Name a politician you admire - not from your own party.
I like Winston. I like his frankness, his wit.
Tell us about your upbringing and your family? Would anything surprise us?
I grew up in Tonga. My mother was a single mum and [came to New Zealand], so I stayed with my grandfather until he passed away, and when he passed, my brother and I went to his oldest son. People would call it a one-street village. There's a main street and a few houses. Less than 1000 people.
And when my mother and step-father got their permanent residence, we came to New Zealand, so that was in 1980. I came here when I was 10. I am an only child of 10. My father has six kids, and my mother has four, and my parents didn't marry or have any other children together.
My mother lives in Mangere, and my father is in Utah. No, actually, he's in Houston, Texas. My mother's sister is in Utah. It's America! And I have six grandchildren.
It was different coming to New Zealand. Women in Tonga have a certain hierarchy, so we often outrank the men in our mother's family. I grew up in my mother's family so I was outranking everybody, and then I came here and my mother's the head honcho. So then I had to listen to my mother, and I didn't know her.
My mother and my step-father always worked shifts. They had to juggle that so someone's always home to look after us kids. But I didn't know that one of my roles was to look after my younger siblings. When I was in Tonga, someone else was always looking after me. That was a responsibility I had to take up instantly when I arrived here.
We lived in Onehunga. I didn't know that the kids I was hanging out, we were the state house kids. We just thought we were the kids in the neighbourhood. There was no TV where I came from in my village. I saw an escalator for the first time. I spoke no word of English. The first foreign food I ate was yoghurt. That was disgusting. I still remember that. And I couldn't pronounce yoghurt. I didn't know how to say something that starts with 'y'.
What were you used to eating?
Mango, coconut, guava. Tropical fruits. Bananas.
Would you like to see more te reo spoken in New Zealand?
Absolutely. For my kids, my grandchildren - I've got six - that they can korero in te reo, wouldn't that be great? I was just about to say if they become MPs, but that's something for me. I'm not sure that's for them. But just to converse in te reo, that would be wonderful.
Do you think our kids should learn it in the public school system?
Yeah, and learning a language is more than just learning a language. It's about the culture.
What is your view on the euthanasia bill?
I believe, a life, we should do all we can to preserve it, so I voted 'no' in the first reading.
Is there a growing urban-rural divide in New Zealand and, if so, what's the cause?
It's your environment. It's what you read, what you hear. I was on a leadership programme in 2013 and one of the people in my group said he had never come across Tongans before, and that was the first time he had spoken to a Tongan. It's about your association and networks, and if you don't step out of your area, you're not going to know who's out there.
We all get on with our lives ... if you don't have a reason or make a deliberate plan to go out or go into the city, then you're not going to. So there would be a split, a divide, if you choose to live your life only in the regions.
What will you be doing to unwind this summer and where?
We live in a 1980s no-flavour bungalow. So, boring! So what we're going to do is some sort of renovation. In Manurewa. We've got two hens, they are now free range because their coop's broken, so I'll be building a new coop for the two hens. I don't know yet that the neighbours know that I'm an MP, because no one's complained about the hens in their garden.
My neighbour on the right, they're Chinese and the father is retired, and he comes and checks on the hens laying eggs, because my husband and daughter don't go and collect the hens - they're not hen people.
And across the road we've got Pakeha New Zealanders, who have a beautiful immaculate garden, and he sometimes gives my husband a hint when it's time to mow the lawn. We live in the best part of Manurewa, but we are the house everybody thinks something should be done about. We don't have a fence, so our free range hens are all over the place, but no one has called SPCA yet ... Is that going to be on [the Herald?]. I don't live in Manurewa, sorry.
Tell us about a favourite beach, river or other special family place you had holidays.
Childhood, I'm in Tonga. The beach is a five minute walk. But here in New Zealand we holiday with family friend in Pouto, a place in the Kaipara coast. We stay in the Marae, Waikaretu, and we stay there for two weeks.
Can you talk us through your cultural dress?
I'm wearing a ta'ovala or a kiekie. I hand made it. It's what women wear. It's like wearing a suit and there's a different suit for each occasion. But when you're wearing them, you're showing respect.
Back in Tonga, people would give presentations to the King. There were people who came late and they lost all their goods at sea, so when they came, the only valuable thing was their sail, so they cut their sail and covered themselves with that to show their respect and to apologise that they were late, not only that they were late, but the goods they were going to present to the King were also lost at sea. To do that means you're never going home, because it would take a whole community to make the sail. So you basically sacrifice your way back home to show your respect.
This is my kiekie, not very good, something old. My mother rang me when I was inside the House to say, 'Where is my ta'ovala? What are you wearing?' I'm 48. My 87-year-old mum still rings me to tell me how to wear my Tongan clothes.
Profile
NAME: Anahila Kanongata'a-Suisuiki
PARTY: Labour
AGE: 48
LIST MP based in Manurewa
OCCUPATION: former lead adviser at the Ministry for Vulnerable Children
