People of Puāwai Puāwai

Today with us we have Saf and Alena. They are two Nepali Bhutanese young women who were born in Nepal and moved to Aotearoa as refugees when they were children. In this episode, Saf and Alena discuss a brief history of how they became refugees, what being a refugee in Aotearoa schooling was like in the 2010s, their relationships with both Nepali and Bhutanese cultures, and the experience of being the oldest girl in brown households.

We have Gray and Kat on the show today. They are two queer young people who have spent a significant amount of their life under the care of Oranga Tamariki.

They discuss the differences in each of their experiences of state care as well as the similarities; how this impacted their schooling, relationships with their whānau and themselves.
For more information and links check out: https://linktr.ee/people_of_puawai & instagram.com/puawai_youth/

Today we have Andre and Abdi on the show. They’re two young people who migrated to Aotearoa during primary school. One from the Philippines and the other from Somalia. They discuss their experiences of migration, how their experiences of school, community and self-identity were impacted, the change they would like to see in the world and what inspires them to be change-makers. For more information and links checkout: https://linktr.ee/people_of_puawai & instagram.com/puawai_youth/

Benedict and Ryan talk about their experiences as young Filipino migrants in Aotearoa, the years of whānau separation, transferring from schooling in the Philippines to Aotearoa, reflections on Filipino culture, and what it is like to be queer amongst all of that. For more information and links check out: https://linktr.ee/people_of_puawai & instagram.com/puawai_youth/

Kai and Carrot talk about how they have experienced the world. Both are of Polynesian descent, which often finds people of ethnic groups boxed together, Kai and Carrot’s stories show us how much variability there is in an individual’s identity, that there are complex and different ways in which people navigate the world and most importantly, that we do people an injustice if we don’t get to know an individual story before we make assumptions about them.

Kai discusses their gender, having a split whānau and having to move around, the impact of neurodiversity, the experience of being Māori in school, and how all of these things cumulatively impacted their schooling. And Carrot, being born in Samoa and moving to Aotearoa, discussed her goals for sustainability in the future and the impact her culture has had on her, in particular, the value of service.

For more information and links checkout: https://linktr.ee/people_of_puawai & instagram.com/puawai_youth/

Jupiter and Millie discuss their experiences as young queer people from different cultural backgrounds, how these cultures interacted with their broader identities and how they influenced their interactions with their peers as well as relationships with their whānau.
For more information and links check out: https://linktr.ee/people_of_puawai & instagram.com/puawai_youth/