Speaker 1: This is the Flavor podcast network.
Speaker 2: Island Roots Auckland Ways. This one's for the Brown brothers
Speaker 2: and sisters who want to be one with themselves, their culture,
Speaker 2: their identity, their roots. This is Island Roots Auckland Ways,
Speaker 2: Marlow La and welcome on into Island Roots Auckland Way.
Speaker 3: You just started without being repaired.
Speaker 4: Hello, we're here, we are recording correct.
Speaker 1: How is everyone? Let us on the socials. We always
Speaker 1: love to chat to you guys. Actually we actually do.
Speaker 1: And recently there was an instance where someone was doing
Speaker 1: something on the social media trying to be us.
Speaker 2: Yeah, kept fishing, but it's also happened to our friends
Speaker 2: Zaria and Mahi. So I feel like there's someone else
Speaker 2: to get all these Mani and.
Speaker 3: Buss speaker.
Speaker 1: For real.
Speaker 3: I was like, nah, I kind of feel like I've.
Speaker 4: Made a little bit.
Speaker 1: Let them let them cook. Who's talking today? Are now?
Speaker 1: Missui Henry. She is the owner of four Showers Cover Lounge.
Speaker 1: She is a researcher. She is a mama, She is
Speaker 1: a director, She is a all the thinks a legend.
Speaker 3: Actually cool, Thanks for having me, of course. How are
Speaker 3: you today?
Speaker 5: I'm feeling pretty good?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you can't bearing gifts, which is greatly appreciated.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
Speaker 5: You know you're welcome. We discussed some juice and some
Speaker 5: and some cover are drinking it?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Shall we? Shall we get into it. I think
Speaker 1: this is a first drinking cover no like this, yes, yea.
Speaker 2: So we have drunk cover on the podcast before and
Speaker 2: it was four showers. It was the day that you
Speaker 2: came into Flavor. Yes, there was some leftover that Charlie
Speaker 2: blessed us with. And yeah and Diamond Lungey was you
Speaker 2: the studio.
Speaker 4: And takeover.
Speaker 1: And I'm here and that exact seat that you're sitting
Speaker 1: on right now.
Speaker 5: That's awesome. I'm going to do this for us.
Speaker 1: This is so funny. I haven't had a cover and
Speaker 1: a harm minute. Last time I had some cover was
Speaker 1: with my Fiji and fans last year. Oh my gosh, Okay,
Speaker 1: here we go, girl.
Speaker 3: I'm so excited.
Speaker 1: It hasn't been a while for a Lissa has not
Speaker 1: actually tragedy hits Melissa's Household.
Speaker 2: Hit my household this morning and now I bought a
Speaker 2: takeaway bottle on Friday night. I had been drinking alcohol,
Speaker 2: but I wanted to drink cover in the weekend. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: I never got around drinking the bottle, so I had
Speaker 2: to pour it down the drain.
Speaker 5: Oh wow, is that really bad?
Speaker 2: Just because it's sit on the bottle. Don't drink after
Speaker 2: two days and today would have been the third day,
Speaker 2: and I thought it's best not to drink it past expiring.
Speaker 5: I think if you kept it in the fridge, it
Speaker 5: will be okay, okay, yeah, it's all good.
Speaker 3: Okay, now get paid.
Speaker 4: But I repeated my bottle.
Speaker 5: Did you want some?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Please?
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Tragedy hit this morning for me too, very sad. But
Speaker 5: I was driving down Mount Albert Rod to drop my
Speaker 5: son to school, and then the cops pulled me over.
Speaker 5: I was like, why you guys pulled me? Oh no,
Speaker 5: he said. I was going limon Case over Man Albert Road.
Speaker 5: But I thought it was a sixty k zone and.
Speaker 1: Were you driving sixty?
Speaker 5: I was driving sixty one.
Speaker 1: They'd be like that. They'd be like that because the
Speaker 1: amount of times I have been pinged on Mahunga Drive.
Speaker 1: You know, when you get off to go to Favona
Speaker 1: and there's a speed camera there and I always go sixty,
Speaker 1: not too much, a little demure sixty, and I get
Speaker 1: pining for it. Because there's okay red you go above
Speaker 1: fifty and then boom, you're done.
Speaker 5: I was asking the man, hey, I'm just trying to
Speaker 5: get my son to school, like why aren't you, you know,
Speaker 5: eresting other people's.
Speaker 1: Doing white collar crimes?
Speaker 5: I know, And then you know, his face just annoyed me.
