The Kuki Cre8tive students were given the golden opportunity to interview Prime Minister Mark Brown, in his first official engagement for the year, and Pa Marie Ariki during their intensive three-day camp this week at the Pa Ariki Palace, which specialised in training for acting, dance, and camera work. Melina Etches reports.

Directors of Kuki Cre8tive, passionate husband and wife creatives Glenda Tuaine and Maurice “Mo” Newport tutored the kids, and Cook Islands creatives from Aotearoa New Zealand, Poe Tiare Tararo and Roy Iro also showed their support, mentoring them.

Tuaine was stoked the interviews and camera filming experience ran extremely well.

“I thought they were fantastic with the Prime Minister and I thought he was fantastic with them,” says Tuaine.

“And we were the first media appointment that he had for 2024, which we thought was pretty amazing.”

Tuaine shares that the most important thing out of the camp is for the young ones to understand the technical side of working a camera, sound equipment, to respect equipment, and to know that it isn’t just about what they see on screen.

“It’s about how to work the equipment, what the purpose of it is, why it worked the way it worked, what you’ve got to do.”

The interviews were technical sessions for them to be able to understand how to step up a set or interview environment, and then how to do an interview.

“It’s about being able to introduce them as well to the idea that they are capable to interview leaders, that age shouldn’t dictate whether you can actually speak to somebody about an important issue,” shares Tuaine.

“And that’s also to do with the creativity of it, because you don’t hold yourself back, be brave enough to be able to do and that’s what this is all about – being brave enough to think that you can actually go there.”

For the interview with Pa Marie Ariki, the students asked slightly different questions from the Prime Minister, asking more cultural questions.

“She gave us some incredible answers.”

Teuruaa Goldsworthy (left) and Liam Aviu-Kurariki check out camera angles. MELINA ETCHES/24011227

Tekeu Ariki Dashwood and Liam Aviu-Kurariki, who took part in the three-day camp, were both nervous and excited to have the opportunity to interview Pa Ariki.

The Kuki Cre8tive camp closed yesterday.

Although Tuaine was shattered and absolutely exhausted, she was extremely proud of her students.

“It’s just been phenomenal,” she says. “This has been really intensive three days, they have worked and taken on board so many concepts that just blow my mind.”

“They are now choreographing their own dance moves to the dancers and they are working on their own acting skills.

“Because they are seeing themselves being able to do things like this, they recognise that they can do things like this and I love it.

“We are actually showing them what they need to be able to do, how it all works.”

Tuaine believes we need to stop underestimating our young people.

“We as adults tend to place their requirements on them and believe that we’re speaking for them but we are not.

“They’re actually quite capable of speaking for themselves and their issues are just as relevant as my issues in today’s world.

“Thank you so much to Prime Minister Mark Brown and Pa Ariki.”

The Kuki Cre8tive camera crew for the Prime Minister’s interview were: Director – Teau Goldsworthy, director of Photography and Camera 1 – Liam Aviu-Kurariki, Camera 2 – Teuruaa Goldsworthy, Sound – Emilee Aviu-Kurariki, Marker Ruby Newport.

The Kuki Cre8tive camera crew for Pa Marie Ariki’s interview were: Co-directors – TeAroa Tuarae-White and Merina Kamana, Director of Photography and 1^st Camera – Kahana Ellison, 2^nd Camera – Uleina Eraio, Marker – Numia Horn-Smith, Sound – Ruby Newport.

The Kuki Cre8tive interview with Prime Minister Mark Brown

Tekeu-Ariki Dashwood: Do you enjoy reading books?

PM Brown: Yes, I’ve always enjoyed reading books since I was young, I would read heaps of books every week. Up until recently I used to buy books when I used to … Now of course I download books and read them on my kindle so I have collection of literally hundreds, hundreds of books.

Dashwood: When was the last time you read a book and what was it called?

PM Brown: That’s a good one – when was the last time I read a book? I was on a plane and it was a book that I’d read before and I read it again and it was “Dune” and there’s a movie out about it now so I thought I’d read the book again to remind me.

Dashwood: What’s it about?

PM Brown: Science fiction, it’s a science fiction book written many years ago by Frank Herbert, and it’s the life in another galaxy set in a different time … but in some ways it’s very similar to how the world operates today.

Dashwood: Thank you very much.

Numia Horn-Smith: Do you like dance and if so what’s your favourite kind of dance?

PM Brown: (Chuckles) Oh dear, yes as a young person at school I used to avoid the cultural dance but I notice as I got older that I’m quite happy to do the cultural dance … but yeah, I enjoy the dance when the occasion is right. And what sort of dance … Oh I guess the only dance I know is our traditional local dancing on a fast beat which is slowing down to a slow beat now. I’m not familiar with any other type of dancing but I’ve seen quite a bit on YouTube and on videos. Yeah, I do like dance.

Horn-Smith: After this, would you care to demonstrate?

PM Brown: … only if everybody gets in part involved.

Merina Kamana: What are your hobbies? What do you like to do?

PM Brown: I used to like doing a bit of dabbling with planting in my garden for sometimes fruits and vegetables. I enjoy playing sports still, so I play rugby league with the old boys … and I enjoy fishing.

Kamana: So, you like rugby, you like sports, so your favourite sport is rugby, what do you like about rugby?
PM Brown: Rugby is good… you can score tries and you can run around others … getting harder now though, as you get older the legs are not so fast anymore and afterwards when the game is finished you meet up with all your friends and sit down have drinks and talk and have a lot of fun.

