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“I should be dead or in jail with the stuff that I have seen and gone through. But I believe it’s a miracle I’m not, so I don’t waste that miracle.”
Dave Letele has a way of grabbing your attention with what he says.
You could call them truth bombs, inspirational one-liners, words of wisdom – and there’s plenty such nuggets and perfect sound bites to be had scattered throughout an interview with Letele – but these are no empty cliches.
Son of a gang leader, former boxer, fitness advocate, charity boss, motivational speaker and the 2022 Local Hero of the Year, Letele is the living embodiment of not just talking the talk but walking the walk.
His epic weight-loss journey – eventually dropping more than half his 210kg peak – is well-known and well-documented, as are many of the personal struggles he’s faced over his 43 years.
Google his name and just over the past month you’ll find more than a dozen articles either talking to him, talking about him or talking about something he’s done.
“We’re watching our communities disintegrate before our eyes,” says David Letele.
Most are linked to Letele’s BBM Motivation, a fitness movement turned community support organisation, the name of which harks back to his boxing days, when he was known as ‘Brown Buttabean’.
When I get him on a Zoom call from his gym in South Auckland – one of three run by BBM, not to mention the food bank, social supermarket and community kitchen – it’s not to talk about BBM though, but a new three-part TV series he’s fronting called Heavyweight. Billed as a ‘journey of gangs, addiction and alcohol’, ‘compelling personal stories of everyday Kiwis’ and ‘a window into the wider social impacts that affect us all’, Letele himself describes Heavyweight as “a story of hope”.
“We see so much pain and so much hurt in our communities,” he says.
“We’re watching our communities disintegrate before our eyes.
“And a lot of our youth, and parents, and vulnerable families – they can’t see any hope in the struggle that they’re in.
“So for me, [Heavyweight is] showcasing people that have been through some enormous struggle, and gone through so much pain, but they’ve come out the other side – and it’s not just about them coming out and breaking the cycle and being successful now, it’s talking about how they did it. So when people are watching this show they can see – if these people can do it, so can I.”
Letele goes on to say that as well as hope, Heavyweight is about creating understanding.
“I find if people have more understanding, they can be more tolerant, and then they have more empathy,” he explains.
“Every social issue is something we have to work together on. And our model is community, business and government working together – all working together for the common good.
“It’s long-term right, so we all have to understand it. Because if you don’t understand something, you’re quick to cast judgement over it.
“You’ve got to have some understanding if we want to work together to create a better place for us to live in – and for our kids to live in.”
Dave Letele from Heavyweight
Letele knows as well as anyone what he’s talking about, and doesn’t shy away from bridging that understanding by connecting with others through his own painful past.
“It’s not something I like talking about, but I understand the importance of it, by being the example,” he says.
“Every time I talk about it, it’s emotional. It never gets easier, but I think that if people can hear it and see it, they might see something of them in it, and they can understand that it is possible to make a change.
“One thing I make sure I let all our team know about now is their why – what’s their why?
“We put that up on the walls and everywhere, so when life gets tough, and you’re thinking, I can’t go on, you can look at that and visualise why you have to keep going.
“When I moved back here [from Australia] in 2014, I had lost everything – I’d lost my children, lost all my money, I weighed 210 kilos.
“I was f…ing depressed and I hated my life – staring at the roof thinking how could I f..k my life up so badly?
“But I would visualise my kids – I’d close my eyes, and I’d dream of having my kids running up to me at the airport. And that was enough to keep me going.”
Heavyweight, TVNZ 2, Thursday August 2
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