Speaker 5: Some moisturizer. I was like, at least we have some moisturizers.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna put me out. No, he goes, you're getting
Speaker 5: at eighty dollar five any dollars? Can you guys pay
Speaker 5: for it?
Speaker 1: We will pay for it.
Speaker 5: And yeah, so tragedy, my gosh, for both of us.
Speaker 1: Okay, so I have to say a little something something.
Speaker 1: How do you or MAUI happy Maudi language treek. I
Speaker 1: just want to raise this cover this other in recognition
Speaker 1: of land that is not ours and that was stolen.
Speaker 4: From mm hmm you go girl.
Speaker 5: Wow, I just hitting things now, just taking it.
Speaker 6: Recolonization.
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry that happened to you this morning. That
Speaker 1: would have jarred you a little bit.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I was about to get into an argument and my
Speaker 5: son's sitting there.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and then your son's like, no, not to.
Speaker 7: Love some I okay, that's Okay the best.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 3: I raised this in.
Speaker 2: Honor of man and it tour strong woman everywhere and
Speaker 2: we are Binka and we.
Speaker 1: Are she says she. I was I was looking at
Speaker 1: you and I was like, you know what, girl, get
Speaker 1: into it?
Speaker 5: What happened to not drinking at all?
Speaker 1: Wow? It was she felt the manner of what she
Speaker 1: was toasting to. So I now every single episode of
Speaker 1: the podcast we share what we love about home. So
Speaker 1: whatever home feels like to you, whether that's Mangaday, whether
Speaker 1: that's the Kingdom, what has time to you, and what
Speaker 1: do you love about it? We'll start off first. What
Speaker 1: I love about home is the high school that I
Speaker 1: went to. Actually, on the topic of schools, we were
Speaker 1: just talking about the schools that we went to. So
Speaker 1: I went to Delastle College, so Thissa one predominantly Maudi Pasifica.
Speaker 1: I think it was ninety nine percent at last Hole,
Speaker 1: and so it was kind of a given that I
Speaker 1: would go to Last Out. It was local. All my
Speaker 1: family either went to Last Out or McCauley, and I
Speaker 1: loved my experience there. I actually was so gutted because
Speaker 1: I had applied to go to another school that was
Speaker 1: outside of South and I didn't make it in because
Speaker 1: that school like was more athletic, and so they were
Speaker 1: trying to get brown students, but brown students who could
Speaker 1: play rugby and make their school look all nice and
Speaker 1: good and rugby and so at the time, I remember
Speaker 1: being so sad about not getting into the school because
Speaker 1: I felt like there was that perception at the time.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if it's still the same now that
Speaker 1: if you went to a local school, it was like, oh,
Speaker 1: like I like, you know, you're trying to get out
Speaker 1: of the hood, was the perception. Yeah, But by the
Speaker 1: time I left those gates, I feel like I learned
Speaker 1: so much about myself, my culture, my identity, my neighborhood
Speaker 1: that it truly was a blessing and disguise that I
Speaker 1: didn't make it in the other school. So what secret?
Speaker 1: Hard college? Okay, and I'm Switzerland nowadays. So's some drama,
Speaker 1: but yeah, we'll just.
Speaker 4: Swimmer.
Speaker 1: That's what I love about home this week? How about
Speaker 1: you grow?
Speaker 2: Definitely not my high school, I wrote My whole Masks
Speaker 2: experience was anyway I love about home. I'm gonna sound
Speaker 2: like a suck up because you're here now, but it's
Speaker 2: four Shells. Oh love going to four Shells.
Speaker 4: You know what it is.
Speaker 2: It's just something so like special. The ambiance, like the
Speaker 2: space is beautiful, and every conversation I even had there
Speaker 2: is just one of great quality. It's like magical. I
Speaker 2: can't even know what's going to happen. Someone will start singing,
Speaker 2: so we'll start having a DMC with you. The range
Speaker 2: it's such a special, special place. So for shouts for sure.
Speaker 5: Oh man, that's so cool. I'm struggling right now because
Speaker 5: I have problems of emotionally regulating. That's cool, that's awesome,
Speaker 5: awesome to hear. Yeah, Home, I guess home for me
Speaker 5: is Donna, being back in the for No and just
Speaker 5: being grounded and surrounded and embedded in the culture and
Speaker 5: the language and the people and the way we do things.
Speaker 5: I just came back from Donna, and it's a bit
Speaker 5: hard coming back here. But also I think with Donna there,
Speaker 5: I spend a lot of my time there, my childhood there,
Speaker 5: and so there's a lot of all the good memories
Speaker 5: I have of my childhood are at home. So that's
Speaker 5: probably home for me.
