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Graduate stories: Luka Lim-Anapu-Cowley-Bunnin

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Kia ora, mālō e lelei, talofa and warm Pacific greetings!

Welcome back to our Graduate Stories Series. We have had some amazing stories already from graduates from all over Aotearoa doing fantastic research around the Pacific and beyond. To kick off our Series for 2020, it gives me great pleasure to introduce Luka Amber Leleiga Ruth Lim Schweitzer Anapu Bernard Cowley Bunnin. Luka is studying at Te Whare Wānanga o Tāmaki Makaurau (University of Auckland), having completed their BA Hons with a double major in cultural anthropology and Pacific studies, under the supervision of Dr Lisa Uperesa. 

Luka Amber Leleiga Ruth Lim Schweitzer Anapu Bernard Cowley Bunnin

Tell us about yourself:

Ko Vaea te māunga

Ko Fululasau te awa

Ko Matua te waka

Ko Anapu Solofa tōku tīpuna

Nō Hamoa, Haina, Ingarani, me Iuropi ahau

Ko Maria Louise Bernard rāua ko Francis Oliver Lim Bunnin ōku mātua

Ko Luka Amber Leleiga Ruth Lim Schweitzer Anapu Bernard Cowley Curzon Bunnin tōku ingoa 

My mother’s side of the family is from Vaigaga, Saanapu, and Falelatai, Samoa i Sisifo, and live mainly in Aotearoa, Samoa, Australia, and the U.S. My father’s side of the family is Han Chinese and Ashkenazi Jewish, mainly U.S. and U.K.-based; I was born in London, where I lived for the first 13 years of my life, and have been living in Tāmaki Makaurau and Pōneke for most of the last 9 years - my two younger brothers still live in London. I am totolasi, autistic, and faatama.

What drew you to anthropology?

Originally, I took anthropology because the introduction to psychology paper was full. I stayed because I liked how it provided space to question norms, analyse culture, and consider why certain kinds of knowledge are valued and grouped, by whom, how, when, where, … Explicitly and repeatedly raising questions about how the communities we belong to affect the work we do wasn’t something that I found in many other departments, so this was also a major reason for remaining. Tarapuhi Vaeau, Lorena Gibson, and Catherine Trundle were my lecturers at Vic, and they’ve all given me plenty of examples of how anthropology, with all of its issues, can be used to do (“)good work(”).

What are you working on?

How people construct communities is something that has interested me for a while: navigations of absence/presence, who is ex/implicitly in/excluded, under which circumstances, and for which purposes, et cetera. The project is an answer to the question “are there distinct epistemic violences against Samoan queer-gender communities in contemporary Aotearoa?”, and is contextualised through a history of Samoans in Aotearoa, Samoanness and “queer-genderness” (maybe “queered-genderness”, to borrow from Kahala Johnson), and then how epistemic violence can be defined: basically, the ways in which (hegemonic non-other) humans use knowledge and knowledge networks to do harm to o/Other human beings. I foreground vā, spaces, boundaries of (“the”) faasamoa, language, and bodies as the main sites of epistemic violence (such are my biases). Shout outs to Fetu, Jono, Nikolai, Rex, Kassie, & Dan for everything. 

Although my dissertation was submitted last year, these are topics I’m still working through - the vague outline of my PhD topic (2021?) is how Oceanian queer crip climate activists do the work we&they do, and knowledge blocking (more expansive and less deficit-approach than epistemic violence, so the ways in which knowledge prevention and conferral can be used to heal can also be discussed).

How have you found life as a graduate student?

Grad life has been simultaneously assembling (slight reference to assemblage theory) and isolating: on the one hand, it does bring people to together, but it also seems to do this in ways that are often siloed and regimented, and I mean both of those with all of the connotations. Of course, more random encounters do also occur! The freer rein is also kind of double-edged: being able to discuss topics in more depth, and use more art in assignments and research has been brilliant, because there are some things that can only be communicated via poetry, film, music, and paper cuts (#fiapoko). Procrastination is something I do very well (as Jacinta now knows!), so finding ways of keeping to task has been interesting. There are histories in my family of depression, and I was depressed for part of my Honours year; I know people who’ve had similar experiences. Thankfully, I’ve had amazing support. Most people I’ve spoken to haven’t. We need to talk more about this, and how we respond to mental health challenges with our friends, in our departments, and further, because just knowing that something ‘is’ doesn’t automatically entail knowledge of how best to engage and support.

Current influences: 

My main influences are my family and friends, especially my queer&crip aiga. I’m leaving out loads of people, and this list could be a lot longer! But: 

  • Always Audre Lorde.

  • Noelene Nabulivou, e.g.:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRNjEJAE1Ss
    in particular, what she says here about working together, and taking and giving critique, because I know I need to improve on all of the previous. (with thanks to Sophie Lake)

  • Alyssa Hillary Zisk wrote a chapter in Critiques (2014) called “On The Erasure of Queer Autistic People”, and it’s the best thing I’ve ever read about autistic gendersexuality.

  • Teresia Teaiwa, Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner, Terisa Siagatonu, and June Jordan for their poetry, lived written spoken.  

  • People and groups like Lydia X. Z. Brown and Sins Invalid: (content warning: descriptions of violence) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UUyqdhNcpg

  • In terms of engaging with the complicated-problematic-do-i-even-want-to-be-here complex that is academia, Sara Ahmed’s work on complaint and diversity, and Fred Moten and Stefano Harney’s work on the undercommons have been useful: as with many in this list, I’m still trying to figure out how these are and aren’t translatable and/or applicable in these particular contexts (with thanks to Hugo Robinson, Lisa Uperesa, and Yvonne Underhill-Sem).

The first degree I attempted was a BMus majoring in instrumental and vocal composition at Te Kōkī (which is its proper name) New Zealand School of Music, so: 

Overlaying music with meanings that were probably not intended by the composers is one way of generating ideas. And other than that, I just think it’s fun. Several of these can be reinterpreted through indigenous-queer-crip sovereignty & climate justice.

Graduate Stories is curated by ASAA/NZ Postgraduate Representative Jacinta Forde. If you would like to share your graduate story with us - or you know of some interesting research being done by a graduate student - please get in touch.