A Frame on Life

My Work

I’ve reported for Newshub and written for RNZ, the Spinoff, The Conversation, Stuff, The Pantograph Punch, Overland Magazine and more.

I also host podcast and associated blog Disability Crosses Borders.

Feel free to get in touch with story ideas or other collaboration opportunities. I’m especially interested in climate change, immigration and disability.

I’m also open to interview and speaking requests.

Disability Crosses Borders

As a disabled migrant myself, I want to see more stories talking openly about the messy and life-shaping intersections where disability, migration and culture meet. So I created Disability Crosses Borders, a podcast and associated blog with interviews dedicated to these conversations.

Check it out and search for Disability Crosses Borders on your favourite podcast app.

 

Disability and Accessibility

Disabled people make up nearly a quarter of the New Zealand population.

Generations of Change

In this seven-part series, disabled leaders dive deep into their round-about journeys into spearheading all kinds of change towards a more accessible, inclusive world. As a Generation Z disabled person, I ask them about growing up disabled forty or fifty years ago or acquiring disability as an adult. How has Aotearoa changed, or not, in the meantime? What unplanned moments would shape the lives of the visionary disabled people who dedicated themselves to making inclusion the norm?

Watch the interviews or read the transcripts here.

With thanks to Imagine Better.

Disability and the Arts

New Zealand has some pretty cool audio described and sensory art offerings and I’ve written and been interviewed about a small sample of them.

Disability Pride

I’ve written about how community-building around disability pride has resonated with me. It’s complex but I’ve found it can be super validating.

Blindness

If my life experiences can offer you food for thought or can nuance commonly-held perceptions about blindness, I’m glad to share them.

Climate and environment 

I’ve written my masters thesis about climate journalism in Aotearoa NZ. It was an honour to interview reporters on this most important and most enduring of beats. 

Recently I’ve focused more on climate and disability intersections. I write a regular feature, usually exploring climate and disability, for Peter Torres Fremlin’s Disability Debrief newsletter. Subscribe to catch those in your inbox each month.

Covid-19

The ultimate crisis/inequity compounder. Some takes:

Journalism

I care a lot about helping all journalists and media outlets to represent disabled people authentically while creating inclusive environments where more disabled reporters are hired. Journalists and media orgs please get in touch if you’re interested in upskilling in this area. Also check out the Unbias the News story below.

Welfare system

I wrote a little series for Newshub (early 2019) about experiences accessing the welfare system.

Immigration and resettlement

I’ve moved around quite a bit, living in Ireland till I was five, then in Canada for a few years and mainly growing up in New Zealand. I was fortunate to spend an exchange semester in Spain, and the best part of the past year in Sweden and now Norway.

Proactive disclosure

I wrote a report for Transparency International NZ on What New Zealand can learn from the introduction of proactive disclosure in Spain. Nerdy? Yes.