ARTISTS

Sasha and Achille one day declared they would be publishers and just ran with it since. Currently focusing on infiltrating the Pōneke literary scene, Sasha and Achille find great pride and solace in amplifying the voices of others with book objects.

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They also make things to support their community's needs for organising, care, critical thinking and emancipation. They print, bind, sew, grow, cook, write, weave, paint, screw, carve and draw in anger against the mortiferous status quo and to advocate for constitutional reform in their Pākehā spaces.

Aimee M (Cooki) has been a professional artist in Te-Whanganui-a-Tara for six years. Before that she resided in Melbourne, Australia, where she worked with refugees. Aimee is mainly a musician, playwright and works in film, but is also a project-based artist working with a variety of mediums.

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Aimee studied development studies at Victoria University, and while there did an internship with Jacqui Moyes, going into Arohata Prison doing art and theatre. She thoroughly enjoyed this mahi and has been lucky enough to be involved in Home Ground for projects Rua, Toru and Whā, working as a sound and visual artist, as well as a support person doing whatever is needed on the day.

Amanda Stowers (they/she) is the Sāmoan ceramic artist behind Masina Creative, whose 'āiga (family) comes from the villages of Talimatau and Saipipi. Amanda is locally based in Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai (Lower Hutt), where their work is inspired by their Sāmoan background, and the way-finding mana of their ancestors. Amanda's kaupapa is to always keep the culture at the forefront of the conversation, and to be the person that they needed when they were younger. Bringing representation into new spaces, where the culture can be seen, understood and appreciated.

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Working mostly with clay, Amanda creates handmade ceramic stoneware pieces featuring hand carved Sāmoan tatau (tattoo) and siapo (tapa) motifs. The mana of their ancestors pouring from their hands, through their tools and into the clay as they work. Each piece is unique, one of a kind, and handmade with alofa (love). All pieces are thrown on the pottery wheel, carved freehand as an homage to the traditional freehand style of both tatau and siapo, bisque fired in a pottery kiln, glazed by hand and fired again.

Te Atiawa, Cook Island, Ngāti Pākehā

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Christine has been a multi-disciplinary self-taught artist for over 30 years, living and creating in Ireland and Australia for 19 years. In 2012 she returned to New Zealand and studied for a Certificate in Art from Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and a Diploma in Art and Creativity from The Learning Connexion, where she is currently teaching Evenings with Clay classes. Christine also teaches workshops in schools, holiday programmes and community projects.

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In 2017 Christine was the lead artist for four of the six large puppets for Hutt City Council’s Wild Arrivals Winter Festival. In 2019 she was the lead artist for The Steps, coordinating multiple groups to make 3,000 tiles for the mosaic project on Petone foreshore. In between exhibiting in group exhibitions locally and nationally, Christine does a solo exhibition biannually at Hutt Art Centre.

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Christine is a keen supporter of art and creativity in the community. She is an advisor on:

• Eastern Community Engagement Panel

• Hutt City Council Community Arts and Culture Fund

• Hutt City Council Arts and Cultural Subcommittee 2017–2019

• Hutt City Council Public Art Advisory Group 2018–2019

• Naenae Give it a Go panel

• Waiwhetu Marae Trustee.

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Daniel James is an interdisciplinary artist based in Wellington. His creative practice spans more than ten years, and his work traverses audio and video, robotics, performance, installation art and interactive electronics. 

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Career highlights include a performance at Prague Quadrennial 2019, a human scale robot installed at Prague Quadrennial 2015, networked (NZ/UK) audiovisual performances at Museum of Modern Art Oxford and Goldsmiths College, and co-producing the open source film project Stray Cinema (London/Barcelona).

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In his most recent project, Dance With a Stranger, he held community workshops to film local participants in Hutt City, turning them into dancers on screen in an interactive touchscreen work. Dan holds a PhD in Fine Arts specialising in audiovisual remix performance.

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Fraser Crichton is a visual artist who recently graduated from the University of Arts London with a Distinction for his Masters in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography. His research-based practice incorporates investigative journalism, writing, data-visualisation, video, working with historical archival images and still photography.

He works on projects examining the power of the state in the context of social reform.

Fraser has worked with Home Ground over the last three projects, and will continue to provide photographic and IT support.

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Heather Main is an accomplished artist, with a diploma of fine arts and sculpture (Ilam School of Fine Arts, Canterbury) and a diploma in teaching (Wellington Teachers College).

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Her artistic career encompasses paintings including portraits, publishing books and creating stained glass windows. Heather was selected to paint the phenomenal portrait of Celia Lashlie for the New Zealand Portrait Gallery. Heather also created the sound portrait of Celia Lashlie, an inspiring and informative series of sound portraits about Ces and her work.

Helen Milner is the Creative Director and strategist at Saedi Brand Curator. Helen's focus is on brand strategy and creative ⁠–⁠ working closely with individuals and companies who are developing exceptional, high end products, services and experiences. 

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Although diverse in their nature, the commonality between her clients is the fact that they are all highly ethical, single minded in their expectation of excellence and are all hell-bent on bettering themselves as well as the future of their communities and countries.

