How well do we really know our politicians and the personal values and experiences they bring to decisions that affect us all?
Newshub Nation's Backstory series goes behind the scenes into the lives and childhood photo albums of our political leaders.
Tongan-born Labour MP Anahila Kanongata'a's path to parliament was shaped by family, faith - and heartbreak.
Newshub Nation's Finn Hogan visited her at home in Onehunga, Auckland, and her local church, to hear her Backstory.
Kanongata'a comes from an established family in Tonga, where her grandfather was a town officer.
She recalled a childhood in Tonga filled with "riding horses, swinging on vines and playing with my cousins".
"My job after school was to collect 20 coconuts and wash the outdoor pots and then we could go and play."
During this time, her mother was in New Zealand.
"In terms of the politics of migration, she was an overstayer," which meant she couldn't return to Tonga to visit her children.
"So I didn't know my mother until she had gained permanent residence and came to Tonga."
Kanongata'a's first memory of her mother is from when she was nine years old.
"I'd always been taught by my father that she is in New Zealand and she is there working for us," she told Newshub Nation.
"Some of the village kids would always joke 'your mother is never going to come for you' until it actually happened."
Kanongata'a recalled the first time she met her mother.
She was on the beach going for a horse ride when she saw "this woman sitting there, and she was crying when she saw me and I was wondering, 'who's this woman crying?'".
"And then they told me that she's my mum."
Kanongata'a's mother passed away during the first Covid lockdown.
"We had to deal with having ten people at the funeral, no contact. That was harrowing for the whole family, especially when we are all so close and do everything together."
"The hardest day was her funeral," Kanongata'a said, "just not having her family there to provide their role and responsibility".
"We had to decide that it was only the people in our bubble who could go."
Her father passed away during the second lockdown while he was overseas in Houston, Texas.
Their deaths had a profound impact on Kanongata'a and her family, but she thanks their guidance for the storied careers she has had.
She left school in form 6, "to get a job as an ASB teller".
Initially, her family was "really disappointed. They wanted me to go to university."
Eventually, she moved into the social work sector.
"I've lived my work life in child youth and family departments. Social welfare, Oranga Tamariki in all its different forms."
"I've worked my way up from the mail room to a social worker, supervising social workers, managing social workers and giving advice in Wellington."
She described this pathway as her introduction to tangata whenua.
Watch her full and emotional Backstory in the video above.
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