CMUA: What’s your earliest memory of creativity?
Suzy: The easel at preschool. The smell of that paint will take me straight back there. Also, playdough. The smell and texture of playdough takes me right back to those tables where you were given a few guidelines, then you were let loose, and it was just amazing.
I think growing up in Kaikohe, at the time that I did, shaped my creativity in magnificent ways. We had so many opportunities to be bored. We weren't entertained all the time. We didn't have massive screen options. To begin with, we only had one channel, and then eventually we got to two and then three.
Screens weren't our be-all or end-all. We would put music on. We would choreograph little musical pieces ourselves, whatever we learned at ballet class or tap dance class, or whatever we were doing at school, we would actually bring that back home and relive it.
CMUA: We encourage creativity with kids, but don't with adults. What’s your view on that?
SC: Definitely. New Zealand came about with the number-eight-wire mentality of being able to just do things, and we're world-renowned for that, but I think we're losing sight of the creativity side.
We need to put the music on. We need to turn it up loud. We need to dance. We need to get that paintbrush out, or that pen. Just doodle. Just put your device down. Please step away from your device. Turn it off.
The wonderful thing about kids is that, up to a certain age group, they are able to just be themselves. They aren't too concerned about what other people are thinking. They are free, basically.
As they enter school with their peers and what's happening in the classroom and so on, there’s a level of expectation of them, and they start comparing themselves to others.
That’s when that adult attitude comes in, "oh, I'm not good enough. I'm not going to give it a go.” So we can learn from kids just to be free, just to allow ourselves the opportunity to be and to do, and to create and live.
All the things that you would do with your kids, do for yourself. It doesn't have to cost you a bean.
“We can learn from kids just to be free, just to allow ourselves the opportunity to be and to do, and to create and live.”
CMUA: Can you identify a creative moment that made New Zealand?
Suzy: If you think musically, you think of Dame Kiri te Kanawa and what she's done overseas.
She is taking our culture with her as she's singing the beautiful songs in Italian and French. All of our artists and singer-songwriters that are stepping out into a world forum, they're taking us on that journey with them. They are sharing what it is to be a Kiwi on our behalf, which is amazing.
CMUA: What’s the creative moment that made you?
Suzy: The very first time that I got a laugh from my classroom. Kaikohe East. I was dressed as a bride, there was music playing, and we're marching along. I don't know why, but my groom was lagging behind.
So here we are, the procession was going, all the parents are in the audience, and there's titters anyway, because it was quite cute, these kids doing this drama, and then my groom is lagging behind. So I turn around with my hands on my hips, and I'm going, “Come on!” The audience erupted. And I went, “wow!”
It was a way of connecting with an audience. That made me. It made me want to bring a smile to people's faces, to make people feel good.
CMUA: What inspired the natural, everyday reo Māori on You and Me?
Suzy: That's a really good question. The executive producer, Rick Simpson, was the driving force behind that.
He pulled an amazing team around him of preschool educators. Having grown up in the Far North himself, his parents were both teachers, and being so immersed in te reo and the culture himself, and having created so many programmes that were made for Kiwi kids, but didn't necessarily reflect all Kiwi kids, he thought it was really important that we connect with our culture. Being a kiwi, and part of New Zealand, is having the Māori culture around us: the whenua, the land, the belonging here. It's really beautiful and really important.
We had some great consultants. Rangi Moana Taylor was not only our floor manager, but he was also my consultant for Māori and te reo, and he guided me through it. I'm very fortunate I, as the presenter, get to take a lot of the kudos for it all. But it was a massive machine of very incredible people that created that programme.
CMUA: Which colour represents you best?
SC: Ah, which colour do you think represents me best? I feel colour. Like, today is a yellow day. Although I'm dressed in green, I feel yellow. Yellow is bright. It's vibrant, it's energy. I have my blue days and I have my red days, but the colour that I think represents me is purple, and it's a colour that I have loved for years.
I, ironically, don't have much in my wardrobe at the moment that's purple, but once upon a time, you couldn't find me in anything other than purple. I love it. It just sits well. It's royal and regal, but I think mostly it's creative and it's nurturing.
CMUA: Have people ever introduced themselves to you in song, and if so, how do you feel when they do that?
Suzy: Whenever I do a kindy visit or a school visit, yes, generally they do, which is lovely, because then I return the favour.
In fact, I often instigate it with “it’s our time…” It's a part of my DNA, and I guess it's a part of Kiwi DNA too.