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Helen was a close friend of Celia Lashlie, and has been supporting Jacqui with the strategic aspects of Home Ground development.

Ko Te Aitanga a Māhaki, ko Ngāti Porou, ko Ngā Puhi ngā iwi. 

Jamie Ani Eritana Berry belongs is a multidisciplinary artist who explores her DNA and identity through visual projection, soundscape and installation. Jamie is a devoted aunty to sixteen tamariki who are her main motivation for building a brighter future for our next generation and the many to come.

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Originally from Tūranganui-a-Kiwa, Jamie is now based in Poneke and draws inspiration from both locations. The Tairāwhiti will always be her home – a space to gather source from whānau, Papatūānuku and wai. By day, Jamie works for CORE Digital, creating digital content for the education sector.

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Jessica Sanderson (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Heretaunga & Te Ātiawa) is a film and television director with a design background, she is passionate about creating beautiful imagery and telling compelling stories. Her contribution to Home Ground was through designing this website.

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Born in Hastings to a Pākehā mother and Māori father, she sees herself as the sum of many parts – and her greatest influences are her eclectic family members. Jessica’s grandparents include a filmmaker, a visual artist, an orator, and a nurse. Their vocations, view of the world, jokes, and kindness have all left their trace on her and inspire her work.

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Jessica has a Bachelor of Performance Design, which has influenced the strong visual and conceptual approach she applies to her projects. She has created music videos for some of Aotearoa’s most prolific artists, including Aaradhna, Shapeshifter, Stan Walker, Tama Waipara and more. 

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More recently she wrote and directed her first NZFC funded short film, 'Ways To See', and is currently directing an eight-part documentary series on the revival of tā moko. She was also selected for Script to Screen's 'Film Up 2021', a mentorship program to support her writing her first feature film. 

Photo credit to Todd Karehana.

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Kath Foster is the maker of the Home Ground table. This table was a family dining table that has been cut up and reassembled to be twice as long and half as wide as before, so that the new shape may invite new ways of doing things.

The table is used literally as a place to gather around but also symbolically: participants in the Home Ground programme know that they “always have a seat at the table” even if they are not able to physically be seated there.

The table is number 12 in a series, all the tables finding their homes in places where people are trying to do things differently (see the archive at www.kathfoster.space).

The tables bear the title of Found Objects to acknowledge that although the reproportioned table may look like just a table, it can be found to be more than just a table by a person seated at it. The tables act as a reply to the artist’s previous series, Lost Objects (1980–2006), which ruminated upon the nature of sitting by attempting to reduce a chair to its essence.

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Meg has edited and designed websites and printed publications for many years, across education, environment and community sectors. An advocate of plain language, she respects the voice of the author, and works with them to get their ideas perfect on the page. 

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Ngāti Porou

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Melanie Tangaere Baldwin is a mother of two, an artist, curator, arts educator and one of the founders and current directors at Hoea! Gallery in Te Tairāwhiti. As an artist, Melanie looks a lot at the exploitation, exoticism and expectations of indigenous people.

She is heavily influenced by being a daughter of a Māori mother and being the mother to Māori children and the responsibilities of whakapapa.

Moana Leota is an all round performer from Pōneke. She has recently finished a degree in creativity and is fresh off a national tour with Louis Baker. Moana was one of the guest artists to work alongside the wahine in making the Home Ground Project Rua.

Her voice featured alongside those of the women in their song 'Actions speak louder than words’, created on Project Rua.

Nathan Taare (Ngāti porou) is a Te Whanganui-a-tara based, multi-dimensional creative native. For the past 15 years Nathan has freelanced in film and television working mainly as an Art director and manages all aspects of the art department from conception to delivery.

Outside of film, Nathan is a well traveled musician, photographer and creative entrepreneur who has just launched OF BODY, a perfume brand that prides itself on all products being made in Aotearoa. After years of traveling and collecting raw materials, Nathan taught himself the art of perfumery and became obsessed with scent and the power it can have on humans. Nathan promotes scent as art and is currently focusing on the healing aspects of smell and what botanicals meant to Māori as rongoā.

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Multimedia Video Artist, Director of Photography and Filmmaker.

Pip Adam has published a collection of short stories, Everything We Hoped For (VUP, 2010) and the novels, I’m Working on a Building (VUP, 2013), The New Animals (VUP, 2017), and Nothing to See (VUP, 2020). The New Animals won New Zealand's top fiction prize in 2018, the Acorn Foundation Prize for Fiction.

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Her work has appeared in literary journals and anthologies in New Zealand and overseas. In 2012 Pip received an Arts Foundation of New Zealand New Generation Award and her first book Everything We Hoped For won the NZ Post Best First Book award in 2011.

Pip facilitates writing workshops in universities and other settings, including with people affected by crime in prisons and communities. Pip makes the Better off Read podcast where she talks with authors about writing and reading. 
 

Kai Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Waitaha.

