PX Whanau Radio

Yes, Kween!Sonja has a special korero with Kween Kong about what the nomination for the Logies means to them and to our Queer Pasifika community here in Australia, and the challenges and the spaces that have been built by and for our community : " To see versions of excellence within our community...cos we ARE excellence!"Kween is Bold, Brave and Uncompromising....so listen in to this special episode on 3CR to hear the whole interview on Kween's nomination for a Logie in 2023 ( They are the very first Drag Queen to be nominated for The Graham Kennedy Award for Most Popular New Talent 2023!)

Leo Koziol: a Korero on Māori Cinema and Indigenous Film Sonja has a korero with Leo Koziol a founder of the Wairoa Maori Film Festival and the NZIFF Ngā Whanaunga Selector as well as contributor to Letterboxd from an Indigenous perspective.Leo is founder and director of the Wairoa Māori Film Festival. It is the longest-running indigenous film festival of New Zealand and takes place annually during Matariki in a traditional marae. Leo worked as cultural advisor in the Ministry of Maori Development and is co-curator of Ngā Whanaunga Shorts at the Whānau Mārama NZ International Film Festival. He also curates for various film festivals in Canada, Italy, Polynesia, the United States and Australia. Since 2020, he has been the indigenous editor of Letterboxd. With over 3 million members. Letterboxd is the leading social network for movie buffs and cinema fans alike.

UTU,Patu! Muru and Kaupapa Maori in cinema with Tearepa Kahi Sonja korero's with film maker Tearepa Kahi ( Ngati Paoa,Tainui),filmmaker based in Aotearoa.Tearepa was over in Naarm/Melbourne for a special screening of his film Muru at the Birrarangga Film Festival ( with Papa Tame Iti who stars in his film) in 2023. ‘Raised between Papanui in Christchurch and Pukekohe in South Auckland, New Zealand,Tearepa fell in love with storytelling whilst listening to his ‘muso’/ spud picking father at bedtime.Jim Moriarty’s theatre company came to his high school and after graduating from Burnside,Tearepa begged Jim to join his Theatre Company. Two years on the road, performing to high school students and prison inmates led to the desire to live with his Kuia in Pukekohe and study History at Auckland University. He was handpicked by Don Selywn to play Roreneto (Lorenzo) opposite his wife to be, Reikura, in Te Tangata Whai Rawa o Wēniti, the landmark te Reo Māori version of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. On his 21st birthday, his first proposal for a documentary was funded and he’s been working as a storyteller for the past 20 years, having won numerous awards for documentaries, short films and features. Mt Zion, starring Stan Walker was the most successful local release of 2013 and Poi E: The Story of Our Song, has become the third highest grossing NZ documentary of all time.Their other groundbreaking film is Herbs: Songs of Freedom. Tearepa was mentored by Don Selwyn and Merata Mita. Tearepa has a huge passion for kaupapa Māori stories and has been a board member of the New Zealand International Film Festival for over the past 10 years.’ Muru is his most recent film and feature: Tearepa Kahi drew inspiration for Muru from several events in New Zealand history including the 2007 anti-terror raids on Tuhoe,the Police shooting of Steven Wallace in Waitara in 2000, and the arrest of Māori leader and prophet Rua Kēnana in 1916. At the exposition, Muru contains astatement stating that "this film is not a recreation… it is a response" to the events of the Tuhoe raids’This is such a special korero with Tearepa on all the things that influenced his film Muru and on the ways of kaupapa Maori when creating his films and how they are always very much a community mahi.Includes choice music tracks including Herbs 'Dragons and Demons' and Peter Tosh.Mauri Ora

Paradise Camp: A Talanoa with Yuki Kihara Sonja has a talanoa with Pasifika artist Yuki Kihara as she speaks on her art and her project Paradise Camp which was exhibited in 2023 at Sydney's Powerhouse Museum exhibition space ( the exhibition closed in Feb 2024). Yuki Kihara is an interdisciplinary artist of Japanese and Sāmoan descent. Through a research-based approach, her work seeks to challenge dominant and singular historical narratives through a wide range of mediums, including performance, sculpture, video, photography and curatorial practice. Kihara lives and works in Sāmoa, where she has been based over the past 11 years.Yuki's 'work interrogates and dismantles gender roles, (mis)representation and colonial legacies in the Pacific. She was the first Pasifika, Asian and Fa‘afafine (Sāmoa’s ‘third gender’) artist to represent Aotearoa New Zealand at la Biennale di Venezia.'‘I’m inspired by Powerhouse Museum’s Pacific collections and look forward to presenting new works as part of the Paradise Camp exhibition that questions the idea of modernism as a singular Western heteronormative phenomenon. ’ - Yuki Kihara Photo credit Gui Taccetti Powerhouse Museum - Paradise Camp by Yuki Kihara