Speaker 1: It's beautiful, beautiful answer. Thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for sharing that with us. We
Speaker 2: feel like you're like royalty to us. We're obsessed with you.
Speaker 2: We think you're so cool. So the fact that you're
Speaker 2: here is so exciting for us. But we feel like
Speaker 2: you do so many amazing things. What when you introduce
Speaker 2: yourself to people, how do you like, how do you
Speaker 2: describe yourself? What are your job titles?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: I think that easy, as you know, going through the
Speaker 5: airports as really easy. I just write like self employed.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah.
Speaker 5: But I had a friend filling in my departure form
Speaker 5: from Donga. I don't know why. It must have been
Speaker 5: so dramatic, like I just kept feeling.
Speaker 4: That's so ridiculous.
Speaker 5: So she filled on my form and I was like,
Speaker 5: oh she wrote directly. I was like, oh, oh, I
Speaker 5: don't really see myself as that. I think I just
Speaker 5: see myself probably as a social entrepreneur, obviously in business,
Speaker 5: but at the same time, you've always got a hat
Speaker 5: for the community and your own people, so there's always
Speaker 5: the social impact and giving back to the community. But yeah,
Speaker 5: when people say, oh, what do you do, I'm like,
Speaker 5: what know? Yeah, I don't know how to answer it,
Speaker 5: to be honest. Can I get some edmund support to
Speaker 5: help me.
Speaker 1: Unless it's a fantastic writer.
Speaker 2: Oh for me on the spot, generally pretty grey mom,
Speaker 2: business owner. You have a master's girl, academic researchers.
Speaker 1: That's South employ Mattie, just South Aakland girls.
Speaker 5: South Oakland, loud and proud and like you probably you know,
Speaker 5: so important to represent. I know, growing up it was
Speaker 5: almost embarrassing to say you're from Magata and yeah, man,
Speaker 5: I went to girls.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I was like, man, that's our age.
Speaker 2: What else am I going to say? I grew up
Speaker 2: Freeman's Bay. I went to school in ponto Me and
Speaker 2: it was very embarrassing. Sales from South Oakland. That's your
Speaker 2: economic divide was very strong, was clear going anywhere.
Speaker 1: And I'll tell us about the genesis of four shells.
Speaker 1: So how did that start?
Speaker 5: You know that song? It was all a dream, so
Speaker 5: me and Juicy.
Speaker 1: You grew up with.
Speaker 5: So yeah, yeah, no, it was always it was always
Speaker 5: a dream growing up. We we always was in cover.
Speaker 5: That's how the family survived out of New Zealand because
Speaker 5: we came from Donga. And I remember growing up because
Speaker 5: we got these cover party machines and at our home
Speaker 5: and long and long I used to ask my I
Speaker 5: used to pray when I was a teenager. I loved
Speaker 5: I loved the memories, loved everything about it, and I
Speaker 5: used to always pray and I would ask God, like, Man, God,
Speaker 5: let me be the one that carries on cover. I
Speaker 5: don't know what that would look like as a woman.
Speaker 5: I'm not going to be going around the plantations and Tonga,
Speaker 5: you know, just because of those gender gender roles and expectations.
Speaker 5: But I used to always pray, like, let me be
Speaker 5: the one that extends whatever that other legacy looks like.
Speaker 5: And it's interesting because fast forward to opening the shop
Speaker 5: in twenty nineteen, I found an old diary and eight
Speaker 5: years before that, I had written down these streets. You know,
Speaker 5: when you've got nothing going on or your dreams, you're
Speaker 5: just like write the dreams a million times, and you
Speaker 5: know that's what you live off. And I had ridden
Speaker 5: I want to start a cover cafe. And it was
Speaker 5: so crazy because I remember when I wrote it. It
Speaker 5: was I remember my cousin saying, what is the most
Speaker 5: craziest dream? It was like a cover cave because I
Speaker 5: don't know what that looks like. You know, what does
Speaker 5: that look like? What does that feel like? I didn't
Speaker 5: have any qualifications at the time. I didn't really know
Speaker 5: business or anything like that. So when we opened the shop,
Speaker 5: it felt like a it was meant to be, like
Speaker 5: a natural progression of what already was. So it was
Speaker 5: basically just felt like stepping into what was meant to
Speaker 5: be for me and the path that I meant to
Speaker 5: be on. And the start of it was a bit rocky.
Speaker 5: Do you guys want the real conversation or that.
Speaker 2: You want to cover?