Ruby Newport shakes PM Mark Brown’s hand after their interview. MELINA ETCHES/24011132

Ruby Newport: I have a question that’s been on my mind lately. Issues at Tereora (College) because we don’t have drama classes as an option at Tereora anymore and for me as well as others we would like to take acting… and maybe a future career. So, I was wondering if you probably help us either maybe including the drama classes or maybe building or involving drama classes?
PM Brown: Very good. Well, we have a new Secretary of Education that will be starting in the new year and it’s probably best if I talk to the Minister of Education as well to make sure that our students’ passion can be helped out in the system and I know drama for some of our students is something that’s quite enjoyable, something that’s really exciting to do. And the fact that it’s not on the school programme for the school curriculum suggests then that we may need to have a look at it as an extra curriculum activity to get those students who are interested in it to be part of it. So, I’ll have to talk to the Minister of Education and the principal of the school to see how they can accommodate those students who want to do drama.

Newport: Are you interested in drama at all?

PM Brown: As a politician, you’re involved in drama every day, (chuckles all around) everyday, so you have to put on a good face, you can’t get angry at people so yeah, I’m very good at drama (more chuckles and laughter).

Uleia Eraio (left) waits for her prompt to interview Prime Minister Mark Brown. MELINA ETCHES/24011225

Uleina Eraio: With climate change being the most common problem affecting the Pacific Islands, as the young generation next in line, where do you see our future going?

PM Brown: The Pacific is at the forefront of the impacts of climate change even though we only represent 0.03 per cent of carbon emissions. So, what we need to do is build resilience to the impacts of climate change against us. Impacts are different for each of our own islands so the northern group islands which are low lying they have to build resilience against sea surge, and sea level rise. For us here on Rarotonga the impacts are slightly different but still erosion on the foreshore is a big impact. For us as Cook Islanders we have to be adaptable, we have to be resilient to the impacts of climate change. But the younger generation, it is also carrying on the voice that this generation is taking that voice to big climate conferences and asking those big countries that are responsible for causing the climate change with their carbon emissions, they need to do their part in reducing carbon emissions because it’s affecting countries like us. We didn’t put the carbon into the atmosphere, we didn’t put the plastic into the ocean, it’s them, so they need to take responsibility and if our voice is strong and if we continue speaking that way through our generations, that’s the way messaging will be heard and that’s the way the message will be carried to these countries. Whether they carry it out or not, that remains to be seen. If we have more voices especially from our younger generations and more from other countries in the Pacific that are affected then all of a sudden you have a louder voice and a voice that doesn’t stop sending the message to reduce the impacts of climate change.

Eraio: What can 0.03 per cent actually be if you think about it as a large amount we are contributing to – green house gas emissions. What can we do as activities to try and reduce that number?

PM Brown: Most of our greenhouse emissions are from the generation of electricity so converting to renewable energy is the first thing that we can do and all of our islands now have solar panels … we’ve got to do that for the rest of Rarotonga and Aitutaki. And the other one that uses up a lot of fossil fuel is transportation. So, shifting to the electric vehicles like my car which is a fully electric car so there’s no carbon emissions there, my motorbike is an electric motorbike so no carbon emissions there and my scooter is an electric scooter. So, if we slowly help our people to transition to renewable energy we can demonstrate and be an example as a country that’s doing its part to reduce carbon emissions even though our emissions are like a drop in the bucket…

Kahana Ellison: What are your thoughts on the Cook Islands Robotics team that recently went to Singapore as I was a part of that. What were your thoughts on that?

PM Brown: I loved it. I loved the fact that we had a team involved in Robotics, I loved the fact we have students that are interested in this particular field because certainly as we move forward into the future that sees part of the change that we will see in our society and we’ll see it here in the Cook Islands as well. So, it’s not just Robotics, that fact we’re looking at things like artificial intelligence that is now gaining more and more prominence and will accelerate its use from what I understand over the next four to five years. I think it’s really great that the Cook Islands and students from our schools are interested and not only that, they are participating in these regional exhibitions like the one in Singapore recently. So, well done. Congratulations.

Kohen Holley (left) and Liam Aviu-Kurariki prepare for their interview with PM Mark Brown. MELINA ETCHES/24011116

Ellison: And if you wanted to build a robot, what would you build?

PM Brown: I’d build one that can fold my clothes, iron my shirts and that can feed the dogs and one that can weed the garden.

Kohen Holley: I have a couple of things I want to ask you, one of which is, Marvel or DC (Detective Comics), as in which one do you prefer?

PM Brown: Marvel.

Holley: Why?

PM Brown: As a kid that was one of the comics I read the most.

Holley: What’s your favourite character within Marvel?

PM Brown: Back then, Spiderman, Iron Man wasn’t that big then, maybe the Hulk.

Holley: Why would you like the Hulk?

PM Brown: He’s indestructible.

Holley: Before I go, I have some ‘Quick Fire (questions)’ for you.

PM Brown: Okay.

Holley: Rugby or league?

PM Brown: League.

Holley: Sushi or pizza?

PM Brown: Sushi

Holley: Netball or basketball?

PM Brown: Netball.

Holley: Apple or Samsung?

PM Brown: Samsung (with great emphasis).

Holley: Netflix of Disney Plus (both are streaming channels)?

PM Brown: Netflix.

Holley: R & B (Rhythm & Blues) or Hip Hop?
PM Brown: Neither.

Holley: Taylor Swift or Eminem?

PM Brown: Aw none.

Holley: Coffee, tea or milo?
PM Brown: Coffee.

Holley: Last one. Uke (ukelele) or guitar?

PM Brown: Uke.

Holley: Thank you Mr Brown (To a round of cheering and applause).

The Prime Minister kept his word and showed his dancing skills to the students who were thrilled to join him.

“He taught them his dance out on the lawn and everybody danced together. It was priceless,” says Tuaine.