Jade is an architectural design, writer, and housing advocate. Of Māori and Dutch descent, her tribal affiliations are Ngāpuhi (Ngāti Hau me Te Parawhau), Te Whakatōhea and Te Arawa. Her literary interests include decolonisation, Māori-futurism, and contemporary theology. She has previously written for a variety of housing and architecture magazines and contributed chapters to several books on architecture and urbanism. She lives and works in Whangārei.
The project Jade is working on during our 13th residency for the year, explores experiences of indigeneity, race and racism in the diaspora. This novel-length work will draw loosely on the author’s lived experiences in Australia, and later reflections living at home in Aotearoa. The uneasy tension between indigeneity and settler colonialism, and the broader themes of lateral violence amongst marginalised groups will also be explored.
The project is structured around twelve thematically linked short stories, embedded in an overall present-day narrative and synthesised into a cohesive whole. The stories have a focus on memory, connection to place, and the subtle and overt ways in which identity is formed and shared in the context of colonial violence. Each of the memory stories – occurring in childhood/youth, and generally presented without examination – will be mirrored and anchored in a present-day narrative, characterised by the protagonist’s evolving sense of political awareness and capacity for self-reflection.