Rounding out this run of episodes, writer Xue Li Zhang and filmmaker/community builder Kiran Patel talk through the messy, generous work of showing up for each other and the everyday act of building spaces where people can feel seen.

About Xue Li:

Xue Li Zhang is a writer born and raised in Tāmaki Makaurau, working across poetry, theatre, prose and journalism, with family roots in Fujian, China. She was editor of The Pantograph Punch and co-manager of Te Kāhui Creative Writing, and co-wrote the play Yang/Young/杨, staged at Basement Theatre. She's currently working on her debut novel.

➡️ Te Kāhui Creative Writing: tekaahuicreativewriting.org/about-1

About Kiran:

Kiran Patel is a third-culture kid — born in Aotearoa, raised in the Netherlands, with Indian heritage — and a community builder and filmmaker based in Auckland. He founded creative space MoveSpace in 2018 and created the storytelling card game Deeper Questions. He's currently behind Humans Are Awesome, a video portrait series spotlighting people making their corner of the world more awesome.

➡️ Follow Humans Are Awesome on Instagram: https://instagram.com/humansareawesome.films

➡️ Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/watch?v=flO39u3ma9M

Follow Asian in Aotearoa on Instagram: https://instagram.com/asianinaotearoa

Visit https://asianinaotearoa.com

This episode was made possible thanks to Foundation North and Creative New Zealand.

Visual artist Sahana Rahman and artist-producer Sananda Chatterjee catch up for a conversation rooted in South Asian craft, community and storytelling. They discuss embroidery traditions passed down generations through to the doing-word that real community actually is.

About Sahana:

Sahana Rahman is a visual artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau whose practice incorporates embroidery, painting, drawing and community activation, drawing on South Asian styles including Mughal miniature painting and shisha embroidery. Born and raised in Te Whanganui-a-Tara into a cross-cultural Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan Tamil home, she now runs communal embroidery workshops around the country. Her work explores decolonial practice and multicultural identity.

➡️ Follow Sahana on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shannyszn/

About Sananda:

Sananda Chatterjee (Sandy to mates) is an artist of Bengali heritage, born in Kolkata and raised between Delhi and Tāmaki Makaurau. A multidisciplinary artist and producer, her work spans large ensemble theatre with Prayas Theatre to intimate projects exploring gender, relationships and belonging. She also works as a producer, mentor and Cultural Insights specialist.

➡️ Follow Sananda on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bangalee_as_bro/

About the podcast:
Asian in Aotearoa is a podcast of conversations of Asian creatives, founded in 2020 by Jenna Wee in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland.

Follow Asian in Aotearoa on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/asianinaotearoa/

Visit asianinaotearoa.com

This episode was made possible thanks to Foundation North and Creative New Zealand.

Two multidisciplinary artists who do amazing things on stage, come together - actor, producer and writer Márianne Infante, and dance artist and choreographer Xin Ji. Their conversation moves between new motherhood, migration, making a lifetime of art without burning out, creativity and spirituality.

About Márianne:

Márianne Infante is a multidisciplinary creative of Kapampángan heritage — a trained actor, producer, writer, director and mover — born and raised in Pampanga, the Philippines, before moving to Aotearoa at 11. She's Executive Director of PAT, co-founder and director of Te & Kuya Collaborative and a board member of Equity NZ. Her mahi centres storytelling that uplifts Indigenous and immigrant voices.

➡️ Follow Márianne on Instagram: https://instagram.com/marianne_infante

➡️ Márianne on Satellites: https://satellites.co.nz/archive/people/marianne-infante

About Xin:

Xin Ji is a dance artist, choreographer, performer, filmmaker and educator based in Tāmaki Makaurau. Trained in Chinese Classical Ballet in Beijing before a professional career in Japan and Aotearoa, he has worked with companies including The New Zealand Dance Company, Footnote and Okareka. His debut solo work Body Story premiered at the Auckland Pride Festival in 2025.

➡️ Follow Xin on Instagram: https://instagram.com/xin_with_ji

➡️ Xin on Satellites: https://satellites.co.nz/archive/people/xin-ji

Follow Asian in Aotearoa on Instagram: https://instagram.com/asianinaotearoa

Visit https://asianinaotearoa.com

This episode was made possible thanks to Foundation North and Creative New Zealand.

This episode brings choreographer Cindy Yunha Jang and visual artist Tarika Sabherwal together. They chat about Cindy's work building belonging through movement and Tarika's exploration of inherited South Asian mythology and more.

About Cindy:
Cindy is a 1.5-generation Korean choreographer and community arts advocate based in Aotearoa, creating immersive, multidisciplinary works that centre diaspora narratives. In 2017 she founded Jang Huddle and her practice is an ongoing conversation between her past and future selves.
➡️ Follow Cindy on Instagram: https://instagram.com/janghuddle
➡️ Cindy on Satellites: satellites.co.nz/archive/people/cindy-jang-barlow

About Tarika:
Tarika Sabherwal is an artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau who narrativises personal relationships and landscapes within a South Asian mythological framework. Working against image saturation and historical revisionism, she unpacks inherited narratives by collating memories, pop culture, mythology and superstition.

➡️ Tarika's exhibition, Glyphs: galleryske.com/exhibitions/glyphs
➡️ Follow Tarika on Instagram: https://instagram.com/tarikasab

Follow Asian in Aotearoa on Instagram: https://instagram.com/asianinaotearoa

Visit https://asianinaotearoa.com

This episode was made possible thanks to Foundation North and Creative New Zealand.

