First Look! 👀 Being Maori & Multicultural: How Heritage Drives Design with Antonia Walmsley

0:00I think, I mean, what's interesting, because, I mean, I was moving to Europe and I originally lived in Amsterdam. So it was sort of one of those things where I was with the same company, but it was really a life change. You know, and that was, I was looking for a bit of an kind of interesting life change after COVID and all of its things. Cabin fever on an island. but I think I was a little nervous about coming over here because I think New Zealanders inherently have an idea of Europe as being this sort of cultural centre and this sort of, you know, there's a real, Europe is on a pedestal to New Zealanders.

0:50And it was where we looked to all the time but designed for all these different kind of, New Zealand is essentially 200, 250 years old, which is a baby compared to over here. So there was a certain level of nervousness. But I think once I got here, I think I inherently have a way with sort of, I am two cultures. I am one, I'm basically the United Nations, but I have another digit. But yeah, I think I have a built-in empathy for a culture that isn't properly mine. And because I know what it sort of feels like to sort of be of a different culture and then integrate into different ways. So I also have a deep fascination of different cultures.

1:42So, you know, my team is, I love them all. They're amazing. And the nuances of speaking to an Italian team compared to a French team, compared to a Swiss team, And I think we have a habit of sort of doing the stereotype around different cultures and things like that. But I think the nuances, and I guess what we're doing, you know, we're designing. So we've all got a passion for a certain thing, but it manifests itself in a different way just because of how people articulate what it is, you know, their lived experiences, their cultures. And I mean, I find that probably one of the most exciting things about my job is to understand, you know, the perspective of a different culture, which I think is so interesting in this kind of very, I guess, insular looking world sometimes.

2:34It's so nice to see the diverse perspective. I do find that with any like almost like the unifying point from anybody that's like done a big move like overseas or anything even if it's not distancedly that far but like had to move to Italy like in Pennsylvania and that's not that far but still a huge cultural change I feel like that one unifying thing is like having broken your safe um bubble if that's a word and then going into this completely new like environment having to learn everything and it being so different in one way or another to what you pictured and expected and yeah that one thing oh my goodness like you've done that move and like how did you find this and it's kind of a unifying point is very interesting like regardless of the culture there's always that like level i like leveling yes yes and it's it's really interesting because i know you know here are a lot of kiwis in london there are a lot of australians in london and you know i get a lot of things and it's comments that oh you all kind of moved to clapham and i have to say i probably probably encountered as many chemis as i thought but i think it's because i operate at a sort of in a more european environment than a london environment and because i was an apps fan and things like that you know i i the expat idea is really interesting and being an expat in a country you know in a city like amsterdam so you know i my friends are chile and my friends are swedish They're from a Polish, from completely different places anyway.

4:25And it's interesting that the community that gets formed around that. And so, again, it's sort of embracing a multicultural kind of idea in a place that isn't anyone's. And that's what's so interesting. Yeah, so I think because I'm used to being not the other culture or being kind of, you know, there's an identification in my culture and what I do. So, you know, and there's always that strive for people to understand where I'm coming from. I think I have, I guess, a switched-on empathy to that from others, which makes it really interesting when you get expats in a completely different place and what that looks like.

5:13But, yeah, it's a really fun thing to do. Oh, it is. Talking to someone who's made a great statement, I love this, once you've done a move like that, everywhere is home but nowhere is home. Yes. Because suddenly, like, the whole world, like you could live anywhere sort of thing and then like but then suddenly like nowhere's home because you haven't got that like grounded safe bubble anymore because you kind of left it so it's like it was a really it was a really eye-opening it was a really well put message because I do understand up through my personal like journey like what it's in yeah some in some extent what it was like and so yeah I did pretty sort of everywhere's home nowhere's home Thank you.