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was. It was pretty tricky, like business partners
Speaker 5: at the time, because I know, you know business, it's
Speaker 5: hard for us specific we don't have the resources or
Speaker 5: the upfront capital and there's a lot of money that
Speaker 5: goes into starting that. But fortunately the Lord had it
Speaker 5: that we had business partners at the time, so we
Speaker 5: were able to all go in and share the cost.
Speaker 5: Use where's the lord, They're gone now, so partners we
Speaker 5: parted way diplomatically and that was during COVID twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: Yes, oh my gosh, so you start up the lounge nineteen,
Speaker 1: come into the pair.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was crazy, but you know what, when you
Speaker 5: have nothing, you're like, man, I have an opportunity right now,
Speaker 5: and I'm going to hold on to it because at
Speaker 5: some point the storm subsides and then you'll be able
Speaker 5: to do something. Yeah. It's a different mindset, I think
Speaker 5: for us specific or at least for myself. When you
Speaker 5: see opportunity, you know what it is. Yeah.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I also read an interview you did. We talked about
Speaker 2: pivoting to uber e during the pandemic.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what what was that?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 3: Did that help?
Speaker 2: Uh? Not?
Speaker 5: Really? What actually helped was we had we have like
Speaker 5: a steady group of regulars who've supported us since day one,
Speaker 5: who still support us now. So really grateful for them.
Speaker 5: Shout out to their regulars. Oh my gosh, I feel
Speaker 5: like regulator.
Speaker 6: You know, the warrant Yes, she's warranty, no warrngy, she's
Speaker 6: gonna turn.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: And the Uber eats was just another way because before
Speaker 5: they were just delivering to people. But that took a while.
Speaker 5: We came up against a lot of no so it
Speaker 5: took it was we had to go to them twice
Speaker 5: like justify why you can't have goava on here? Please,
Speaker 5: thank you very much, and they did. And a lot
Speaker 5: of these groups like uber eats and Shopify is one
Speaker 5: we're dealing with right now. There's no justification and food,
Speaker 5: you know, gover falls under the food food to act
Speaker 5: and zeal And, So tell me why is it more
Speaker 5: scrutinized than any other food?
Speaker 3: I really do see.
Speaker 2: Four Showers is like this kind of like magical special
Speaker 2: place that it's the lighting, it's like the people. What
Speaker 2: are some of your favorite things about the four Shower space?
Speaker 5: The space? Definitely the people. You know, the space is empty,
Speaker 5: it's not a space without the people and the kind
Speaker 5: of people that it draws in. Oh man, it's just amazing,
Speaker 5: Like a lot of times you don't even know what
Speaker 5: people do. You know, it's because the conversations are more
Speaker 5: around you know, like just some real talk around culture
Speaker 5: and like the political environment, what's going on, how it's
Speaker 5: affecting us, how are we feeling as human beings? And
Speaker 5: who are we in this landscape of a twenty twenty
Speaker 5: four as young Pacific people. So it's a lot of
Speaker 5: kind of that kind of conversation. It's a very non
Speaker 5: pretentious space.
Speaker 3: Yeah, gave a damn what you do?
Speaker 5: Who want to know who you are? Who are you
Speaker 5: as a person. But it's hard for me to be
Speaker 5: there just you know, being the owner because you're always thinking,
Speaker 5: you know, you can't sit still. You're like, I got
Speaker 5: to go stuck up the shower. There's a little bit
Speaker 5: of dust there. Yeah, and so it's hard for me
Speaker 5: to be there. But that and probably all the art
Speaker 5: on the wall. Yeah, yeah, all the art. They are
Speaker 5: local artists and they all represent something. And the photography
Speaker 5: as well. We've got one of our friend Ela who
Speaker 5: passed away, but he was part of our deportee documentary
Speaker 5: that my husband had done and Donga with Renews at
Speaker 5: the time News. Yeah, yeah it was. And all those
Speaker 5: memories and my father, and then there's an old board
Speaker 5: you know growing up my parents used to write.
Speaker 1: Like sales and my mom's like on the electric pole.
Speaker 5: Just random like we're own Auckland Council just we ever,
Speaker 5: and the last board she wrote, she's got to mention
Speaker 5: now we have that up on the show. So you see,
Speaker 5: I remember how straight the lines used to be when
Speaker 5: she wrote, and you see now how so different. So
Speaker 5: all of that are like almost memory moments, memories and
Speaker 5: moments of a time and a space that have now
Speaker 5: passed on, but they live inside you and it's all
Speaker 5: of that's probably what does it for me. You know,
Speaker 5: this is all about the god method that Gava is
Speaker 5: about book at Booget for Noir, the holding on to
Speaker 5: culture and heritage and preserving that right within the space.
