – the epitome of hauora – and also his motivation with the imminent birth of his new baby. Ray was interviewed at the Tāne Ora conference held in Blenheim in June 2009.
Ray also runs his own motivational company to encourage todays’ youth to think about the future goals and dreams.
Tell us some background about yourself and how you’ve come to be at this conference.
I was born in Hamilton and grew up in Tokoroa. A great place I guess to be brought up when I look at some of the things that are missing in today’s society. Great foundations of discipline and respect. Things of that nature. A great place for that; a great place for manaakitanga. My dad was one of sixteen kids and with the wider whānau there were six other brothers and sisters that got brought up with the sixteen.
Whānau was important. Fitness was important. Health was important. All those sorts of things. Growing up in Tokoroa was awesome for me.
And I had a great example of health and fitness. My dad was conscious about what he ate. In our garage where the car was parked, there were weights and boxing bags and skipping ropes and all those sorts of things. For many, many years my dad would train twice a day. He’d get up in the morning and go for a run then come in have breakfast and then go to work.
It became a routine that I became accustomed to. I’d often wander into the garage and I’d count out some of the rep’s the boys were doing; dad’s mates. Watching, learning all the different skills.
When I left school actually I moved straight into personal training. I studied anatomy, physiology and got all the bits of paper that you need with regards to that. But it taught me a lot about the personal type of skills that are required to have relationships with people. And it was quite needed in the gym where I was employed in Tokoroa.
And I think that’s one of my biggest goals, I guess, and aspirations with regards to knowledge around the way the tinana works. I believe not enough people have that knowledge.
I have a very simple analogy - that we are all born with simple things. So we are all born with a mind; we’re born with a body; we’re born with a certain length of life. And then we have I guess a form of spiritual guidance that either says that something’s good for us or something’s bad for us.
"But my analogy of the body is that it’s the vehicle we drive along the life of road that we get; which is life itself from beginning to end. So with regard to body you should learn how like the same way we fill a car up with petrol, and put water in, and we tune the tyres and blow the tyres up."
All that knowledge around things that are external of us, people put a lot of time into but don’t do the same with regard to tinana.
In terms of Te Reo Māori, have you got any experience with, or comments on rongoā or rongoā practitioners?
Not me specifically. I certainly am aware of it. I know my Nan, God bless her, who lives with the other wheturangi. She was gifted in that sense. She was able to heal. She could tell what sex a baby was going to be, and all that sort of stuff. So it was a beautiful thing to be around. So, certainly a believer of all things of Te Reo Māori, including the rongoā.
So with your baby coming then, what is your moemoeā for baby’s future but also for your whole whānau’s future?
Its giving me a sense since I found out that I was going to be responsible about being a dad. As somebody who’s waited a long time to have a baby, which is great.
I want again to try and leave some form of legacy. And I’d like to leave behind something successful. The importance to pick up Te Reo Māori, and be able to stand tall in this world. Try to make a difference. Try and make the world a better place. With the journey of life that we all get, regardless of how long it is, we need to contribute in some way to the betterment of all people.
So it sounds like kaupapa Māori is the real basis, and the foundation, for what you live and breathe every day?
Well it’s really interesting because I developed always knowing that I was Māori. As soon as you pick up Te Reo, or you’ve got Te Reo Rangatira, everything just sits in the right place. It’s just phenomenal as a person to sort of just to try and grow, and recognize your own personal growth. Which is an important thing.
The kinds of kids maybe that you have worked with in your own company to motivate them. What’s your advice to these young people?
The essence for me really is I think the same thing. If you put my question to Hone Harawira it would be ‘what’s your main goal?’. ‘What drives you to be you?’
"Once you find what the dream is, you can never stop a person pursuing that because they are passionate about it."
Along that path, as Hone said, you discover whether smoking or alcohol is going to help you to get to your dream. And if your dream was to help to look after your young ones you will ultimately decide that smoking or alcohol is not the thing to do.
Do you find that some of our young people are totally lacking in self esteem and self belief that they can’t even be allowed the luxury of dreams and goals?
I think that again, one of the simple things that I find is we offer them a listening ear. That’s as simple as it is, because sometimes people get locked in a jar or some form of corner that people have labeled them in. It’s not the fact that they believe, but the way that people treat them. They treat you from that whakaaro rather than you’re a person; shake hands. What are you into? What do you enjoy? What do you like doing? And all you’ve got to do is tautoko what the dream is. Sometimes people will go off and on. Off the right path. But you need good and bad. Balance is the thing that gets us all through it.
