AJ's Journey

We sat down with AJ Pouoa for an interview via ZOOM and talked about her amazing journey of courage and her involvement with the Pacific Collective group Tōfā Mamao Collective.

 

Introducing AJ Pouoa, a personal trainer, and an executive member of the Pacific Collective group Tōfā Mamao Collective.

 

AJ is originally from Christchurch and has spent most of her life in Australia. She is a former rugby union as well as a rugby league player before her accident in 2016 at the age of 35. "before my accident I was going to leave my job and start again, I was going to be a personal trainer anyway, I love health and fitness," explains AJ. After her accident, she spoke about having a difficult time accepting her new reality. I had a sulk for a few days and decided to move forward. I thought "No I'm going to go and get qualified, I need this." AJ received her personal trainer qualification in 2018 and completed a certificate in Adaptive Trainers in 2020. AJ is currently a personal trainer and runs her own fitness studio called Ryze Fitness Adaptive Studio. She is also an executive member of Tōfā Mamao Collective, an organisation for Pacific Disabled people, their families, and carers group in Auckland.

 

Can you tell us about your involvement in Tōfā Mamao Collective and what it has been like for you?

 

"Tōfā Mamao Collective is about lived experience as an executive member and as a Pacific Islander, I put myself out there as a person who has been through the system after my accident," said AJ.

 

How important is social connectedness for the Pacific Collective group in discussing issues and service access for Pacific Disabled people in a safe space?

 

"Super important, most Pacific Island families do not know these services are available to them, sometimes you'll find they are either too proud or too humble to ask for help. In most cases, Pacific families do not want to trouble anyone. So, it is good that we have all these services especially for Pacific people in New Zealand where they can access the information and know what to do from there."

What does Tōfā Mamao Collective do as a Pacific Collective group?

"Tōfā Mamao Collective is a collaboration between Vaka Tautua and Pacific Island Advocacy Support Service (PIAS Trust) and Taikura Trust partnership. The main objective is to advise groups that support Pacific disabled people, carers, parents, and advise them whilst they are creating models for their services from a lived experience point of view what works, what doesn't work and what needs improvement."

Since joining Tōfā Mamao Collective in 2020, AJ has become more aware of the need of Pacific people's plight of service access especially in the Disability community. it's good that we're able to get this information out there in all Pacific languages.", said AJ.

Any final words of encouragement to our Pacific Disabled community?

"It has been tough as a Pacific businesswoman with a disability. For people with disabilities, I understand how you feel as I have been there, and it can be a very dark place if you do not have the right support. But in saying that TRY! Do try and lift yourself up and for me, I turn to God and ask him for help, but yes just be brave. Be brave, ask for help, have courage, if you find something that you love to do then go for it. Just say yes! If an opportunity presents itself just say yes, you are going to be amazing."

AJ has become an inspiring woman in the Pacific Disabled Community. She has overcome barriers and challenges and has confronted them head-on. AJ received the Pacific People's Awards for Health and Wellbeing in 2018 as well as the award for the Community Impactor Award through Co-marketing in 2020 in Sydney Australia. She was nominated for the Attitude Awards for Entrepreneur of the year in 2019 and has featured in numerous articles and magazines and is currently filming for the second season of the series Unbreakable. The programme showcases people with disabilities pursuing their life goals. The programme's spotlight on AJ brings adaptive boxing into the limelight, something that has always been overlooked in New Zealand sports. In her spare time AJ enjoys catching up with her family in Christchurch and Australia, and said her work takes up a lot of her time trying to come up with fresh new ideas to keep things interesting.

When challenges become opportunities, life starts when you accept the challenge!