Fern Eyles and Kris Finlayson, both of Massey University were each awarded $300 Kākano grants in this round of the Fund. Thanks to all ASAA/NZ members for your contributions to this fund, to our committee members, and congratulations to supervisors and Fern and Kris for these great applications.
Fern is completing a Master of Arts in Anthropology and requested funds to assist her to attend the ASAA/NZ Conference where she will present on: “Avoiding the edge of empire in Antarctica” . Her Abstract reads:
“Antarctica has existed in the cultural consciousness for over 2000 years. Despite its pivotal role in colonial expansion, and current role in geopolitics, much is made of the continent’s lack of human inhabitants – both indigenous and introduced. This has framed the way the Antarctic community thinks, writes, and speaks about the continent, the community, and themselves.
In this paper I will talk about the relative absence of people, the built environment, and tasks that validate both in narratives by Scott Base participants. As a listener, this lead to an unpredictable narrative experience in which participants seemed to lack agency, recognition, or context for their own experiences. I argue this absence is part of a process of ‘unsettling’, in which the necessary threat of settlements has reached some level of colonial consciousness, but pains are taken to avoid acknowledging participation in it, resulting in a collection of narratives organised around avoidance.”
Kris received his grant for the production of his PhD thesis: “ ‘One Does Not Simply Skip a Braai’: Afrikaner Identity, Nostalgia and Community Through Braai Practice in the New Zealand Diaspora”. His abstract reads:
“This study explores how diaspora Afrikaner identity is formed, reconfigured and maintained through braai practice among migrants in New Zealand. Drawing on nine months of ethnographic fieldwork, including participant observation and [Biographic narrative interpretive method] BNIM interviews, it investigates how Afrikaners reassert cultural memory, diaspora identity and a sense of belonging around the braai fire. The braai, beyond the superficial notion of being ‘just another barbecue’, emerges as a deeply rooted cultural phenomenon shaped by individual and collective histories, forging a multi-sensory realm of nostalgia, communal bonding and gendered social roles.
Through potjiekos, pap-en-smoor and braaied meats, participants articulate heritage and memory, while encountering new social contexts in their adopted homeland. This study demonstrates that braai is not solely about cooking but about forging communal ties, sustaining Afrikaner memory, re-enacting ancestral practice and negotiating contemporary diaspora tensions. The thesis adds to existing scholarship on diaspora identities and how migrant communities adapt historically meaningful practices to new environments.
The analysis reveals how the braai promotes a cyclical interplay of nostalgia, transformation and social affirmation, bridging historical narratives of Afrikanerness with the complexities of migrant life in New Zealand. In attending to the braai’s multisensory material culture (fire, food and speech, among others) this research reveals the intricate ways diaspora communities preserve, translate and reinvent cultural practices. The study contributes to broader anthropological debate on diaspora, identity formation and the interplay of memory and social practice, highlighting how everyday socio-cultural acts generate belonging in transnational contexts.
Finally, it offers a nuanced perspective on how Afrikaner migrants reinterpret their cultural heritage through the braai, ultimately showing that it is neither a static artifact of the past nor a mere barbecue, but a dynamic expression of Afrikaner identity, community and nostalgia in a foreign land.”
A another round for Kākano Fund applications will be advertised in September with a mid-October deadline. PhD students may apply twice during their confirmed candidacy.
This year the ASAA/NZ Conference will be held in Whāingaroa Raglan between December 9-12, 2025.
