'NEIGHBOURHOOD' THEME Captions by Madison Batten Edited by Pippa Jefferies. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2016 UPLIFTING MUSIC Ponsonby Rd runs along a ridge just west of Auckland CBD. These days, it's one of NZ's most famous streets ` food, fashion, beautiful people. But Ponsonby Rd wasn't always the glitzy strip of shopping and fine dining it is now. Back when my family first moved here from Tonga, Ponsonby was a place many Pasifika families came, drawn by the cheap housing. Hard to believe now. Later, it was home to a vibrant gay culture, raucous rock and roll, and sprawling student flats. I've lived in the same home just off Ponsonby Rd for 18 years, before moving to Texas on a swimming scholarship. Despite the gentrification, you don't have to look far to discover that Ponsonby Rd is still the focal point for a diverse and colourful community. In this episode of Neighbourhood, we'll sample traditional Chilean mate,... Mate ` it's tea. But it's not any tea. (LAUGHS) That's the thing. So people are like, 'Oh, it tastes like green tea.' No. It is not green tea. This is mate. ...we'll discover a Thai-Japanese match made in heaven,... He put kingfish and a Granny Smith and then coriander. Thai, NZ and Japan in one dish. ...a Korean-born artist shares her cultural inspiration... I was always interested in traditional materials, so I just searched and found this lacquer. ...and we'll hear some tall tales of Ponsonby Rd as it once was. I've met a lot of different people. Gangsters, murderers and, um, the like and all that sort of business and got entangled with a few. I'm Amini Fonua, and this is my neighbourhood. 'NEIGHBOURHOOD' THEME I'm an Olympic swimmer. I was lucky enough to learn how to swim here in Auckland. But in Tonga, surprisingly few kids learn how to swim, which is shocking, considering it's an island surrounded by water. When I represented Tonga at the 2012 London Olympics, I was tasked the honour of carrying the flag at the opening ceremony. I did it for the Tongan kids that I thought might feel inspired to learn how to swim, promote water safety and maybe save some lives. I think it's really important to think about the legacy that you leave behind for the next generation. RELAXING MUSIC There's so much beauty in the desert. There's so much space and so much silence, which is something that I don't have very often here. And the simplicity of` of the land and the lighting and the sunset and the moonrise, the clear skies and the stars. These are all photos from the Atacama Desert, the place that I grew up and that I love the most. And most of these photos are when I was pregnant with my` with my daughter called Luna. My name is Constanza Causa Vera. Um... And I come from Chuquicamata, Chile. It was a copper town ` tiny and kind of like an Americanised little town. And they decide after many, many years, there is, kind of, like, copper underneath the city, so they took everybody from that town ` took them away, put them in another town and started extracting the copper. And that's the biggest copper mine in the world. The mentality of the mine is to extract until it's gone, so that's what they've been doing for years. I have a mixed feeling of homesick and homeless because, uh, it doesn't exist any more. It's under the ground. REFLECTIVE MUSIC So, I'm off to El Borracho in Ponsonby Rd to get some yerba mate, which is a herbal drink from South America. And these guys have my favourite blend. Mate ` it's tea. But it's not any tea. (LAUGHS) That's the thing. So, people are like, 'Oh, it tastes like green tea.' No. It is not green tea. This is mate. Hola, como estas? Bien y tu? Muy bien? Bien. Yerba mate. Si. (CHUCKLES) You put in a gourd, that it's made of, most of them, the traditional ones, are made of pumpkin. And then you put the leaf inside, then you put a metal straw. You drink, and the beautiful part is that you share it. When I drink mate by myself it's pretty` it's really nice, still, but there's something missing. And it's the sharing part, you know? You share it. And people are so used to it. There could be someone sniffing and really sick, and it's like, 'You're the first one.' You know? Like, it's` it just` No one cares about that sharing and sharing the same straw, and it's so magical. I just love that part of it. Mate's mate. It's a beautiful plant. It's grown in Argentina, um, Brazil and Uruguay. It doesn't grow in Chile, but we do drink in Chile, especially south of Chile. Now, I'm from the desert, which we don't drink mate, but because my grandpa and` they have a farm in south of Chile, we always used to go to that farm and then drink a lot of mate. I drink it pretty much every day, pretty much all day. It's quite grounding to hold the gourd. Uh, it grounds me a lot. It's kind of