A community worker and activist at heart, on a mission to make the world a better place and have fun along the way.
Can you introduce yourself?
Kia ora! Nimen Hao. I’ll start with a list of identities that I’ve worked hard to fully embrace and feel proud of – Chinese, Lesbian, Feminist. And then there is the me who is mildly activist.
I’m a community worker at heart and have just landed a role at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki as a programme producer focusing on cultural communities and youth.
You are currently working as Programme Producer - Cultural Communities and Youth at Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. It sounds like an exciting role. What tasks do you handle? What are you aiming to achieve?
This was the next dream job. My role is to deliver public programmes that cater to or celebrate the many wonderful cultural communities in Tāmaki Makaurau including youth and the rainbow communities. This role is huge and connecting with groups and building relationships takes time. I love the variety and project focus of my work. What drives me is a desire to forefront underrepresented voices and to welcome communities who might have found access to the gallery/exhibitions difficult. My long term vision is to build a strong sense of belonging, welcome and connection to the gallery for all Aucklanders.
You’re also actively pursuing an acting career and you’ve been acting in plays like Have You Ever Been With An Asian Womxn? and In Review: An Extraordinary Meeting. Can you tell us about how plays like this come to life?
I love theatre – the fringe is where social change is born. It is where we can show unique perspectives and shift the focus and viewpoints of the audience and eventually the mainstream. Asian Womxn was a devised show – Gemishka, Elaine and I gathered a few times a week for three months to work out what we wanted
to put in the show, what stories we wanted to tell from our lived experiences and how much the oversexualisation and fetishism of Asian women has affected us.
My friend Aiwa Pooamorn who I was on stage with in another show, Other: Chinese, pulled me into being in Asian Womxn and she featured in a hilarious video hitting stereotypes of online sex sites. Working with an exclusively Asian female cast was amazing. We didn’t have to explain racism, sexism or othering,
we had all lived inside of it, each of us finding ways to survive and push against it. We formed a sistahood and even if we don’t see each other much I know we’ve got each other’s backs. It felt very much like that too working on Other: Chinese with Alice Canton.
The core cast of that show will forever be my Chinese whanau and the depth of 3 months of diving into the racism felt as Chinese New Zealanders has bonded us for life. For many of us we reclaimed our Chinese-ness with pride, for all of us we found belonging.
In An Extraordinary meeting, I was the only POC so it was a very different experience. Less of the heart connected bonding and more experience in acting and working with audiences. The piece was based on writer Alex Bonhams’ thesis subject and was very political. Audience participation was a huge part of the show so it differed every night depending on what the audience contributed, it was thrilling in that their thoughts were to be delivered to an actual Council meeting after the show’s run had concluded. Literally changing the world.
Recently you performed at Feminist Rage Night at the NZ Comedy Festival. Was it your first comedy festival? Did you improvise or was it acting?
Absolutely it was my first time on stage at a comedy gig... never thought I’d do that in my lifetime! Luckily it wasn’t exclusively comedy that night so a few of us were asked by Michèle to offer something different. I offered a spoken word piece that my partner and I crafted called the ‘Racist Rap.’
You are also very active in fighting for LGBTQ rights. Do you think there is still a long way to go in terms of wider acceptance of the Rainbow community? What do you think we humans collectively must do to achieve equity?
There is a wee way to go in wider acceptance of the Rainbow communities. Some of the fights are the same as they have always been – for individuals, these are having the courage and safety to be out, to live freely and love who you love. Culture and religion can contribute to worrying about rejection from family, friends and social groups. That hasn’t changed for the individual but thank goodness we have some great characters and shows on Netflix that are mainstreaming Rainbow lives in ordinary ways that have never been accessible by mainstream NZers before. In the last two decades we have been fighting
more and more for Trans rights, awareness and safety and in the last decade for gender fluid, gender diverse and non-binary identities to be accepted. What must we do collectively to achieve equality? Love, accept and respect. If we all just did this we would disrupt power, privilege, homophobia, racism, sexism, ablism and all the other “otherings.”
What is your motivation to change things around you?
Things need to change. There is so much hurt and pain in the world. So much physical and sexual abuse, so much unwellness, so much suicide. Doing nothing contributes to the problem. Doing something contributes to change.
Who is the most important woman in your life?
Two important womxn – sorry, I can’t just pick one so now I’m breaking the rules. My mum, for her courage in migrating to New Zealand with a young child when she spoke little English and had to learn a whole new culture. My mum’s journey, her strength and resilience are inspiring. And my partner is my daily inspiration. She is a phenomenal parent, she is curious and open to everyone’s point-of-view and happy to reform her opinion if someone else has a more researched opinion. Her influence gives me the strength to achieve the big dreams, to not worry
so much about being right but to always work to do right.
You can read the whole interview in printed publication Born to Create: Interviews with Creative Women
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