Hi Nani! Tell us a little bit about yourself – where are you from, what you do, what makes you tick?
Hello! My name is Nani (She/Her), I am a Māori girl from New Zealand who has lived in Melbourne for the past 10 years and I’m excited to start at Ramona Magazine as the new Social Media intern. I am currently a third year Communications Media student at RMIT, so admittedly I am a big movie person who takes Letterboxd very seriously. When I’m doing film assignments I always choose the Cinematography role, it’s a big passion of mine as a kid who grew up always taking photos. I love making meaningful and beautiful shots whether it’s for Cinematography or Photography. What got me into Media and Film in high school was the need to create meaningful work that spoke to people, stories that needed to be told. I think a big part of what makes me tick is my sense of empathy and justice, instilled in me from a young age. I’ve always felt the need to help others in any way I can, and that comes through in my media work, especially in my drive to highlight groups who need better representation.
What drew you to Ramona and what do you hope to bring to the team?
A big part of what drew me to Ramona was the sense of independence from traditional media, offering such an authentic and raw look into women’s issues and empowering the audience at the same time was so cool to me when I was looking into which internship I wanted to do. The chance to make work that can really resonate with people and being able to create content that caters to and uplifts women was what ultimately made me choose to intern here. What I hope to bring to the team is a fresh way to create content that empowers and educates the diverse feminist audience.
Describe your dream creative project – budget and time don’t exist. Go wild.
A dream film project I’ve always wanted to work on has always centred indigenous women in a rural setting, as a big fan of gothic/southern gothic literature and films I’ve always wanted to explore those themes of dark small towns through the lives of indigenous women in a place where we don’t usually see them in film. With inspirations like twin peaks and film noir I would love to write a very psychological but heartfelt story about women who are thrown into a bad situation but come out of it stronger, exploring girlhood and love while bringing a gritty feel contrasting traditional girlhood that I love to see in film.
What’s something you’re currently obsessed with (music, books, snacks, weird niche internet thing…)?
At the moment I’ve been obsessed with RuPaul’s Drag Race. I just binged the 12th season and caught up on All Stars 10, I went into it initially because I’d followed some Drag queens previously so I thought I’d start watching. After binging the 12th season in just a couple of days, I was hooked, the show delivers everything it should, from its focus on fashion and fierce lip-syncing to the constant, high-stakes competition. It’s become a show my mum and I watch together every night. With so many seasons, it’s really brought us closer—spending time watching it and talking about it has become our thing.
What’s a piece of advice or a quote that you come back to when things feel a bit wobbly?
A quote that has stayed in my head since I heard it is from my favourite artist Ethel Cain “if it’s meant to be then it’ll be, I forgive it all as it comes back to me.”
Tell us about a moment in your life that felt like a main character scene.
I think whenever I’m back home in the rural mountains of New Zealand I get feelings of main character, just being surrounded by green ferns, trees and mountains I feel like the only person in the world but also so small compared to the nature around me, it’s a complex mix of empowerment and grounding on my own lands in the beautiful old forests. I just get so inspired seeing what my ancestors did and being where they were, it makes me want to make them proud and in a way that’s what a main character is to me, an empowered and inspired woman.
What do you hope to learn or create while you’re with us?
I really hope to learn more about everything social media content. I hope to create content with a more independent and women driven mind, being able to cater to a specific audience and being able to create content that serves them with the magazine’s values in mind. I’d like to learn to watch out for trends and audios that can help boost our content and just be able to optimise what kind of content we put out so it can do the best that it can.
And finally – what’s something underrated you think the world should know more about?
I think independent/community radio is underrated. I think they aren’t as well loved because they aren’t as well saturated on social media, but independent/community radio is such an integral part of music. It’s the oldest music medium helping to share music and discuss community topics and issues for over a decade, uplifting new Australian artists as well as independent radio hosts that would often go under the radar. After doing a class where I had to host an early radio show, I started listening to community radio a lot, particularly Triple R, a very beloved independent radio station in Melbourne. I found lots of new music from a range of different genres I would have never heard and found loads of cool music gigs around Melbourne.