like a` like a pacifier. You know? So it's` yeah, it's like a companion. PEACEFUL MUSIC Como estamos? Hola! (GIGGLES) Look, it's a ladybug. I found it on a small leaf. He's my friend. My daughter loves to drink mate. It's part of who we are. It's part of how we share, so I think it's nice that she` she likes it, and eventually she's gonna share it with more people too. He likes me. (GIGGLES) He likes you a lot. Oh! He's almost fly away. There's so many ways to prepare it, and there's so many, uh, things that you can play with. Some people like it sweet and they put sugar in it. When I was a kid my grandparents used to do it that way, and it's really sweet. But then you get used to the flavour of the mate, which is a bitter taste. But it's a nice bitterness. It's like dark chocolate. Mate's full of good stuff. It has a lot of amino acids. It has chromium. It has magnesium. It feels nice on the body. RELAXING MUSIC CONTINUES More than Chile, I feel like South American, so I do want to pass those roots to her. I never got into the tradition myself until I was here in NZ. So here in NZ, I started becoming a little bit more of myself, maybe because I was missing home or maybe because it was available for me to have it, you know? So I think it becomes stronger here. Like, it started over there, like a seed, but definitely the seed grew up in here. Tastes like South America. Mmm. It tastes like herb. It tastes like home. PEACEFUL MUSIC I would say that Ponsonby's probably one of the most tolerant places in the world. When I tell people that I grew up on a street with a mosque next to a nunnery, across the street from a Catholic church, down the road from a seminary, they can't believe it. The only place I can think of with this many religious affiliations in close proximity is in New York, which is where I lived up until this last January. This house has been in my family for 50 years. It has been the cornerstone for all of my relatives coming together. My uncle is the president of the biggest non-denominational church in Tonga ` Siasi 'o Tonga Tau'ataina. And church was always a really big part of our lives growing up. Every Sunday this is where all my family would come together. I remember this house being so full of relatives ` aunts, uncles, cousins. I remember my aunties coming over in their Sunday finest, raiding Mum's cupboards for tea and biscuits. And the rest. (CHUCKLES) And when they left, the fridge is empty. We shared so many meals together, and, you know, food really is... the glue that binds us together, especially Tongans. My name is Supreeya. I come from Thailand. My name is Takashi, and I'm from Japan. I came here because of education. We met through friends. I was flatting, and he's a friend of one of my flatmates. No, I couldn't speak English at all when I came here. He just said, 'Hello. How are you?' 'I'm fine, thank you. And you?' (LAUGHS) What did` What did you say to me? Oh. 'I'm really interested in you.' (LAUGHS) That was very funny. My dream was to open my own restaurant. Wanna make your dream come true? Our restaurant is called Namo, and it's on Ponsonby Rd. Namo means 'respect' in the full word. And if you separate the word ` 'na' is mother, 'mo' is father. GENTLE MUSIC My parents did really hard work to, uh, taking care of us, so I bring this for... I have to work hard for them. My grandfather was a fisherman. My father is a sushi chef. My life always in the restaurant because my father had sushi restaurant. After school, I have to go to restaurant and stay, watching them working and sometimes helping. Always Saturday, I finished school early, so I cooked lunch at my father's restaurant. It was my very favourite day. My mother liked Thai food, so, yes, she cooked lots of Thai food at home. And she liked to do things a very old way. We went to Thailand to stay at my house, meet all my family. My mother really enjoyed teaching him her cooking skill, so Takashi really loved to learn from her. CALM MUSIC I'm gonna make a kingfish green sauce. The sauce is Thai. Yeah, I really like this green sauce. When I tried this green sauce, oh, I could imagine the kingfish. Kingfish and, uh, coriander and then he put, um, Granny Smith. Thai, NZ and Japan in one dish. After I graduate high school, I went to Tokyo. And then I started working at one sushi restaurant. And in the first year, we are not allowed to touch any knife and fish, just dishwashing and then cleaning. In second year, could start serving food to customer. To be a sushi chef, it takes about 10 years. It has to be very detailed, uh, not just putting on tray. We have to make the space. Yeah, space is very important. REFLECTIVE MUSIC Always fresh, everything. I don't wanna cut fish before. I know if you cut before, the juices come out. And then, once the fish