Humans Of The Islands - Sione Pome'e
Sione Pome'e
31-years-old, Tongan
Design Engineer, Owner of Pomee Constructions Ltd, Band member of Three Houses Down
"We were brought up in those lucky times where there was no Xbox, no Play station. It was just a tennis ball, gutter board and that’s all. Those were the days when all the neighbours knew each other and after school, we already knew that everyone was gonna gather together at ‘this’ person’s house and play bullrush in the front lawn you know? that’s how I remember my upbringing. We’re one of the lucky ones. Kids don’t get brought up that way these days. Back then, you see what you don’t have and it was kind of a motivation for you to do something with your life."
Do you have a favourite childhood memory?
I have this memory I keep at the back of my head all the time, and it’s a memory of my dad coming home everyday from work and getting out of his overalls. He worked 12 hours a day so you didn't see him in the morning, you only see him late at night. It was always an awesome memory for me, especially when it was a Thursday night because we know that it's pay day and he'll always bring us a treat home and we would just stand there while he was taking off his overalls. That memory is always with me.
Does that memory inspire you and your brothers in what you do?
Yes, definitely. Knowing how hard my dad worked - that has been an inspiration for us. Especially just making it here to New Zealand and at the same time bringing my mum here with him. That was hard and we were sort of brought up at the time during the Dawn Raids. Back then we were living with relatives and I remember my dad and my mum grabbing us when we were young kids. We were briefed on what to say every time there was a knock at the door. So when there was a knock on the door, we knew it was someone from Immigration or Police. I remember lying down underneath the house with my parents. The memory of looking to the side and seeing my parents, that's something I take with me. They had to go through all of that and yet they were still trying to put food on the table for us. Kids these days don’t know how hard it was back then.
Even though you grew up in New Zealand, were you raised in traditional Tongan culture?
Yeah (laughs) my parents were real strict on Tongan tradition. And I’m so grateful for it 'cause you know, we keep that culture with us. When we were brought up, when my sister or girl cousins came to the living room, us boys all had to get out. We were never allowed to be in there at the same time as them. That’s how we were brought up.
Your music career is no secret, but not many people know that you're an engineer and you own a business. Can you talk about that?
Yeah, most people don't know that I’m a Design Engineer full-time and I also own my own construction company - Pomee Construction Ltd. I employ over 36 people at the moment. As an engineer I've done a lot of design work for some of the prominent buildings around Auckland, but not many people would know that.
(Images of Sione Pome'e's design work below: The Geyser Building is the first building in New Zealand to achieve a 6 star green rating.)
How did you get into Designing and Construction?
I've just always wanted to challenge myself and do better. Before that, I was a cleaner. I worked at the Royal Sun and Alliance building, it was the highest building in New Zealand at the time, apart from the Sky City. And that was so cool. Like seriously, I thought it was the best thing ever. Because I’d come home from school and I’d have to clean. In my cleaning role, I had to do the services list. So I’d have to go on every floor and do the rubbish bags. And I thought it was so cool because I had access to every single floor. We worked after-business hours and one day I came out at 3 o clock in the morning and I was thinking, “What am I doing? I’m still young, I should get back in to School”. So I went back to studying.
Do you realise the impact you have on others in the Tongan community? Not just as a renowned musician, but also as an Engineer and entrepeneur?
Sometimes I don’t realise. In terms of my business, I don’t realise until it’s like Christmas. In my company I have several sites across Auckland and the staff across those sites only get to meet each other at the end of the year. I always put on a real good Christmas function for all my workers. I get them to invite their wives and their kids and it’s only then that I'm like 'Wow, all these people rely on me to put food on their table'. You know it's a pretty cool feeling but it's also scary. It encourages me to keep working hard and make sure the work is consistent and that everyone gets fed.
It must be a rewarding feeling being able to give back to your community in that way?
Yeah. It is. I see some of them at church and some of their kids come up and greet me and I’m never really sure who they are and I ask, “How do you know me?” and they answer “Well, you’re my Dad’s boss” and I just go “I’m your Dad’s boss at work, but at church, your Dad’s my boss”. I often go along to schools every now and then and give talks to kids. Because you know, sometimes Island parents think that’s its only Lawyers, Doctors and Artists that are good career professions. They don’t realise in the Construction and Engineering industry - there’s big money there. It’s an industry that, if our poly people got into it, they’d seriously take over.
By Indira Moala