Speaker 5: But but I personally feel for myself it's like bo
Speaker 5: like holding onto memory when you when you get to
Speaker 5: a point where you watch your parents, it's almost like
Speaker 5: they're transitioning into the next followers. You hold onto anything
Speaker 5: and everything that you can of them. So I'm just
Speaker 5: very fortunate that the shop, every time I'm in there,
Speaker 5: it's that holding on so desperately to these memories that
Speaker 5: you never want to let girl or see faith. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 5: so wow, that's just to go.
Speaker 1: The queen sharing her insights. Now, how did you get
Speaker 1: into your research? My heat like that mine off work.
Speaker 5: Oh, the research my head I reckon as well, a
Speaker 5: bit of researchers ourselves.
Speaker 1: You even think about quite naturally, Yeah.
Speaker 5: Naturally, you know with felt specific you know, like our
Speaker 5: tongue in grapevine that we don't know how it makes
Speaker 5: sense it gets.
Speaker 2: To our.
Speaker 3: I'm working.
Speaker 2: The last bit of contract work was a while ago,
Speaker 2: to be honest, but I'm going back to you to
Speaker 2: do my PhD next year. So I'm hoping to pick
Speaker 2: up some contracts here and there. I'm currently working on
Speaker 2: like a it's not really a research project, but we're
Speaker 2: going away this week to put together like a grant application. Yeah,
Speaker 2: which was really cool for the Spencer Foundation. But yeah,
Speaker 2: it's been a while. It takes me a really once
Speaker 2: I'm in it, I love it, but I feel like
Speaker 2: sometimes it could be sold crushing, Like you know, a.
Speaker 5: Crush was sold one am. Yeah, crushed very much, so
Speaker 5: like you have a powder got to wait to get here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, your soul was going like.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but we need more specific researchers.
Speaker 3: I love research.
Speaker 2: It's just like for me, enabling our people to tell
Speaker 2: their stories or tell their stories and like A, I
Speaker 2: don't really love the word manner enhancing, but you know,
Speaker 2: in a manner enhancing way is so like that's what
Speaker 2: I love about it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're making me want.
Speaker 4: To do.
Speaker 5: Yeah, no, that's awesome. I've got a couple of interns
Speaker 5: they're doing their masters once just finished from aut Beautiful.
Speaker 5: But it's showing them like, hey, there's other pathways.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So if you're as mothers, we're busy, we're trying to
Speaker 5: work around our kids. But contracting is a researcher. It's
Speaker 5: just a real good way of making money. Yeah, that's
Speaker 5: not taking too much of your time. Yeah, flexibility.
Speaker 1: So yeah, encourage you to how do you do the
Speaker 1: research and running the business and having children.
Speaker 5: I actually have a babysitter. Real, that's that's the key, guys.
Speaker 2: I'm like, my kids are like.
Speaker 5: I know, like I have a s Like they've been
Speaker 5: with her. She spent with my because I have twins.
Speaker 5: I have got four kids. Yeah, fourteen, eight year old
Speaker 5: and twins. And that's a huge help. And you know,
Speaker 5: everyone talks about the village and yeah, bro, the village
Speaker 5: is working.
Speaker 1: The village is working at work as well.
Speaker 4: The village is working.
Speaker 5: They come home, they're tired, and then you're placing your
Speaker 5: responsibilities on them. They can lead to tensions, you know.
Speaker 5: So it just made better sense to for me to
Speaker 5: get someone else to look after my kids. But I'm
Speaker 5: not gonna lie. That's a big part of it, I know.
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you, like, what is the Pacific
Speaker 1: business space like for you as an entrepreneur.
Speaker 5: Ah, it's a growing space. It's hard to say, to
Speaker 5: be honest. If I'm completely honest, when I first started,
Speaker 5: I was a part of a lot of the networks
Speaker 5: or good stuff. I don't go too many things now
Speaker 5: just because I don't. It's have for me to find time.
Speaker 5: But the spaces that I am a part of or
Speaker 5: the ones I visit, there's so much. Our people are
Speaker 5: so talented, we're so entrepreneur we're so creative, and we
Speaker 5: bring that create creativity into how do we make money?
Speaker 5: And it's not hard for us. That's why there's so
Speaker 5: many of us at night markets and we just do
Speaker 5: our own thing, whether it's registered as a legal entity
Speaker 5: or not. But I think that that's setting up officially
Speaker 5: and making it a proper setup according to the packet
Speaker 5: system that we've delivered.
Speaker 1: Companies register, Yeah, the company.
