In this deeply personal conversation, Kerri Butler reflects on whakapapa, identity, and the stories that shape who we are. Through the experiences of her beloved nanny and her own journey through the mental health system, she explores the impact of stigma, cultural disconnection, and the power structures that can redefine people. Yet this is also a story of hope, healing, and the importance of sharing power, honouring lived experience, and creating systems that see people not simply as patients, but as whole human beings. At its heart, this is a conversation about voice, dignity, and ensuring that future generations inherit something better.

What if the answers to many of our social challenges are not found solely in policy, systems, or new theories, but in remembering something we have long known? Through the perspectives of Malaysian migrants and queer individuals in Aotearoa New Zealand, this essay reflects on identity, belonging, culture, and the enduring importance of love as a foundation for human connection in an increasingly fragmented world.

For many of us, healing has been framed as something that ends with a cure. Yet life is rarely that simple. In this reflective essay inspired by my conversation with Māori lived experience leader Tui Taurua, I explore what happens when recovery does not mean returning to who we once were, but learning how to live with greater understanding, connection, and compassion. Through themes of trauma, Wairua, lived experience, and Mātauranga Māori, Tui's story invites us to reconsider what healing really means and whether perhaps the question is not "How do I become cured?" but "How do I learn to live?"

Camille shares her journey from chemistry to social science, the influence of her mother, her challenge to Western-centric thinking in academia, and why communities should not have to seek validation to exist.

This conversation touched me personally — especially as someone who has worked in community and mental health spaces and often struggled with systems that ask people to justify their humanity.

From an early life marked by instability, separation, and a sense of being an outsider, Michael shares how chronic illness became a turning point rather than an endpoint. Living with chronic fatigue syndrome for over three decades, he describes a life of constant recalibration—learning how to restore energy, listen to the body, and rebuild from within.

Through encounters with energy healing, meditation, and embodied practices, Michael’s path gradually unfolded into the work he does today. His approach is not based on theory alone, but on lived understanding—how the body holds tension, how emotions move, and how healing requires both awareness and presence.

What does it mean to stay true to yourself while navigating different cultures, expectations, and uncertainty?

In this powerful conversation, Arina Aizal shares her journey from Malaysia to Aotearoa, the impact of the Christchurch mosque attacks, student leadership during COVID, and how authenticity became her greatest strength.

A story of courage, identity, and belonging.

Fahima’s journey is one shaped by navigating between cultures, carrying quiet responsibility, and learning to find belonging in spaces that didn’t always understand her. From growing up feeling “one foot in home and one foot in New Zealand,” to supporting youth through lived experience, her story is a reminder that sometimes the people who help others the most are those who once had to find their own way alone.

Claire Moore’s story is not about leadership in the traditional sense—it is about how lived experience becomes the foundation for change. From a childhood shaped by responsibility and silence, to navigating the mental health system and later challenging it, her journey reflects a shift from survival to understanding.

Rather than focusing on what was “wrong,” her work centres on what has happened to people—and how that understanding can create spaces for healing, connection, and agency.

This story captures how personal experience, when carried into action, can shape systems, build communities, and ensure that voices once unheard are no longer overlooked.

This blog explores Evangeline’s journey of growing up between cultures and the emotional complexity that comes with it. Navigating both Eastern and Western expectations, she experiences an internal tension that shapes her identity, self-expression, and sense of belonging. Without language to understand her emotions early on, she faces her struggles quietly until she begins to access support and learn to name and process what she feels. Over time, her journey becomes not only about personal healing, but also about bridging understanding between herself and her family, and later extending that into her academic work in psychology. Ultimately, the blog reflects an ongoing process of growth—where identity is not fixed, belonging is redefined, and living between worlds becomes a source of deeper awareness rather than limitation.

This article explores Wendy’s journey of living between cultures and discovering her identity beyond labels. As a 1.5-generation Chinese New Zealander, she navigates the quiet tension between different cultural values, expectations, and ways of being—shaping how she understands herself and her emotions. What begins as an academic pursuit into emotional regulation gradually becomes a personal process of self-awareness, unlearning, and growth. Through this journey, Wendy comes to recognise that identity is not fixed, emotions are not always immediately understood, and belonging does not require fitting into a single category. Instead, the article reflects a deeper truth: that growth is an ongoing process, and who we are continues to unfold over time.