The Story of Takatapui & Dr Elizabeth KerekereSonja has a special korero with Dr Elizabeth Kerekere of Aotearoa in April 2023 on what Takatapui means to Maori and queer indigenous community in Aotearoa.Dr Elizabeth Kerekere member of Parliament Aotearoa, Activist, Human Rights Campaigner and Published writer , TakatapuiElizabeth was born in Gisborne where she lives with her wife, Alofa Aiono, her dog Indiana, and cats Havana and Chicago. On her father’s side, she is Whānau a Kai, Ngāti Oneone, Te Aitanga a Māhaki, Rongowhakaata and Ngāi Tāmanuhiri. On her mother’s side, Elizabeth hails from County Clare and County Tipperary in Ireland.Elizabeth has been community-based, focused on kaupapa Māori and Te Tiriti issues for 40 years. She works on local and national projects across health, mental health, suicide and violence prevention and youth development. Elizabeth has represented Rainbow and indigenous human rights issues nationally and overseas, including at the United Nations in Geneva.As a leader within Rainbow and youth development sectors for over 30 years, Elizabeth has mentored over 50 youth leaders and young people. Despite her hectic schedule, she is known for dropping everything if one of her young people calls. Elizabeth founded Tīwhanawhana Trust in 2001 to advocate for takatāpui to “tell our stories, build our communities and leave a legacy.” Elizabeth bases all of her work from this tūrangawaewae.Pronouns: She,Her,Ia

Women of the Moana on the screen: A talanoa with Kerry Warkia Sonja talanoas with film producer Kerry Warkia in Naarm in 2023 while she was a special guest for the Melbourne Women in Film Festival with her film Kainga that screened as the clsong night film at the festival.Kerry Warkia (Papua New Guinean- Tolai Clan /Scottish) is a producer who has been at the forefront ofsome of Aotearoa’s most innovative content for film,television and web.In 2016 Kerry produced, ground-breaking feature film WARU made up of eight vignettes and made in collaboration with nine wāhine (female) Māori film-makers.Passionate about telling Māori and Pacific stories, her second feature film Vai set in seven Pacific island countries and made in collaboration with 9 Pacific va'ine had its world premiere at the Berlinale Film Festival 2019.Included in the Vai anthology were two Queer Pasifika stories from Niue and Aotearoa. Her third feature film an action-comedy called The Legend of Baron To'a directed by Kiel McNaughton.And now her fourth is the final of the trilogy begun by WARU and Vai and that is Kainga (2022) which represents the world of Pan-Asian women and their experiences as diaspora and community in Aotearoa.Kerry’s production company,along with her partner Kiel McNaughton, is called Brown Sugar Apple Grunt,and as she says: “ is a dessert that we like to eat a lot of. But we also felt it kind of was us as well. Browncelebrates our ethnicity. Sugar symbolises the fun we like to have. Apple is a reminder to be natural andauthentic. And Grunt is getting the work done.” With the collaborations Kerry has been involved in shesays:“In filmmaking, the essence is collaboration. For something to be really good, there needs to be differentperspectives, techniques and skills from lots of different people. That’s essential to get a film from the seed, right through to the screen.And collaboration is absolutely my jam. It’s a place where I love to be. When a whole team starts working in synergy,incredible things happen. As they did with Waru. And with Vai.“And I do think that women definitely have a different touch and perspective. The way we view the world is different andso are our life experiences. And we bring those differences to our work when we’re making films.”

Pasifika Futurism with Gina ColeSonja has an in depth Talanoa with writer Gina Cole on her science fiction-Pasifika Futurism- novel Na Viro,that is now published (2022) and what motivates her,the concept of Va, the 'space in between',and the interconnectedness between islands and the culture of the Moana and how Pasifika people ARE all connected on the 'Blue Continent' and how Indigenous Futurism is growing as a way of storytelling globally."viewing space,of a space,or galaxy of islands...more expansive and connected which we all are"-Gina Cole  Gina COLE is Fijian, Scottish, and Welsh and lives in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland), New Zealand. She is the author of Black Ice Matter, which won the Hubert Church Prize for Best First Book Fiction at the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Her work has been widely anthologized and has appeared in numerous publications. She is a qualified barrister & solicitor. She holds a Masters of Creative Writing, and a PhD in Creative Writing and is an Honorary Fellow in Writing at the University of Iowa. Her science fiction fantasy novel Na Viro (Huia, 2022) is a work of Pasifikafuturism. Na Viro by Gina Cole (huia.co.nz)