Not Your Token Minority

In this episode, I chat with Dil Khosa, co-founder of creative entrepreneurship hub Manzana, based here in Auckland, New Zealand. She speaks with me about:

• Her experience moving to New Zealand from Malaysia in her late teens
• What it means to “just be yourself” in a world where you’re seen as “different” 
• The biggest lessons she learned when she experienced burnout from her startup career
• Her drive to improve support for traditionally under-supported startup founders 
• Her goals for Manzana, which she established with two others in 2022 to help support women and underserved entrepreneurs in Aotearoa

You can learn more about Manzana here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Shaneel Lal (they/them) is a prominent activist and political commentator who sits at the intersection of Aotearoa New Zealand’s BIPOC and queer communities. They are a fierce advocate for ending conversion therapy and in February 2022, their efforts resulted in legislation being passed that bans the practice in New Zealand.

In our conversation, we cover: 

• Growing up queer in Fiji and how that informed Shaneel’s advocacy later on
• The impact of colonisation on queer communities in Fiji
• Colonial queerness vs indigenous queerness, and how colonisation stripped away indigenous queer identities
• Their journey to self-acceptance of their queer identity
• Their conversion therapy experience
• Why successfully getting conversation therapy banned in Aotearoa was not their most joyful moment (and what really brings them joy in their activism)

You can follow Shaneel on Instagram, Twitter, and their column for The New Zealand Herald.

Remember to  rate and share this show, as well as follow along on Instagram. Reach out to me on [email protected] if you want to share your story - I would love to hear from you!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Auckland-based artist and photographer Abhi Chinniah joins me in this episode to talk how colourism has fundamentally shaped her life so far and her most recent exhibition “Melanin Rising”. 

She shares:

• Her experiences at the receiving end of colourism
• How her personal experiences of colourism inspire her work
• How she went from Abhi, to Abby, and back to Abhi
• The influence her dad has had in her journey grappling with colourism
• What she hopes she can teach future generations about themselves and the world around them
• Her vision for the future of her Melanin Rising project

Experience and support Abhi’s work below:
Melanin Rising
Ramii Studio

Please rate and share this show, as well as follow along on Instagram. Reach out to me on [email protected] if you want to share your story - I would love to hear from you!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vivian Chandra is a tech consultant with a huge difference. Her passion for education and democratising digital technology means she spends much of her time upskilling teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand so that they can teach kids essential tech skills. 

In our conversation, we talk about:

• Why diversity and inclusion in tech is important to her
• How to use play doh to teach electronics
• One of the biggest misunderstandings about children and their use of technology
• How to encourage more digital fluency for your kids - and why that’s important
• How learning Te Reo Māori helped her explore her own cultural identity 

If you would like to follow Vivian’s work, you can do so on her website https://vivianchandra.com or follow her on Twitter https://twitter.com/vivsterNZ

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

University of Auckland PhD candidate Lovely Dizon speaks with me in this episode about the under-served mental health needs of 1.5 generation Asian young people in Aotearoa New Zealand. Our conversation includes:

• A discussion of the burden of carrying the weight of family expectations, balanced with trying to figure out what is important to you and who you are
• What is lacking from current systems of healthcare and how they fail Asian youth
• The role that being a 1.5 generation migrant plays in the mental health of young Asian youth

Plus much, much more - Lovely is a 1.5 generation Filipino Kiwi and a final year PhD candidate based in the School of Population Health at the University of Auckland. Her research interests include Asian youth health, youth mental health and ethnic identity. She is passionate about amplifying and advocating for greater representation of ethnic minority voices and experiences, creating space for destigmatising conversations around mental health, and improving access to health services. Follow her work on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amplify.nz/

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe, as well as follow along on Instagram. Reach out to me on [email protected] if you want to share your story - I would love to hear from you!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Auckland-based playwright and director Talia Pua talks to me in this episode about her latest bodies of work - a play titled Pork and Poll Taxes which premiered in 2021 and an exhibition about Chinese migration to New Zealand which ran earlier in 2022 - and why it’s important to her to tell these stories.

She also shares her experiences both behind and on stage in the performing arts in New Zealand, and why diverse Asian representation on stage and screen matters. 

Talia is the co-founder and creative director of Hand Pulled Collective, a production company that focuses on bringing the stories of New Zealand’s Chinese community to the stage. 

Please share and rate, as well as follow along on Instagram. Reach out to me on [email protected] if you want to share your story - I would love to hear from you!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vikram Udyawer has loved space ever since he was a kid growing up in four different countries. Like many other kids who grow up in different cultures, Vikram struggled with belonging and identity, but found solace in space and what he believed to be a borderless environment. 

He chats with me about his experiences growing up as a “Fifth Culture Kid”, how this inspired him to enter the space industry, and what the reality was once he started working in it. We talk about the geopolitics that come with space, as well as the lack of diversity in the industry and what real-life implications that has for all of us.

Vikram is the founder of Metasolis, a s.t.e.a.m studio with a focus on building web3 tooling for space ecosystems.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Emi Chiba spent her most formative years between the UK, Japan and Spain, before eventually settling in Tokyo, Japan where she lives now. And the road between her being born in the UK to a British father and Japanese mother, to her life now is full of twists, hard truths and unexpected lessons. 

Yes, growing up biracial between vastly different countries and cultures is a big part of Emi’s story so far. But there has been so much more to her journey that helped shaped her into the person she is today.

In this episode, Emi talks to me openly about:

• The complexities of being “ha-fu” in Japan
• Being accepted, or not accepted, on the basis of how you look
• The life-changing experience of living in Ibiza for two years
• Her decision to drop out of university in Japan and the implications of that on her career
• Being a child of divorce between parents of vastly different cultural backgrounds
• Why she left home at 17 and has never looked back
• The special relationship she had with her grandmother

Please share and rate, as well as follow along on Instagram. Reach out to me on [email protected] if you want to share your story - I would love to hear from you!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

이혜지 Hye Ji (Erica) Lee joins me on this episode to talk activism and decoloniality - specifically what constitutes activism for her and how she finds the joy in activism, rather than focusing only on the things that cause pain and trauma. 

Erica is an academic who teaches and researches in Sociology, who was born in South Korea and migrated to New Zealand with her family when she was 11 years old. Like so many migrant kids, she experienced firsthand the ups and downs of growing up in a place where you are marked as an outsider at first glance. 

She has published and spoken about these issues in the media and through academic publications. You can read her work on her website and you can also follow her on Instagram.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.