Weimin and J.Y discuss friendship, community and why the most meaningful creative work often begins with making space for others.

About Weimin:

Weimin Li is a Tāmaki Makaurau-based tattoo artist and founder of NiceGoblins, an artist platform he launched in 2018 to create community and opportunities for emerging creatives in Auckland. Born in China and raised in Aotearoa from the age of eight, Weimin studied Video Game Design before finding his way into tattooing.

➡️ Explore NiceGoblins: https://www.nicegoblins.com

➡️ Follow NiceGoblins: https://www.instagram.com/nicegoblins_collective

➡️ Follow Weimin: https://www.instagram.com/nicegoblins_wei

About J.Y:

J.Y. is a legendary saxophonist/flautist who has spent more than a decade performing across Aotearoa's music scene. He has shared stages with artists including Tom Scott, CHAII, Sir Dave Dobbyn and Romi Wrights, and performed with groups including Yoko-Zuna, The Circling Sun, DAYBUS Jazz Orchestra and Avantdale Bowling Club.

➡️ Follow JY on IG: https://www.instagram.com/jaywhyl33/

About the podcast:

Asian in Aotearoa is a podcast of conversations with Asian creatives, founded in 2020 by Jenna Wee in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland.

Follow Asian in Aotearoa on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/asianinaotearoa/

Visit asianinaotearoa.com

This episode was made possible thanks to Foundation North and Creative New Zealand.

In this episode, Shamin Yazdani and Jefferson Chen chat creativity, community, artistic integrity, and personal growth. They reflect on belonging, the spaces between disciplines, what inspires their work, how they're navigating wellbeing, purpose, spirituality and more!About Shamin:Shamin Yazdani is an Iranian-born creative producer, filmmaker and multidisciplinary creator whose work centres on diaspora, displacement, identity, and belonging. As a first-generation Iranian-New Zealander, she brings a cross-cultural perspective shaped by living and working across SWANA and London. Her work across film, television, and creative production has appeared on local and international platforms.➡️ See Sham’s work: https://www.linktr.ee/suchashambles➡️ Follow Shamin on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/suchashamblesAbout Jefferson:Jefferson Chen is the Tāmaki Makaurau-based artist behind the solo music project Goodspace. His work moves fluidly between music, installation, film, theatre and television, exploring the spaces between genres with a style that's both distinctive and difficult to define.➡️ Check out Jeff’s work: https://goodspacemusic.carrd.co/ ➡️ Follow Goodspace on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodspacemusic/About the podcast: Asian in Aotearoa is a podcast of conversations with Asian creatives, founded in 2020 by Jenna Wee in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland.Follow Asian in Aotearoa on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/asianinaotearoa/Visit asianinaotearoa.comThis episode was made possible thanks to Foundation North and Creative New Zealand.

Nathan Joe returns to the podcast in conversation with Nahyeon Lee. They’ve been described as “filmmakers, theatre-makers and sometimes collaborators” and here they catch up on where they’re at creatively, their hot-takes on community, what they’re dreaming of next, spirituality and more.

About Nahyeon:
Nahyeon is a writer, director and theatre producer of Korean descent based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa. She has a Master of Arts in Drama Directing in Screen Production from the University of Auckland (First Class Hons) and has since embedded herself in stage and screen projects that strive to dismantle the hegemony - in narratives about identity through genre and in form.

➡️ Nahyeon’s work: https://www.punctum.co.nz/ and https://www.nahyeonlee.co.nz/
➡️ Follow Nahyeon on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nahyeonleee

About Nathan:Nathan Joe 周润豪 is an award-winning playwright, dramaturg and performance poet - born and raised in Ōtautahi. He is an incoming MFA playwriting candidate at the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin, and a 2025 Fulbright grantee.

➡️ Nathan’s work: https://nathanjoe.com/
➡️ Follow Nathan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yellowperilproductions/

About the podcast:
Asian in Aotearoa is a podcast of conversations of Asian creatives, founded in 2020 by Jenna Wee in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland.

Follow Asian in Aotearoa on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/asianinaotearoa/

Visit asianinaotearoa.com

This episode was made possible thanks to Foundation North and Creative New Zealand.

Tanya Barlow and Jenna Wee first had a chat on Asian in Aotearoa way back in 2020. Now, they’re reunited to kick off the new (and filmed) Season 4 of the podcast. They reflect on where they’re at in terms of creativity, community and a bunch more.

About Tanya:
Tanya is a nail artist, voiceover artist, former make up artist, podcaster, content creator, and all round creative and multi-disciplinary artist! She is half Singaporean-Chinese, half Pākehā and grew up in Hong Kong.
➡️ Watch Tanya’s podcast: ⁨@hellotanyapod⁩

➡️ Follow Tanya on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hellotanya/

About Jenna:Jenna founded Asian in Aotearoa in 2020 and has since interviewed well over 50 Asian creatives about their lives and artistic work. Born and raised in Tāmaki Makaurau, she’s Malaysian-Chinese, Japanese, Pākehā and Melanau.

Follow Asian in Aotearoa on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/asianinaotearoa/

This episode was made possible thanks to Foundation North and Creative New Zealand.