Speaker 5: Is charities register. That can be tricky for people. When
Speaker 5: I think about the businesses who are doing extremely well
Speaker 5: and who are pacific, I can only think of a few,
Speaker 5: and I often wonder how do they do it? Because
Speaker 5: you're in business three five years? But then how do
Speaker 5: you go from that to that?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Taking that, I think that's the missing key for us,
Speaker 5: and there's not I guess there are examples, but we
Speaker 5: don't know how because sometimes these examples they're too busy
Speaker 5: running their own thing. And that's one thing I always
Speaker 5: tell myself when I get to that point, I show
Speaker 5: us how going to reach back and be like, guys,
Speaker 5: this is how we do it. Yes, but I understand
Speaker 5: everyone's journey is different as well.
Speaker 7: Crystal.
Speaker 2: I feel like this is pivoting slightly from the business chat.
Speaker 2: But I feel like as a woman growing up other
Speaker 2: or as that's what we would talk about it as
Speaker 2: I would see it in other ceremonies and things like that.
Speaker 2: But I never saw Cover as something I could drink casually,
Speaker 2: especially because it seemed like quite a male dominated space.
Speaker 3: But I feel like four showers is different in the.
Speaker 2: Sex when you're drinking Cover casually, which is not something
Speaker 2: that I did when I was younger, or not how
Speaker 2: I saw it when.
Speaker 3: I was younger.
Speaker 2: But also I don't feel even though actually most of
Speaker 2: the time of God, I'll go with me and like,
Speaker 2: I don't feel like it's a super male dominated space.
Speaker 2: Have you and that makes me feel incredibly comfortable and
Speaker 2: like excited to drink cover? Is that something that other
Speaker 2: women have shared with you? Like, what does sentiment like
Speaker 2: that mean to you? Yeah?
Speaker 5: Like, and people will say you know, some women are like,
Speaker 5: oh no, women don't drink other and others are nervous
Speaker 5: to try or but I think because I'm a female
Speaker 5: it helps. Yeah, it helps that I'm a woman. To
Speaker 5: be honest, I didn't even think of that stuff.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 5: I've always lived on the understanding like I've got to
Speaker 5: do life according to how I feel right. But I'm
Speaker 5: also very aware that in the tongue and setting, it
Speaker 5: is a very male dominant space. And that's okay too.
Speaker 5: So there's sometimes some spaces you just know, I know,
Speaker 5: not to enter out of respect for them. We need
Speaker 5: all our spaces. There's no one space right right, but
Speaker 5: in the context of four showers, that space is right
Speaker 5: for us women to be there. One woman was women
Speaker 5: don't drink a I was like, sorry.
Speaker 4: Right now.
Speaker 5: Join It's like, you know, honestly, it's taking back ownership.
Speaker 5: Like when you think about growing up in manga, what
Speaker 5: would we what were we subjected to? Look at our
Speaker 5: whole shops and all this takeaway shops and no, I
Speaker 5: don't want it, you know, And then you think, okay,
Speaker 5: so I've been taught. I grew up in the era.
Speaker 5: I felt like with the last generation that did the
Speaker 5: hardcore binge dricking, you guys still striking on.
Speaker 1: Not I think it's here. I would say no, I
Speaker 1: think with our generation officiallye because with club culture, that's
Speaker 1: changed drastically as we've grown. Because when we were like
Speaker 1: late teens popping, like, there were still lines at the club.
Speaker 4: Just spas.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it's amazing and here for it here yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 5: this generation, your generation, I don't know, you guys are
Speaker 5: just so much more enlightened and and we get better
Speaker 5: as the not better, but we become more confident and
Speaker 5: as generations go.
Speaker 1: But I will say, though, I would die to have
Speaker 1: been in that business casual era where people rocked up
Speaker 1: to the clubs and blazers and like looking like they
Speaker 1: were going to work in the club because they're just screams.
Speaker 3: Like this era of club it their era.
Speaker 5: I swear it was. I'm not gonna lie. That was
Speaker 5: the Racino era. If you know, you know, if you
Speaker 5: don't know, it's okay, I don't know. That was the
Speaker 5: era of just hardcore HAARTI don't care, spin der flat ring,
Speaker 5: figure out how you're gonna take that's so sensible. Now,
Speaker 5: it's amazing some of us.
Speaker 1: What are they have benefits of drinking cover?
Speaker 5: Yeah, they have benefits. Some of them are like anti Anzoltic,
Speaker 5: a mile soporific, so it's like a stress reliever. So
Speaker 5: you drink it, you feel quite relaxed. And with the
Speaker 5: different cover, these different cultivars, and they have slightly different effects.
