We Connected

What effect did this enforced isolation have on how we connected with ourselves, our loved ones and our communities, and what lessons did we take with us when we left our bubbles?

What effect did this enforced isolation have on how we connected with ourselves, our loved ones and our communities and what lessons did we take with us when we left our bubbles?

Kei Roto i te Miru: Inside the Bubble was designed to encourage DIY connections during lockdown through oral histories using everyday technology. The aim was to ensure physical distancing didn't equate to emotional distancing, particularly for the more vulnerable among us.

Meng Foon, Race Relations Commissioner described a situation for Chinese New Zealanders very different to the perception of the 'team of five million' where anxiety and "systemic type racism" meant he heard reports of some parents and schools saying: "Oh be careful with those Asians, you and your family are better staying home."

Meng was determined to counter racism with positivity and clear information.

Artist Aliyah Winter experienced some unexpected transphobia during her lockdown 'government mandated walks' in her quiet Island Bay suburb. She described some "weird experiences of harassment" as if people were expressing their "compressed emotions".

Aliyah felt a tension between presenting herself for the world with a particular kind of a femininity "sort of like body armor going outside," she said, and wanting to relax and not worry about it like everyone else wearing their track pants and no make-up during lockdown.

It wasn't all hard all the time though. Aliyah also felt that she had had a rest and a break.

"It's kind of been nice to have to opt out for a while, get back in touch with my body a little bit, because I haven't really had a regular routine of any physical exercise, so doing a lot of it ," said Aliyah.

Zemara Waru-Keelan who we met in a previous episode describing learning and teaching during lockdown, pointed out that not everything was rosy, homeschooling was fraught at times.

For her whanau in the Waikato it was also harvest time, which normally involves sharing food with the whanau, but in 2020 they just had to share the Matariki harvest of apples, melons and veggies within their bubble.

Zemara's brother Leon is in the band Katchafire, and he and his wife Herani had a different kind of lockdown. They were in Hawai'i when the borders started to close and they rushed home to isolate before being reunited with their whanau…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details