New Zealand Fourteen - Text
The subject is 52 year-old “Kiwi” female, born in Nelson, N.Z. and raised both in New Zealand and Australia. She has lived in Christchurch, Auckland, Melbourne, and Sydney. She is currently residing in Newtown, Wellington, where she is working to earn her Master’s degree.
Transcription of interview:
I’m from a, a place at the very top of the South Island of New Zealand. The nearest town is a place called Nelson. And it has a reputation for being an artsy town. So there’s a lot of artists that live there. And a lot of artists who have lived there for a long time. Mmm. A lot of ceramic artists. It was originally ceramic artists… that lived in that area. And then other artists came along. I know there are a lot of ceramic artists that live and base in Nelson, that sell out of Nelson. But their work’s slightly more expensive. So that, you can pick out some of them in Wellington. Some of their work. And Nelson, um, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a… city. Um, it doesn’t have a university. It has a polytechnic. Um, it has a reputation for being very nice and white, so it’s quite a conservative white culture. But the, uh, see the iwi, Maori tribe’s from that area, so it also has quite a quite a strong Maori… culture… and strength to it. A lot of the people that live in Nelson are really conservative and they’d rather not see that other side… of Nelson. Um, I spent a lot of time in Christchurch in the Seventies. Uh, I went to training college there, and, um, was to lived in Auckland. Did some post-grad work there, in Auckland. Went to Sydney, to a drama school there for three years. Stayed on there. Worked for a long time with an Australian theatre company. Lived in Melbourne. Went in and out of Europe. And I know that, um, some New Zealand accents go up at the end. Like it’s a question as opposed to a statement. I think that’s fairly… strong, like, right across the country. Um, and some… I’ve got this character that I play. I work with, with. We’ve- I’ve got a duo act that we put out, and we’re two Westie girls. “And we talk like that! There’s a lot of that going on!” So, um that is quite actually happens. It’s in our country. When I first came back from overseas, I noticed…that shop assistants, mostly at supermarket checkouts would say, would say, “Thank you,” and I would give them my money. And they would say, Thank you”, or “Thank you.” A lot of kiwis say, “Thank you.” A lot of the, um, supermarket staff in Wellington, um, Japanese, Chinese, uh, Asian, so they don’t say, “Thank you.” They’re more likely to say cheers. Yeah. Yeah, well the Australian accent’s a lot stronger. Um, are you going to interview any Australians? Any Australians? Uh, ah, I’ve, I’ve just, because I’ve just come from a, a piece of work, I really love the U.N. (?) acting students here. I think they’re fantastic. They’ve been great to work with, and uh, really generous. I love them. I so feel passionate about… working with them, and, and having the generosity that they’ve given me, just in this last session. Oh, they’re fantastic. So yeah, I feel passionate about that. And that’s great, because I’ve come here to do my Master’s with - I want to reconnect with my passion for theatre, because I’ve been away from it for a while. And, so, that work that we did today is… it’s giving me that. Yeah. So even if I only get that once a week, that’s great.Recorded by David Nevell, 2007. Running time: 00:05:52