In England the lifestyle is a bit more different. It’s sometimes could be quite ... you could be quite isolated because I remember when I first came here sitting in my and I said ‘look at where I am today sitting here looking at 4 walls. Nobody to talk to’. When you’re in Trinidad you’ve got so much people to talk to and yet you fall out with people or you don’t get along with people or you know talk and you know.
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What I like in New Zealand... they... you can meet lots of cultures. And... everybody proud of their culture. Why you can't? So you have to... You came as... people ask, where are you from, because, everybody from somewhere. Here in New Zealand.” |
I... I wouldn't say that's like Kyiv... Kyiv is, exactly the my... home place? Because I have... I don't like big cities. Yeah but I like place where my... where... my school? I just like wandering around to see how that's changing, um, yeah I like meet... people. Probably people... the most, what- what, yeah, uh... give, give me the feeling of the home. So because last time I met with my classmates from school it was really nice yeah they... I... I, posted in facebook that I'm going to be that time and they, organised a meeting for all our classmates in that time when, they... look Natalia's coming we have to do something! Yeah, so it was nice... Yeah. People and places where I grew up... That’s a home. |
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I don’t speak on behalf of Aboriginal people. I cannot do so. As an artist, Aboriginality is one of the thematic subjects. I invest my own experience and understanding in the artistic representation of Aboriginal people.
"White people always tell us what to do. I don’t like that,” an Aboriginal friend told me in my studio.
The last time I actually was in Trinidad I would think it was in 2018. So yeah it’s been a while. It is very different for me personally because I’ve adapted to living here. I find it very difficult when I go back to adjust. To be honest it’s really different just on the whole a lot of things because I’m no longer familiar with sort of how things run or manage in Trinidad. So actually I now feel like a foreigner in my home country. |
I live in New Zealand and that's what... I sort of feel like I'm... New Zealanders but I cannot say that I'm, half Ukrainian half... my half of my... I think, there is overweight still but, the most of my heart goes to Ukraine. But there is some space for New Zealand. But, yeah, I cannot say that I'm half and half because, yeah it... it's just... it's just yeah to be honest I... I have to say that I, yeah, I would say that I live in New Zealand, but... I'm Ukrainian.
During the pandemic I went back [to Australia] and there was a sense of transition from one place to another. I was feeling in-between, neither Chinese nor Australian. This has been written so much about belonging and diaspora, not here nor there. But when I actually experienced it, it was really a zone of feeling. I really need a sense of grounding, to gradually know a place and know where I belong. |
I mean I came up here as a mature person. So I already had a career path back home... had experience working and all of that. So I wasn’t a teenager or a young person sort of.. you know under 21 sort of say... well ‘you’re gonna try everyday or you came here for a purpose’. The intention was to get that purpose and go right back home because there’s a job there waiting for you. |
And, my feeling was, what I'm gonna do here? First few months were terrible for me, terrible feeling because... you don't understand anything? You cannot say anything... I was literally crying and saying I will... I'm too old, I will never be able to learn anything and do anything this... country you know. So... yeah... We, didn't even think we can do it again, like preparing, big move somewhere. For long time, now. Definitely. Sometimes it really is hard but... when you look back and you think how much you learned because it was difficult, there is something to be thankful for.
My protagonists are non-white. I hope that children who read them might see the world through the eyes of someone who is of a different culture or has a different skin colour to their own. Walking in another’s shoes, seeing through their eyes, feeling their emotions, their fears and joys. Only a book has the power to do that.
Carnival is just the excitement and after Christmas that’s actually what I look forward for. All the parties. The whole festival yeah. So it all starts after January in the carnival and it’s all again the excitement the party you walking around the savannah and you can see everyone else training and at that time to be able to survive Monday and Tuesday it’s just everything about it… I cook callaloo, fried bake, doubles whatever. You know. We cook proper Trinidadian food. I speak to my children in Trinidadian. Yeah we listen to Soca music for cleaning the house. We listen to parang and chutney, so we listen our music. |
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Where I belong. That's a good question. And that's probably the one that I, will try to figure out for the rest of my life, huh-huh, because, I guess, it cha... it changes when you start having kids and you realise that... well, I had a place where I belonged when I was in Ukraine but I didn't feel that I belonged there because I always had kind of a weird thinking compared to others, maybe I thought so I don't know. |
And then, in here, you're not hundred per cent local and you will never be because you have an accent and it always differentiates you from other people, you always have a story to tell how you arrived... I guess after ten years you're kind of - oh don't want to tell it - okay. So how you ended up in New Zealand... I kind of already done that everywhere I go. |
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Yeah. Right, no, I feel I belong in New Zealand... My... m- my mindset is of a... New Zealander mindset and, yeah. I just don't I don't think I will be able to function in Ukraine the way I can function in here. |