Two awards were made in this round. These Kākano awards are possible because of the generosity of donors and ASAANZ members who contribute a levy from their annual membership fee. Thank you to all of those people. Thanks also to the supervisors for their references.
Congratulations to the two successful applicants for their success and for their research. One is using the $300 towards thesis preparation, the other to attend our November ASAA/NZ Conference. An additional applicant also received a small ‘top-up’ having applied for a lesser amount earlier in their degree. All the applicants are completing their PhDs and the description of the work of the two new applicants is below.
Rebekah Senanayake is completing her PhD at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington. Brigitte Bönisch-Brednich and Annemarie Jutel are her supervisors.
Rebekah
Anthropology as a fulcrum for social change: Critical reflections on Amazonia
The Amazon is in flames. The fires have come within 100 metres of the field site which I have known for the last eight years, threatening the community’s livelihood and safe existence. The cry of the Earth is a vital sign of emergency, and desperately asks us, as anthropologists, to critically reflect on our responsibilities to our field sites and collective social change. To do this, I will tell a story through ethnographic vignette, documentary footage, and photographs to portray the beauty and devastation I witnessed first-hand during my doctoral fieldwork using multi-natural perspectivism to demonstrate the extent of natural disaster for local populations. This will be presented at the upcoming ASAA/NZ Conference: Vital Signs, in Palmerston North.
Yi Li is completing her PhD at Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka – University of Otago. Her supervisors are Susan Wardell and Christina Ergler.
Geographic Happiness: Navigating Body, Place and Wellbeing through Migrants’ Eco-creative Practices in Aotearoa New Zealand
Yi and a companion at exhibition
Yi’s near-complete PhD thesis at the University of Otago draws on the experiences of 38 migrant eco-creators in Aotearoa New Zealand. Conducted between 2021 and 2024, the anthropological project applies sensory ethnography and multimedia methods to explore migrants' eco-creative practices within this island’s geo-socio context. These practices include eco-arts, regenerative farming and living, and home and placemaking, across Dunedin, Wanaka, Christchurch, and Auckland. Grounded in a sociocultural-ecological model with a cosmopolitan lens, the research investigates how migrants' bodies connect to place, shaping human-environment relationships through sensuous engagements, relational landscapes and creativity. It highlights the formation of land-body dynamics and the fluidity of geographic happiness as part of the migrants’ coping strategies, particularly in the times of uncertainty.
