Mariner Fagaiava-Muller is outspoken on issues affecting Pasifika youth. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Mariner Fagaiava-Muller has a lot to say. As a radio host, that’s not surprising. He’s literally paid to talk. But what catches me off guard are the topics occupying the mind of the chatty 22-year-old host of the Drive radio show on Flava.
Sexuality, religion, politics, identity, family, colonialism and culture all come up during our hour-long chat. Occasionally, they’re discussed all at the same time. The norms of one often in direct conflict with the beliefs of the other, and how those opposing views impact on people. Especially if you identify as queer and come from a deeply religious household.
But before Fagaiava-Muller, or Maz as he’s known, gets into that, he brings up the league.
“I’m heading straight from here to Mt Smart for the Warriors because this is our - quote-unquote - ‘Flava game’,” he laughs making air quotes. “All of us are required to be there. There’ll be this big hoopla at halftime.”
Even though he’s not a fan of the game he has been studying its intricacies.
“I felt like I needed to clue up on my Warriors knowledge and find out who all the players are beyond their Instagram feeds, like actually learn about… like… stats and stuff,” he says, unconvincingly reaching for some sporty jargon. “I like to think that tonight I will kind of understand what’s going on.”
Making sense of what’s going on could almost be his mantra. Before spinning old-school hip-hop and R&B on Flava, Fagaiava-Muller was a reporter for Radio New Zealand and TVNZ. He mostly wrote about issues related to Aotearoa’s Pasifika community, including leading RNZ’s coverage of the Government’s 2021 acknowledgement and apology for the violent, community-breaking Dawn Raids of the 1970s.
“I was 20 years old at the time, so that was massive for me,” he says. “I remember being so proud of that.”
Hailing from the villages of Iva and Lepā in Sāmoa and Nukunuku in Tonga, and growing up in South Auckland, Fagaiava-Muller became interested in journalism because life in his community wasn’t being reported on. And, when it was, the focus was squarely on the negatives.
“I didn’t see myself in the media so I wanted to try to change that. I truly had never seen myself in the media, apart from [TVNZ’s Pacific correspondent] Barbara Dreaver and Police Ten 7, if you can count that content,” he says. “That’s what I saw of myself on the television.
“My high school was in the media and not for good reasons. I wanted to make a change for my community. I knew there were good stories. They just didn’t know and they didn’t want to know. They didn’t care. I guess it’s much easier playing to a stereotype than it is to go against the grain. I always wanted to right those wrongs.”
Challenging the status quo is something of a recurring theme for him, perhaps because he’s been dealing with expectations his whole life.
“Physically, I’m a six-foot-three brown man. There are going to be stereotypes against me, including in my own neighbourhood,” he shrugs. “People would say I should be a rugby player with my build.”
But that was never on the cards. Instead, the naturally outgoing and engaging teenager got more involved with his community and focused on becoming a storyteller. It was his instant likeability and relatability that first caught the attention of Marty Hehewerth, content director at Flava.
“Maz is so charismatic on air,” Hehewerth says. “He’s done an amazing job owning the Flava Drive show ever since he started earlier this year.”
Around school, and later work, Fagaiava-Muller would volunteer for The Society of St Vincent De Paul in Otahuhu, putting together and distributing food parcels to those in need: sometimes up to 1000 meals a day.
With his best friend Allyssa Verner-Pula - who runs the blog Mayor of Manurewa and works for Fofonga for Pacific Research Excellence at Auckland Uni - he started a podcast, which they recorded in her bedroom.
“It was a real daggy setup we had. The sound quality was trash. She lives with her mum and her two cats so she’d be like, ‘Mum you need to stay in the lounge and please keep the cats. They can’t be in here purring or meowing loud’,” he grins.
Titled Island Roots, Auckland Ways the podcast was about unpacking the lives of two Pasifika 20-somethings and the issues facing their generation. The pair talked through their feelings of confusion over what to do with their lives, about making the transition from university or high school into the real world and the trials and associated tribulations of romance in the app age.
