Ko te taha o taku papa, Ko Ngāti Te Takinga Te hapu, Ngāti Pikiao Te Iwi. Also from Niue. Ko te taha o taku mama, a Te whanau Kameta me Te Punawhakareia raua Ko Tunohopu ko Waikuta oku marae. Ko Ngāti Tunaeke te hapu. Ko Ngāti Whakaue ahau. Ko Rakitu te kuia ataahua. Ka tu anake. Ko Ngāti Rere o Te Waimana. Ko Maungapohatu te maunga. Ko Tuhoe Te iwi.
Papa. Husband. Son. Brother. Geek. Animator. Representative. Activist. Entrepreneur. Storyteller. Start-up coach. e-Sports team manager. Computer programmer. Social media activist.
And that’s just his day job.
By his own admission, Potaua Biasiny-Tule has no governance experience. Well, his actual words were “Nuk. I’m a foot soldier and a damn good pawn but ning top shelf experience. One day …”
But behind his self-deprecation is an intelligent and creative man, with a BA in Political Science, postgraduate honours in Maori & Pacific Islander Development, a diploma in Animation, and he is about to lead a small team of local Maori animators to make a full-length Maori animation feature film here in Rotorua.
“If at home we can unite as an iwi, then globally we can bring all people together.”
Potaua said he stood for the former Te Arawa Standing Committee to follow-up the good work of his bro Hawea Vercoe, and to show our people that the council could be stopped.
“As for Te Tatau o Te Arawa, we may be at the table but still we suffer from poverty, homelessness, and historical mamae. Our city pretends we don’t exist and too many old rich Pakeha think that this land is theirs. I’m here to remind them that our ancestors left this beautiful whenua for us to enjoy too. And even though it is paru in parts, broken in others, I want to help heal our whenua and heal our whanau.”
His career highlights include being sent to Gallipoli by his elders for a month, living in Seoul, South Korea when the tech boom occurred, helping with the foreshore and seabed hikoi, working in parliament with the Maori Party, starting TangataWhenua.com, defeating the Eastern Arterial route, and working as regional coordinator for Young Enterprise Scheme.
He says being Te Arawa is an intimate, deeply resonating way of life and the Rotorua lifestyle compliments what he wants for his whanau – wife of 18 years Nikolasa, son Atutahi (12) and daughter Hiona (8).
“Swimming at the Willows. Get to see whanau every day. I love seeing our urupa, marae and papakainga regularly. Biking in The Redwoods with my chillins.“If at home we can unite as an iwi, then globally we can bring all people together.”