– Kelly – 30/1/97
After surmounting a reasonably low language barrier, and the interviewee’s idea that no-one would be very interested in hearing about what she did, I spoke to Minerva Oso about her research and holiday in New Zealand.
Originally from Madrid, Spain, Minerva is currently travelling through New Zealand on a three month working holiday. Her work involves researching and writing an article on what she has termed the ‘Maori Renaissance’, for a Spanish magazine called “Cuadernos de Africa, America Latina” (or as she translates it, “The Literary Journal of Africa and Latin America”). Minerva, who is 32, has a Social Sciences degree from a Spanish University, and she has been working for several years as a researcher, freelance journalist, and radio broadcaster. She also works as a volunteer for the Association for Progressive Communications (A.P.C), promoting their activities.
Although Minerva is remarkably low-key about her work, it seems like an amazing lifestyle. She is able to regularly combine working with travel, visiting a country which interests her every year, and focusing her research on issues relating to the women who live in that country. She has travelled extensively through South America, the North of Africa, Thailand, Pakistan, Guatemala and Argentina.
New Zealand appealed as a place to improve her
English as well as being a country which interested her. Minerva comments that generally Spanish people know very little about New Zealanders; “The only thing we know is the haka and the All Blacks. I wanted to show a different view”. She also admits that she was unaware of the complexity of her topic before she arrived here, and comments on the number of different views she has encountered as she interviews individuals and groups about the resurgence of Maori culture.
She believes that Maori women have taken a very
strong initiative, even more than Maori men, but hesitates to make any other judgements, saying that she considers herself an outsider, with only a limited understanding of the background to events. She claims, modestly, that her article will take a very basic approach, and “may not be very good”. She has collected Maori music, samples of Maori language, and some photographs and plans to produce a piece for the radio as well as the magazine article which will be written in Spanish.
When I spoke with Minerva she had been in New Zealand for two months. She has enjoyed her stay despite encountering cyclones, and managed to do some tramping and sightseeing around the glaciers on the West Coast. She describes the contrast of being in such beautiful places in almost complete isolation, coming from a crowded European city of 5 million people – “It is amazing for a European person to be standing alone on a beach”.
Minerva has felt comfortable travelling here on her own, and describes New Zealanders as being extremely helpful and friendly. From Christchurch, Minerva is travelling to Wellington and Auckland before returning to Madrid to face the daunting task of collating her research. She regrets that she is unable to stay in New Zealand for Waitangi Day on the 6th of February.