The production may have been low-quality but their content wasn’t. Their distinctive voice quickly found an audience and, much to their own amazement, would sometimes beat out professional podcasts from major media outlets in the Spotify charts.
“That was an ego boost,” he grins. “It led us to think, ‘Oh, sh*t, maybe we should keep recording?’. And so we did.”
Now, the podcast is moving into the big league. With Flava’s resources behind them, Island Roots, Auckland Ways will be reborn on Tuesday: bigger, better and with no risk of cats meowing loudly in the background.
“Island Roots, Auckland Ways gives our listeners a chance to get to know Maz at a deeper level, celebrating his culture alongside his childhood best friend Allyssa,” Hehewerth says.
It may have a slicker presentation and weekly guest stars like award-winning Māori comedian Courtney Dawson and Māori-Fijian comedian Joe Diamond. But Fagaiava-Muller is adamant that the one thing that’s not changing is the Pacific flavour and the relatability of the topics the pair will be exploring.
As we all know, there are no easy answers in life. And Fagaiava-Muller admits that though he and Verner-Pula hash out plenty of life’s big problems, they haven’t reached any concrete conclusions.
“I’m gonna be so honest and say that I still haven’t got my sh*t together,” he laughs. “I think it’s just a constant process of going with your gut. This season of the podcast we’re talking about dealing with money or the lack thereof, we talk about donating money to the church and where you draw the line, mental health and body image, having sex, not having sex, going through periods of celibacy, being ghosted, social media, and we’re talking about love and relationships.”
He pauses for a moment and then says, “I still haven’t found true love.”
Fagaiava-Muller says he best identifies as queer but doesn’t feel any pressure to put a label on himself and has been experimenting with gender-neutral pronouns. Which does bring up the conflict between his deeply Catholic upbringing and his very being. Something which has naturally left him questioning faith.
“I honestly don’t know,” he says when asked if he’s a religious person. “At the moment I’m trying to figure out, what do I believe in? I guess now is the age where me and my peers are thinking, ‘Do I actually believe in everything that I’m surrounded by? Or do I need to change what I believe in?’. Religion is one of those things. I grew up in the church. I love the church, actually. But I don’t know what I believe in.”
This questioning isn’t just tied to the church’s views on sexuality but also how the good word was spread throughout the Pacific Islands in the first place.
“The conversation I’m having in my head is that religion was this tool that colonialism used to make its way through the Pacific. It’s very difficult for me to separate colonialism, the stripping of traditions, from way, way back, and religion. How can I separate the two? Because for me, it’s conflated. I want to say that at this moment in time, I believe in a higher power.”
On the flip side of that horrible past is the good of the now. Each day “the communion lady” visits his grandparents to give them the Eucharist and there’s the work of his fellow volunteers at St Vincent De Paul.
“And I totally acknowledge that many Pacific churches are breeding grounds for teaching the next generation about our cultural traditions Obviously, for the most part, religious people walk God-like lives. That’s not me. Maybe? I don’t know…”
He stops and considers his thoughts and then says, “A big issue for me is being a queer person and my relationship with the church because of that. It’s a long and everlasting conversation.”
Island Roots, Auckland Ways may be him working everything out and exploring his sense of self but talking to Fagaiava-Muller he appears confident and self-assured and feels very much like he knows who he is and what he’s about.
“I have a lot going on in my personal life. Money, love and relationships, body image, mental health… these are all things that I go home to. And these are all things that I ponder when no one else is around. I think what people always forget is that I’m like, 22 years old. So naturally, I just have a lot of things going on in my mind.”
Then he laughs and says, “You know what? All of this is a front. I don’t actually have my sh*t together.”
Island Roots, Auckland Ways is available on iHeartRadio from August 8.
Is it possible to have a tidy divorce? Leading barrister Sharon Chandra explains how.