Anthropologist and travel writer in France
Expeditions into cultural unknowns.
Immersion reporting, non-fiction narratives, humour and social observation from France and elsewhere.
Daniella is a New Zealand cultural anthropologist, adventurer, travel author and journalist living in France. Her writing comes from deep immersion usually through work or volunteer experiences. She has worked as an environmentalist, researcher, university professor, farmer, waitress, in refugee centres, storyteller. She has lived and worked in Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Comoros Islands, New Zealand, France, Nepal, Spain, Ireland. She specialises in social movements, social history, music, counter-culture, folk traditions and revivals, community and utopic ideas. Her debut travel memoir, ‘What Makes Your Heart Sing?’, explores alternative culture and idealism in France.
Expeditions
7000 people, from all over France, are wheeling in on a road that seems it will never end. Hairpin bends above sickening drops into gloomy valleys of Europe’s abandoned heart.
Revolutionary tourism in Paris
Rain was pouring from the sky. It formed rivulets that became unavoidable rivers that picked up the grime of the Parisian streets. Under the huge statue of Marianne in the centre of the Place de la République, there were more people selling kebabs than protestors.
Finding a home in France: taking the alternative
There is no sound of a bell. We wait in silence. Ilaria rings again. Finally, as we have almost given up hope, we hear footsteps crunching on a gravel path and there is a blundering, crashing noise as if the person on the other side of the wall has a log tied to his leg and is dragging it through bushes.
Journalism
The many terroirs of Switzerland’s Chasselas wine. Published in The Art of Eating.
About working for an environmental NGO on islands off the east coast of Africa. Published in the Otago Daily Times.
Telling stories to outlive death
How learning the art of storytelling in France helped me find solace from grief. Published on World Nomads.