Speaker 5: So some might make people talk a lot, some might
Speaker 5: just make you feel very content to just sit and
Speaker 5: steer at the water. But once you go into that sleep,
Speaker 5: you have a really really good sleep. And I know
Speaker 5: previously some people would say, oh, they wake up the
Speaker 5: next morning and they're like really groggy, but the cover
Speaker 5: quality just probably wasn't that great quality cover you wake
Speaker 5: up feeling on. So if I drink over and I'm
Speaker 5: like at one am, I can still get up in
Speaker 5: the morning. It's not that hangover that you get. Yeah,
Speaker 5: it's like the opposite effects of alcohol. But I think
Speaker 5: with gover it's more than just the effects, it's everything.
Speaker 5: It's that holistic everything, that feeling of just d la no.
Speaker 5: You know, you feel content and even if you've got
Speaker 5: like a lot of anxiety or stress, but when you're
Speaker 5: in that space, you don't feel like you want to
Speaker 5: shut it down, you still feel it, but you're not
Speaker 5: overwhelmed by it. Yeah, drinking alcohol, you can drink it
Speaker 5: and then just run and have an amazing and just pretend.
Speaker 5: Then it comes all crashing down the next couple of
Speaker 5: days and you're reminded of all the things that you're
Speaker 5: stressed about. So apart from that, it's that it is
Speaker 5: really that, it's that creating. There's just something really magical
Speaker 5: about cover.
Speaker 4: I agree.
Speaker 5: And you know, we went to Awaki the Woman's Cover crew,
Speaker 5: and we went and found the original cover site off
Speaker 5: where the Tongue cover story comes from, and I get it.
Speaker 5: It was just very it's hard to explain when you
Speaker 5: connect back back on that level and then you come
Speaker 5: and then you set it, you know, you sit with
Speaker 5: flavor with It's just it's hard to explain. But it's
Speaker 5: there's something very spiritual about cover that pulls people together.
Speaker 4: I agree.
Speaker 2: And I've been trying so obviously, look at me, I've
Speaker 2: been trying to explain.
Speaker 3: Someone halfway.
Speaker 2: I've been trying to explain to my mum, like cover
Speaker 2: is great, like it's but she had a very very
Speaker 2: bad experience obviously with poor quality cover that like meant
Speaker 2: she could walk like she had a really bad experience,
Speaker 2: and so I'm trying to like trying to say no,
Speaker 2: this is legit, like it's a real thing, man. And
Speaker 2: but I think she misses the cultural and that spiritual
Speaker 2: aspect because of the misconceptions and the bad experience she
Speaker 2: had with a bad quality.
Speaker 5: Was she on like a tour Was she a tourist somewhere?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think so.
Speaker 2: And I think they gave her too much or something. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but do you you would often hear stories with misconceptions
Speaker 2: like that, Hey, and how what? What?
Speaker 3: What are some of the things you try and like
Speaker 3: student to people.
Speaker 5: You know, we try and tell them like the quality
Speaker 5: of covers, different covers, discovers, not one thing, just like coffee, right, yeah,
Speaker 5: the different types of coffee beans. There's different types of beer, rangers, rangers,
Speaker 5: rangers or range? Did that sound? Was a researcher? I
Speaker 5: brought my degree and covers the same. They all have
Speaker 5: different And one thing that we focus on at the
Speaker 5: shop is the quality of it because you know, for
Speaker 5: us in the Pacific, we've been drinking it for a while,
Speaker 5: over three thousand years. We're used to drinking it straight
Speaker 5: out of the grounds. Some chickens running around some you know,
Speaker 5: like we're used to at our stomachs, but when you're
Speaker 5: bringing it to a new audience, you have to be
Speaker 5: so so particular about the standard, the way and get
Speaker 5: it tested and stuff. So we always tell people to
Speaker 5: just try again, come in and explain the cultural elements
Speaker 5: to it, and just try and explain that to them
Speaker 5: and then shove some cover down different.
Speaker 1: Yes, I think people needed to hear that. And now
Speaker 1: we are going to move on to our rapid fire,
Speaker 1: our rapid fire game. Now we're going to play a
Speaker 1: few rounds of cover faves, so we want to know
Speaker 1: and lean more into your cover expertise. So we have
Speaker 1: a few faves that we're going to ask you and
Speaker 1: you just answer with what comes to mind. So, who
Speaker 1: has been your favorite guest at the four shows? Louch oh,
Speaker 1: I saw that Jason Moore?
Speaker 5: Yes, Jason, it wasn't Jason.
Speaker 1: What has to be ed.
Speaker 5: Perah and down that guy's on fire and just that
Speaker 5: deep passion for teti ty and the message around like
Speaker 5: Maldi never see the sovereignties. I felt that because that's
Speaker 5: how we feel about cover.
Speaker 1: So yeah, definitely, absolutely any other notable mentions.
Speaker 5: There's so many people who come back.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I imagine.
Speaker 5: So all the musos yah to come through Fiji was
Speaker 5: that was crazy.
Speaker 3: Crazy the King of Polynesia music few.
Speaker 5: Years ago, he came through and saying.
Speaker 1: So and.
Speaker 5: Yes, yes, yes, yes, and that's voice radio and in
Speaker 5: real life, I feel like you were singing to me.
Speaker 5: But I was kind of I was pregnant at the time,
Speaker 5: so I was like.
Speaker 8: Oh, yeah, Fiji and there's just so many economic there's
Speaker 8: just so many people.
Speaker 5: It's hard for me to put my wow, yeah.
Speaker 1: Fave Goather experience. So has there been a time that
Speaker 1: you have just been indulging in some cover and it's
Speaker 1: been itched into your mind. The experience of that.
Speaker 5: Probably my wedding. I got married in Donga. Wow, we
Speaker 5: had our first Sunday and water and that Gover experience.
Speaker 5: It was probably my first proper experience back in twenty ten.
Speaker 5: But it's the walking in when the men were doing
Speaker 5: the formalities and being told you, I feel sorry, I
Speaker 5: don't understand.
Speaker 4: It's my first Sunday exactly.
Speaker 1: I don't care, you know, very strict, very ceremonial.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So we have to wait and then re enter
Speaker 5: the space when we were invited at the right time,
Speaker 5: but I loved it. It was like it was a
Speaker 5: real that's real tongue for you, and nobody got time
Speaker 5: for you. You know, you uneducated Take your Instagram. Yeah,
Speaker 5: that was probably my most memorable.
Speaker 1: And lastly, what is your faith country to source cover
Speaker 1: from currently? I hear that's different.
Speaker 5: Yeah, their processing facilities just how you know that's one
Speaker 5: of the largest exporting plots okay, and they've just got
Speaker 5: their process down on lock. I love tongue to get
Speaker 5: to that stage. We're still working on it. Look at
Speaker 5: me talking like I talked with the Prome.
Speaker 1: And we have the CEO of other industries.
Speaker 5: One tongue and I'm like.
Speaker 3: This would be a great place, and.
Speaker 5: I reckon we should set one up.
Speaker 1: Yes, any plans regarding that opening up another branch, I think,
Speaker 1: so whereabouts can you give us?
Speaker 5: I feel like I want to. I feel like Donga
Speaker 5: would be ideal. Yeah, because it's needed and there's a
Speaker 5: huge potential for the tourism industry.
Speaker 1: Then yeah, I think it would spark a ripple effect.
Speaker 1: I think for how cover is she it in the Kingdom?
Speaker 5: Yeah, Yeah, we've just learned a lot in the five
Speaker 5: years here with the demographic that we I guess you know,
Speaker 5: bring in. It's a completely different experience and it's one
Speaker 5: of those things you don't know until you're in it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, so, and now, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: coming into our space today and sharing with us your expertise.
Speaker 2: And she doing with us cover literally literally, thank you
Speaker 2: so much, Sus, such a great conversation, and we're so
Speaker 2: grateful for.
Speaker 4: The gifts you brought.
Speaker 5: You are very wise and yeah you don't know about that,
Speaker 5: but thank you.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry that we can't help out with their eighty dollars.
Speaker 3: Sorry about that, girl, but we'll come and spend eighty dollars.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's pretty much going on. Thank you, And that's
Speaker 1: aland waits for this week. Are now so kind that
Speaker 1: she lifts on gover with Alissa.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's so lovely. As you would have heard, tragedy
Speaker 2: struck my household this morning and.
Speaker 3: Down the drain.
Speaker 2: But I'm so grateful to and now for her generosity
Speaker 2: and kindness. Make sure you head down to four Showers
Speaker 2: Cover Lounge in Victoria Park Market.
Speaker 3: Mas won't be there, but.
Speaker 1: I might be. And with that we say goodbye.
Speaker 3: Wait wait, wait, the only.
Speaker 2: Reason I say Mas won't be there is because he's
Speaker 2: never outside, where as I am outside.
Speaker 3: I like to be outside.
Speaker 1: One thing about me, I'm gonna be a mango.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and think about me, I'm gonna be worried about
Speaker 1: So goodbye, good bye, oh