Mental Health Awareness Week: Podcast aims to get Pacific men talking about their feelings

MANDATE hosts Charles Mulipola and Petia Wilson. Photo / Supplied

This week is Mental Health Awareness Week; an annual movement organised by the Mental Health Foundation to help raise awareness of mental health. This year's theme is to reconnect with the people and places that lift you up - hei pikinga waiora. Journalist Vaimaila Leatinu'u speaks to a group of friends helping to create a safe space for Pacific men to reconnect.

An aiga of Pasifika creatives aim to change the narrative that men do not like talking about their feelings - through a podcast that is proving to be hugely popular.

Dubbed MANDATE, the podcast covers men's mental health issues.

Co-creator Petia Wilson says for the most part, he thinks men simply want to be asked specific questions.

"I think a lot of men want to share their feelings. It's just being asked the right question. Rather than: 'Hey, how is it going'? Go: 'How are you really going'?"

Wilson and friends Charles Mulipola and Jaemen Busby, who grew up in Otara, run the podcast from South Auckland and have featured the likes of boxing champion Joseph Parker, actor Beulah Koale, social media influencer Dre Skrila and radio host Nickson Clark.

Suicide prevention organisation A-OK NZ had reported that their workshops frequently heard men dislike talking about their feelings and distress.

But after supporting the MANDATE podcast, the organisation found that men do like to talk, be listened to, being understood.

What it means to be a true 'macho man'

"We identified that there [are] not many platforms for us to see these conversations; and so we wanted to be that platform.

"If I can see Dre Skrila and these macho men talk about going through therapy, people watching might go: 'Maybe that might work for me'," Mulipola said.

"They have to know that what they're sharing is in a safe space. Cause too often men have shared their heart, and if it's not in a safe space, it gets used against them."

That safe space also means that when there are views they disagree with, there is still the feeling of safety that allows guests to share all the same.

Wilson said it also provided an opportunity for all parties to see through the lens of one another and broke down any walls of defensiveness.

"You want to challenge them but also be in a safe space and still be brothers at the end of the day," Wilson said.

Asked if they had been impacted by any particular stories shared with them, Mulipola spoke about some of the more vulnerable moments and low points that guests had shared and how they had used those hard times to thrive off.

"Just these guys being able to freely express themselves about some of these topics we don't talk about."

Making an impact - one interview at a time

For Wilson, his most recent interview with actor Koale - who has appeared in Shortland Street, Harry, Hawaii Five-O and film Thank You For Your Service - was one of many talanoa that stuck with him.

Koale was also born and bred in Otara, South Auckland.

Wilson said one of the interviews that had been the most fun for him was with Skrila, who grew up on the other side of town in West Auckland and has previously spoken about his struggles as a teenager that led him to some time in jail.

"We asked Dre: 'What's the end-game for you?' He was like: 'I just want to be filthy rich!'

"He broke that stigma of the humility not being there and it's not good if you say you want to be rich. He sat on his conviction and doesn't care what people think - and I love that," Wilson said.

In terms of the MANDATE team's own end-game, the hosts are aiming to expand and seeing realising a dream to be the leading podcast in New Zealand.

They have also set their sights on going global.

"A true testament of the podcast is longevity, so we can give this opportunity to the next generation to carry it on," Wilson said.

For Mulipola, the dream continues to be to connect.

"At the heart of it is always to make an impact for our people."