(Alter)narratives of ‘winning’: Supermarket and healthcare workers’ experiences of COVID19 in Aotearoa New Zealand

Authors

  • Nayantara Sheoran Appleton Victoria University of Wellington https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6990-7004
  • Nicholas J Long Anthropology, London School of Economics, London
  • Pounamu Jade Aikman Independent scholar, Wellington, New Zealand
  • Sharyn Graham Davies Director Herb Feith Indonesia Engagement Centre at Monash University
  • Antje Deckert School of Social Sciences and Public Policy, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland
  • Edmond Fehoko School of Social Sciences and Public Policy, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland
  • Eleanor Holroyd School of Clinical Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland
  • Naseem Jivraj Anthropology, London School of Economics, London
  • Megan Laws Anthropology, London School of Economics, London
  • Nelly Martin-Anatias School of Social Sciences and Public Policy, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland
  • Michael Roguski Kaitiaki Research and Evaluation, Wellington
  • Nikita Simpson Anthropology, London School of Economics, London
  • Rogena Sterling Division of Arts, Law, Psychology and Social Sciences, University of Waikato, Hamilton
  • Susanna Trnka Anthropology, University of Auckland, Auckland
  • Laumua Tunufa'i School of Social Sciences and Public Policy, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11157/sites-id471

Keywords:

COVID19, Aotearoa New Zealand, Supermarket Workers, Healthcare Workers, Essential Workers, (Alter)narratives

Abstract

COVID-19 stories, especially from Aotearoa New Zealand as one of the leading nations ‘winning’ over the virus will be important historical documentation. The ‘team of 5 million’ is writing its narratives of life with/out COVID-19 – stories of ‘living in bubbles’, of ‘being kind’ and ‘being in it together.’ These are narratives of success which need to be examined alongside the narratives that have been absent from public national discourse but complicate understandings of ‘winning.’ To that end, in this article we map out (alter)narratives from supermarket and healthcare workers and highlight their stories of living and caring under lockdown. We posit that we need to pay attention to (alter)narratives of winning over COVID-19 in order to pay attention to the bodies and spaces that are often invisible but make winning possible. Thus, we see (Alter)narratives not as counter or anti to the nation’s winning narrative, but rather essential and adjacent.

Author Biography

  • Nayantara Sheoran Appleton, Victoria University of Wellington
    Nayantara Sheoran Appleton is a Senior Lecture at The Centre For Science in Society at Te Herenga Waka | Victoria University of Wellington. Her research and teaching interests fall in the fields of anthropology (medical, feminist, and visual), cultural studies, feminist theories, and Science and Technology Studies. She is currently working on a book manuscript, which seeks to critically analyze the implications of shifts in the politics of health and reproduction in liberalized India by focusing particularly on pharmaceutical contraceptives and their marketing to women (and men) within neo-liberal and neo-Malthusian frameworks. Having worked in medical spaces, she’s interested in how anthropological methodologies are employed by social-scientists to generate data and a robust understanding of the culture(s) of contemporary medical sciences. Currently she is involved in research projects that trace the social, cultural, and medical experiences with/of COVID-19.

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Published

12-03-2021

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 2 (2020): General Issue

Section

Articles

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How to Cite

(Alter)narratives of ‘winning’: Supermarket and healthcare workers’ experiences of COVID19 in Aotearoa New Zealand. (2021). Sites: A Journal of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies, 17(2). https://doi.org/10.11157/sites-id471