Learn more about Popo's pathway to becoming a Biosecurity Officer.
Video transcript
[Aerial view of Ōtautahi, Christchurch with voice over]
I wanted to be a quarantine officer when I was in Samoa but at that time, they weren't allowing women to be quarantine officers because of, they have to work at night, you know, to clear the flights at night, so they weren't allowing women then.
[Sign reads 'Biosecurity New Zealand - Biosecurity Laboratory']
But then you know, I went away from wanting to be a quarantine officer.
[Video shows Popo sitting in a break room]
But here in New Zealand, at some stage, I thought, “oh, I'd give it a go”. I didn't think I was able to get into quarantine, as a quarantine officer here. But I thought “I'll give it a go”, you know. And here I am [laughing].
Talofa, I’m Popo Louā, I'm a mother of, I've got two boys of my own, two sons and five grandchildren, but I have four other adopted boys.
And I'm from a very big family. I have been in New Zealand for forty-one years.
[Video shows Popo at work] and I've been with MPI as a quarantine officer for sixteen, just over sixteen years.
I was one of those who wanted to go to school, but I didn't know what I wanted to do.
[Video shows Popo in the break room]
But when I was in high school, in Samoa, that's when I thought, I thought I had done the wrong thing, with the choice of subjects I did. Because when I got to the school certificate level, I was doing Science and Maths, and I was doing good too.
Once it was finished, I thought, “what then, what am I going to do with this science?” Whereas my colleagues who were doing maths and bookkeeping, accounting, they were able to get a job.
You know, they were able to be a clerk or apply to the bank, be a bank teller. But with the science I did, I didn't know what, you know. Either I have to be to go be a teacher, a nurse, or go to and do the Diploma of Agriculture. That's were the only choices at the time in Samoa.
There's about three areas of working with MPI. You work at the airport, you know, as a quarantine officer. You work in the cargo, you know, we kind of clear the, you know, the cargo that comes from the vessels, and also from the planes.
[View of glass cabinets and shelves with carved wooden sculptures and shells on them]
And you also work at the port, clearing ships that come through.
So I'm one of those. I can do all those three. So working at the airport, you see a lot of, you know, people from different countries coming through. And at cargo, you see a lot of different, different cargo from different countries, and the ship you know, it's different as well.
But what I like, what we do, we protect New Zealand from all the, you know, we try and protect the introduction of risk, and biosecurity risk into New Zealand.
[Video shows Popo performing various work tasks]
In this work, we work as teams, and our people are very good. You know, we are very good in working as we always kind of take it, you know, this team is family.
[Video shows Popo talking in the break room]
A background in biology, or, you know, general science, environmental science, marine, you know, all the, because we are dealing with environmental issues as well as agricultural and horticultural risks.
So it's good. Any background in those areas. It's quite useful here. But at the same time, we have people who work in other fields, you know, who have trades or we have policemen who work for us, who have been policemen.
We have people who have been in the army. If you really want to be a quarantine officer, you can be. There's also now a Certificate in Biosecurity, we work on according to standards, you know, and even nearly everything, and everything that's bought from overseas like fresh produce, that’s a standard, animal products, that’s a standard, to get here, so you can learn that too on the job.
Talofa lava, my name is Popo Louā. I'm from the villages of Letogo and Sale lavalo, but I was born in Moto'otua.
I live in Ōtautahi, Christchurch, and I went to Methodist High School in Samoa. I am a mother and grandmother, and auntie to so many people.
And this is how I became a Senior Quarantine Officer for the Ministry for Primary Industries.