touch air, the taste getting old. This is a green sauce. It's Thai fish sauce, lemon juice and... some coriander root. PEACEFUL MUSIC So, you have to try it, so you can explain to the customer. I like the taste of the lemon. It's mainly on it. And the apple is making it more refresh. That's a very good idea. He had many job offer from overseas. Just last year, he got from Seattle. I want him to take it, but he said no. If` if he wanna live in overseas, it has to be NZ. It's home to us. FUNKY MUSIC Growing up in a family where my last name carried a lot of religious weight was difficult. Throw gay into the mix and it was extremely challenging. When I was younger, I remember being fascinated with what was then called the Hero Parade in the late '90s. Now it's Pride. FUNKY MUSIC CONTINUES Because my family was religious, I was never really allowed to go. I remember when I was young, sitting at my parents' windowsill, looking out at all the eclectic characters as they were walking up to Ponsonby Rd. They all looked like they were having so much fun. Watching them was the first time I realised you could be a gay person and be happy. It was pretty formative stuff for me growing up, seeing the LGBT community celebrating together, especially in a place that's been at the heart of gay culture for generations. SOFT PIANO MUSIC PLAYS We decided to start Shanghai Lil's about 2004 as a pop-up bar. It was just an idea. And we had so much spare antiques and bits and pieces in storage, we thought it would be quite a great idea to do it. We were trying to think of a name, and it must have been our consciousness, because back in the '30s, James Cagney was in a movie where he sang a song called 'I'm Looking for my Shanghai Lil'. And, so, um, it must have been there from a past memory. We just did it all up sort of like, uh, when I used to go, as a kid, to the movies and see Fu Manchu. And we did it like that ` sort of a bit seedy and a bit naughty, you know? Word had got out that there was something different happening in Auckland, and we got a very big following. And it's actually kept us going even to this day. We've still got the same people coming to us 12 years later, which is wonderful. You're sort of growing with them. There we are. Thank you, Russell. You're most welcome. I'll take that one for you. Yup. It's gay-operated. Of course, I think with anyone, there are still people that basically, probably do lead a more private or what they call 'closeted' life, depending on if they feel their families don't understand or their occupations still don't civil out, or maybe it's just their own way of thinking. Maybe it's just them themselves. But we've always been who we are, regardless. That was taken` Was it taken for a magazine or something? Yes, it was. It was taken for Metro. Yeah. Yeah, that was when we'd set up Shanghai Lil's and people said, 'You mustn't have anything left in your house now.' And I said, 'Well, nothing here came out of the house. 'The house has still got its own collection.' Well, this is Billy and I off to a party at a friend's place. Oh, yes. That was taken years ago. I stuck those glasses on. My auntie gave them to me when I was about 5 or 6. I've still got them. Yeah, he's still got them. I was originally a chef for most of my working life. I'm a pianist. All my life. Billy was working at a very upmarket restaurant called The Bonaparte, and I was in the kitchen there and he was the resident pianist. I'd read about Billy as a child in the Women's Weekly when I was about 12 or 13 years old and was fascinated and thought I'd like to meet somebody like that and then suddenly realised I was working with this person. Oh, that's Mowgli, the monkey, uh, in my MG. That was taken outside a nightclub at about 5 o'clock in the morning. (CHUCKLES) And it took a swipe at me and I, uh... Oh God. Yes, that was the monkey. Poor monkey. Billy is known in Ponsonby as a great personality. He's recognisable. He's got his own personality. He's got his own look, his own persona, you could say. Oh, here's Max Cryer. And we decided to do a piano duet together. He plays the piano quite well. SLOW JAZZ MUSIC PLAYS I was brought up in Ponsonby Rd, actually. My grandparents had a house down in Wallace St. I just sort of came up here every day, biked up to Ponsonby Rd. But of course it was different in those days. There was a picture theatre called the Britannia Picture Theatre. And this is in the, um, '40s, the late '30s. But of course it's grown and that. Ponsonby's always been eclectic. It's always been bohemian, cos you had the Gluepot, you had Java Jive and Three Lamps, so it's always had that fusion. You had the Open Late Cafe in the early '80s. You had Oblio's, Carthews. Later on, Peter Taylor opened up Surrender Dorothy, which definitely