Ngāpuhi creative arts to benefit from $8500 grant

Toi Ngapuhi Maori Arts Festival, Te Tai Tokerau Maori Artist Collective and volunteers in the throes of setting up the exhibition. 24 January 2018 Northern Advocate photograph by Michael Cunningham

Ngāpuhi creative artists are set to benefit from a grant of $8500.

Toi Ngāpuhi was delighted to receive $8500 from the Grassroots Fund to support of its Taiohi Taioha wananga toi series.

The series is aimed at enabling youth aged 16-24 to benefit from the skills and experience of leading Ngāpuhi creative practitioners from across Te Tai Tokerau.

The wananga, at marae from the Hokianga to Whangārei, were for selected taiohi who showed talent, passion and creative potential in a broad range of fields including visual arts, performing arts and the creative digital arts, and who were expected to have the knowledge and/or desire to learn more about their whakapapa and te reo.

The wananga, to be staged over a five-month period, would be intensive, led by an experienced group of Ngāpuhi creatives who between them have significant exhibition history and a huge array of skills in various artforms including sculpting, weaving, curating, painting, carving, jewellery-making and composing.

Tutors for the first wananga included Alex Nathan, Charles Royal, Makareta Jahnke, Ngariki Ngatae, Kawiti Waetford, Horomona Horo, Nikau Hindin and Noa Campbell, led by Bethany Matai Edmunds and Dorothy Waetford, themselves award-winning and experienced exhibiting artists.

The Grassroots Fund grant would help enable participants to realise their potential and develop work that was exhibition- and/or performance-ready, giving them time and space to create their art and to be mentored by an exceptional group of artists.

The money would also help fulfil the brief of Toi Ngāpuhi, established in 2019 as an advocacy and support agency working across Te Tai Tokerau to inspire excellence in
Ngāpuhi cultural and creative expression.

Toi Ngāpuhi has a 25-year arts and cultural strategy, Piki Tu Rangitia, with the aims of revitalising cultural identity, protecting Ngāpuhi culture, improving hapū wellbeing and cultural esteem through cultural expression, establishing benchmarks of cultural integrity and authenticity, and fostering talent and opportunity.

Dorothy Waetford, who is also a member of the Toi Ngāpuhi board, said those aims linked closely to what the Taiohi Taioha programme would achieve. She was delighted the programme was up and running and was being supported by the Grassroots Fund, and she was looking forward to the opportunity to roll her sleeves up and directly explore the future of Toi Ngāpuhi.

The chance to "pass it on" was immensely exciting and inspiring, she said.