“When I was growing up in primary school, they weren’t used to the African face or the African features. The only people I saw who looked like me or who I felt I could relate to were the Black Americans on TV.”

“It was a little bit of a dissonance I was facing because I was like, why are they cool, and I’m really not cool? These people on TV, everyone would want to be like them, dress like them, talk like them. But when it came to an actual African diaspora here, it was like ‘oh you've got juju lips, you've got a big nose.’”

Mazbou Q joins fellow Black New Zealanders and hip hop artists JessB and Mo Muse to talk about how their art, race and mental health intersect, whether that's not wanting to burden your refugee parents with your mental health experiences, or trying to find acceptance in Kiwi culture through playing netball, which "for a girl is one of the most Kiwi things you can do."

Third Culture Minds is a mental health series exploring the experiences of New Zealanders from migrant and refugee backgrounds, hosted by Guled Mire.

Made with support from the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand.