Andria Pablo-Sanchez is from Mexico, but it was through connecting with Māori tikanga here in New Zealand that she found her roots – and an appreciation for her own colonised culture.
Andria, 28, is originally from Mexico City, but has been in New Zealand for eight years. She came expecting a tropical island and tribal culture. The weather was a rude awakening.
She was encouraged to travel by her father, who wanted her to see the world. And it wasn’t just that he wanted her out of the house as soon as she turned 18, she jokes.
“He told me ‘There are so many bubbles in this life, and we live in a bubble, so I am giving you a chance to go and live in another bubble’.”
“If I can find people with an open heart, there’s no language barrier or culture or customs, it’s just people. I have found that in NZ. I have family here.” Photo: Unknown
So life, combined with study in he chosen field of photography, brought her to New Zealand. When she first arrived, she didn’t know anything about the country. “I thought it was an exotic island. All I’d seen was a tiny little island in the middle of nowhere, and I’d seen pictures of Māori people doing things like the haka.”
Andria was intrigued, because she loves exploring other cultures. “In terms of my photography I was like, ‘I want to go and photograph cultures and learn about indigenous people’, because I am passionate about that.”
She was ready to embrace New Zealand as her new home. When she left Mexico, she thought she was not going to be back for a long time. “I got ready, and did a goodbye before I left, so at some point I could stay.”
But when she got off the plane in Auckland, she found it was “full of Asian people, and it was just a city,” she says. It was her first experience of any kind of Asian culture, and she wasn’t prepared for it – or the weather. “This is not a tropical island,” she thought; “I think I just want to go back home.”
But her father – wisely, she thinks now – made her stay. She made friends, but they wanted to study in the library when she wanted to travel, have fun, and party. So one day, depressed, lonely and two weeks into her stay, she went to explore Waiheke Island by herself.
That adventure was the first step in her falling in love with New Zealand, and, after a long journey getting her immigration papers together, she now has residency. “If I can find people with an open heart, there’s no language barrier or culture or customs, it’s just people,” she says. “I have found that in New Zealand.”
Andria does miss things about Mexico, mostly her friends and family, but she says travelling has made her more open to connecting with other people.
I’ve been very empowered by Māori culture: standing strong, and knowing their whole whakapapa, and knowing what it is and fighting for it
Does she miss the food? No, she says, not really. When she first arrived, the different cuisines available in New Zealand were a whole new experience – she had never tried Indian or Thai food, or kebabs. And Wellington has good Mexican food, she says.
Since she moved to the capital city, she has been part of a group that helps to organise the Dios de los Muertos – Day of the Dead – celebrations there in November. Those people have changed the meaning of family for her, she says.
She says Wellington is a very multicultural city; she’s loved bringing her culture there, and says it is “beautiful” that people are open to experiencing it, too.
In turn, Andria relates to Māori culture, and has looked to incorporate it into her work. “I’ve been very empowered by Māori culture and Māori women, standing strong, and knowing their whole whakapapa, and knowing what it is and fighting for it.”
Like many Māori, Andria grew up in a westernised culture, with little connection to her ancestral roots. “I don’t know if I ignored it, or I just didn’t know about it,” she says. “I was just living in my own bubble, like my Dad said.”
Connecting with tikanga has made her appreciate her own culture more. “It feels like an empty space, because I realised I don’t really know my whakapapa. I know my grandparents, and I have a beautiful relationship with them, but… there was nothing that talks about ancestors in that way.”
But she does know her tūrangawaewae. Mexico City used to be Tenochtitlan, an Aztec City state, on an island in Lake Texcoco. That lake is her “place”.
“That’s where my feeling is at the moment is, because I am far away, so just like looking at where I grew up, and the history of it.”