had a gay influence. I don't think, though, the places were opened as gay bars or clubs; they just seemed to attract a lot of eclectic people. SLOW JAZZ MUSIC PLAYS I've met a lot of different people ` gangsters, murderers and, um, the like and all that sort of business and got entangled with a few. And, um, I won't mention any names. They come up and talk to you. Next thing you know you're sitting with them and that, and` Cos I don't drink. Never. And, uh, so, that's a help, cos I can keep my head about me. I know exactly what's happening. They don't. (LAUGHS) I can sit and watch them go under. It's not a job. (CHUCKLES) Well, I couldn't think of it being a job. Could I, Russell? < No. No. Just a bit of fun. UPLIFTING MUSIC I've recently graduated from Texas A&M University, which is one of the most conservative and debatably homophobic schools in America. My entire time I was there, I was out and accepted. I was peer-voted team captain and recipient of the Aggie Heart award. This here is an Aggie Ring. I couldn't afford to get one for myself, so on my 21st birthday, all of my family chipped in and got one for me. It's really special because I feel like I carry my family around with me no matter where I go. I've always owned who I am and where I came from. It's amazing to me how aspects of your culture can show up in unexpected ways. PEACEFUL MUSIC I'm Han Nae Kim. I was born in Seoul, South Korea. I was 15 years old when I came to, um, NZ. My parents, they wanted to give me a better environment to study. When I first came here, um, I didn't speak English, obviously, and it was a bit frightening. But through art, I guess I learned to communicate better. Now I am doing my doctoral, uh, studies at Elam. I love working with different materials on different surfaces and how they work together and make different sort of outcomes. So, at the moment I am mainly using charcoal, shellac and ottchil. So, this is ottchil. It's Korean traditional lacquer. This can be collected from, uh, tree sap. Um, they` they're only grown in three countries ` uh, Korea, China and Japan. They're native to those countries. I was always interested in traditional, uh, materials, so I just searched and found this, um, beautiful material. So I just went to South Korea and learned from a master of this lacquer art. REFLECTIVE MUSIC This is a special brush that I use when I paint ottchil. Um, it's made with real human hair. So I'm trying to use the traditional way of applying this material. Traditionally, um, it is usually applied on bare, um, wooden surface, rather than on a, um, metal. But I'm trying to sort of find a different way to, um, use it, rather than just following the tradition. At the moment I'm experimenting with the process of using ottchil on its own. Um, I wanna start incorporating this material with my other favourite mediums, um, like shellac and charcoal. So, I collect images. Um, I take pictures when I travel around. I get, um, inspired by those images. It's about the texture rather than the subject matter itself. I just scrunch up the plastic, and I'm getting the impression while it's wet. So, I have this certain phobia on texture. So, my works, they're quite tactile. I use my bare hands and it's kind of a process that I try to overcome this phobia I have with the texture. Through this sort of intimate sort of process of touching and rubbing, I think I kind of overcome, like, through` through the process. It's like a remedy to me. People see Koreanness in my work. I guess it's just natural. What's in yourself comes through the white piece of paper, the emptiness and the scale, um, black and white. My art is a constant process of discovery, which is what I love. And this year, I've had the opportunity to share this process in a local exhibition at Studio One in Ponsonby. That's ottchil on aluminium, and that's charcoal. I'm trying to show people, um, the different look of it. So it can be dull. It can be transparent. It can be, um, opaque. So it depends on how you use it. So it's on copper, these ones. And I've put layer after layer of this material, and, um, it gets darker, obviously, um, with many layers. I'm so proud to be able to share this traditional medium in a modern context, especially here in NZ, where it isn't so commonly known. It's nice to be able to share parts of my culture through my artwork. UPLIFTING MUSIC I've seen this neighbourhood go through so many changes, it's really difficult saying what Ponsonby represents. Either way, I feel very much at home here. And it's always great to come back to a place that celebrates diversity in all its glory. CROWD CHEERS UPLIFTING MUSIC CONTINUES MUSICAL HORN TOOTS APPLAUSE Captions by Madison Batten. Edited by Pippa Jefferies. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2016