Man of the people Dave 'Brown Buttabean' Letele named NZ's Local Hero of the Year

Thursday, 31 March 2022

Dave Letele on the highs and lows of his life.

Dave Letele is all about the hapori and nu’u because he grew up in a large community.

A brilliant motivator, he's appeared daily at his Brown Buttabean health programme for the past eight years to help thousands of people, whether through talking about why it’s important to make life-changing decisions for the whānau and aiga to securing a sustainable community.

But it's his common sense, calm and clear vision and determination to help his community during the coronavirus pandemic that has made him so very well known.

On Thursday night, the 42-year-old boxing enthusiast was recognised for that work when he received the Kiwibank New Zealand Local Hero of the Year Award Te Pou Toko o te Tau.

Letele has been serving communities in Auckland since 2014.

* The ex-cop and the boxer battling poverty and poor health

* Childhood obesity declining in NZ - as long as you don't live in a low-income area

* The stigma of a system that 'fat shames' Māori and Pasifika people

And he wasn’t expecting it, a humble Letele said, while dedicating the win to the other nominees and “everyone who has worked to help others in the community.

“It feels amazing to be nominated, but really just blew me away to actually win the award. It’s all about serving others, and anyone who’s in the community helping others is a community hero.

“I am immensely proud. This is for all of us.”

Dave Letele, also known as Brown Buttabean,

Letele grew up on the “wrong side of the tracks” in South Auckland. But he has not let that determine who he is and what he wants in life.

“My father was the president of a gang called the Mongrel Mob, and he was in prison for armed robbery and later on for cultivating marijuana. I have come from the struggle, and I’ve seen a lot of stuff that’s different and not normal.”

It wasn’t easy, Letele said. “Back in 2014, I weighed 210 kilograms. I was a mess, physically and mentally. I hated my life.

As a Local Hero of the Year finalist in 2018 as well, Letele shares a hongi with compere Scotty Morrison.

“So to come from that, living in a community with rapists and robbers, to where I am now just shows that anything is possible.”

There were many people who inspired Letele, gave him a “hand up in life, so it’s all about paying it forward.

“All I’m doing is what people have done for me. I’m just doing it on a lot bigger scale. I was lucky to have some good people around me while there are some other people who haven’t been lucky. We’re the hand-up for so many people.”

Letele is founder of the not-for-profit Brown Buttabean Motivation programme, a free, gym-based weight-loss programme that has inspired thousands of New Zealanders to get fit and get healthy.

Dave Letele, the Brown Buttabean, is a hit with all.

Why the name Brown Buttabean? When Letele started boxing, there was a famous American who was obese like he was. “His name was Buttabean and he was white. I was really large and brown so the boxing club Duco would call me brown Buttabean. It stuck.”

This is not the first time Letele has been linked to the awards: In 2018, he was a finalist for Local Hero of the Year Award.

“We run three Community Health Plus programmes such as boot camps, help people with long-term health conditions which the system does not know what to do about. They may weigh 300-plus kilos, some close to 400 kilos which also cost the system mega bucks.

“So we run programmes that can help them, and it’s all about education. From the couch programmes, we run educational sessions where we teach people how to cook healthy on a budget, how to shop on a budget.

“There are youth programmes for young people who are not in school or the workforce or who are just lost. We also run employment programmes where we help people to get a job. And we started our Food Share programme at the start of Covid-19 to help those who have fallen through the cracks and people who were already struggling but are now drowning.”

Dave Letele at BBM Foodshare, loading up another food parcel.

Any way they can help, they do, Letele said. “If we have it, we help.”

But there’s more work to be done, he added, with the focus now on “breaking generational cycles”.

“I come from a gang background, but it was only my father who went off the rails. I didn’t come from generations of gangs, crime, unemployment and having to rely on the benefit.

“There are some people that we help, and you can see the children – they’re coming from generations of poverty. They’ve never had any real role models in their lives, never had any symbol of hope.

“So that’s why our work is important. We want to be that beacon of hope for these people. We tell them, ‘If we can do it, so can you and here’s how.’ We give people the tools.”

Letele found much inspiration to “go down this right path”, but there is none more important than his tamariki.

Back in 2014, he had “lost everything and was down and out”. He had no money and was living on a mattress he had found.

But one day, Letele said he woke to thoughts of his children and he wanted them back in his life.

“My purpose was to have my children back and that’s what inspired me to be a better person. And now I have all my children, I have a new wife and son. What inspires me now is my people – Māori and Pasifika – I tell them that you can be anything if you’re willing to work hard.

“I always talk about not giving up. When you’re knocked down, get back up again. And I always think about, say, the Food Share programme where we’ve fed hundreds of thousands of people and this is only since August.

“If I had given up in 2014 and stayed down and felt sorry for myself, there would be so many people that would have passed away because of type-2 diabetes or obesity, kids going to sleep with hungry stomachs.”

But he didn’t give up, and it’s impacted so many people, Letele said. There were huge challenges and sacrifices. Funding was one of them.

Letele said that late last year, the Ministry of Health stepped in to help fund them. Up until then, the programme was self-funded with the support of donations from organisations and Kiwis.

“It has been a struggle to keep it going. There was a lot of hard work, hustling and building connections through corporates. Going from grant funding to grant.

“It’s not easy helping other people and trying to put food on your own table. The main struggle is that it takes you away from your family. Anyone that’s in service to others, unfortunately, your family are the ones that suffer. So finding that balance is really hard.”

The other nominees for the 2022 New Zealand Local Hero of the Year Award included human rights advocate Caroline Herewini MNZM in Porirua, and activist and women’s advocate Dame Areta Koopu DNZM in Auckland.

For the first time in its 13-year history, the New Zealander of the Year Awards Ngā Tohu Pou Kōhure o Aotearoa Gala went virtual, with the event livestreamed on TVNZ OnDemand.

There were 21 finalists in seven categories.