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Ruby Solly is a Kai Tahu musician, taonga puoro practitioner, music therapist and writer living in Wellington. She has played with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Whirimako Black, Trinity Roots and the New Zealand String Quartet as both a cellist, and a player of traditional Māori instruments (ngā taonga puoro).

In 2019 Ruby completed a Masters thesis in the therapeutic potential of taonga puoro in mental health-based music therapy, and has also composed pieces commissioned by the New Zealand School of Music with SOUNZ, Someday Stories, and the Goethe Institute with Wellington Film Society. Her debut album Pōneke was released in 2020.

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Ruby is a poet and has been published in journals such as Landfall, Sport, Turbine and Mayhem. She has also exhibited poetry in Antarctica and New Zealand, and was a runner up for the 2019 Caselberg Trust International Poetry Prize. Ruby is also a script writer and has found success with her film Super Special, which shares knowledge about Māori views of menstruation through narrative. She is currently doing a PhD in the use of taonga pūoro in hauora at Massey University.

Photo credit to Sebastian Lowe.

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Sacha Copland is the artistic director of Java Dance Theatre. Founded in 2003 by Sacha Copland, with graduates of the New Zealand School of Dance, Java is a New Zealand-based professional dance company that consistently creates and presents original works of its own immersive brand of dance theatre.

Java has performed to over 100,000 people around New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom and Asia. Java’s work includes immersive festival shows with live music, schools tours and site-specific events with programmes crafted for adults, teenagers and kids.

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Sandra studied drawing and painting at the School of Fine Arts in Dresden, Germany. During her masters and postgraduate studies she became interested in working with found objects, which became (and still are) the starting point for her assemblages and installations.

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Becoming more interested in social and psychological aspects in the arts, Sandra completed a Masters in Art Therapy in 2014. She gained work experience in palliative care and in a clinic for psychotherapy in Germany, where she facilitated group sessions with clients with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, burnout and borderline syndrome.

She has been involved in art projects in prison, intermediate schools, with dementia patients and people with intellectual disabilities. In September 2018 she was invited by Nevada Humanities, Las Vegas, US, to facilitate two art therapy workshops with survivors of the Route 91 mass shooting to help them to deal with their trauma.

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Sandra has exhibited widely in Germany, Australia and New Zealand. She lives and works in Wellington, New Zealand. 

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Ko Makeo toku maunga

Ko Waiaua toku awa

Ko Mataatua toku waka

Ko Waiaua me Omarumutu ōku marae

Ko Ngāti Ruatakena me Ngāti Patumoana ōku hapū

Ko Te Whakatōhea toku iwi

Ko Selena Shaw toku ingoa

Selena is a wahine Māori, a tinkerer, a maker, a craftsperson, a fixer, a real #8 wire kind of person – seeing a problem, thinking through possible solutions and their impact on people, the environment and living things and ultimately our enduring relationships with each other. She creates and expresses her understanding of the world through raranga. 

Born and raised in Ōpōtiki, she comes from a large whānau of weavers and crafters. She had the privilege of learning from tohunga raranga, master weavers in the north and south island. She now shares her ako, her lessons learnt through weaving with others who share an appreciation of the pā harakeke.

Selena recently completed her masters thesis exploring the relationships that exist through raranga, whakapapa and kōrero tuku iho, our mana wahine in design. As a weaver she is interested in how people, animals and nature use harakeke, what it is used for and why? What healing properties we each take from harakeke or any traditional plant we use to weave. The journey of raranga is limitless and Selena takes joy from the experience of sharing this with others. 

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Ko Tainui te waka.
Ko Whitireia te maunga.
Ko Parirua ngā tai.
Ko Raukawakawa te moana.
Ko Takapūwāhia te marae.
Ko Ngāti Toarangatira te iwi.

Taryn belongs to the Ngāti Toa Rangatira tribe of the Wellington region, North Island, Aotearoa, New Zealand. She also has whakapapa to Te Ātiawa ki Whakarongotai, Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga, Ngāti Koata and Ngāi Tahu.

She has been an independent tā moko practitioner since 2012 and travels extensively throughout Aotearoa New Zealand and around the world tattooing at different places throughout the year.
 

Taryn is particularly interested in the healing aspect/potential of tā moko tattooing for her clients, and the power of transformation contained within the taonga tuku iho (treasure passed down). Modern ceremony (based on tradition) is something she is currently exploring more and more in her tattooing practice.

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Tupe Lualua is the Artistic Director at Le Moana.

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Le Moana is a dance company based in Wellington New Zealand performing Pacific Contemporary Dance and theatre. The Le Moana collective are graduates of Whitireia Performing Arts and trained in haka from Aotearoa, siva from Sāmoa, ura from the Cook Islands and New Zealand contemporary dance. 

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Le Moana was established as a vessel for building cultural bridges and as a platform for the development of Pacific heritage and contemporary dance on a local and global scale.

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Vanessa Stacey has over twenty years’ performance experience across music, television, theatre and film. A CPIT Jazz School and Toi Whakaari graduate, Vanessa began her acting and directing career in fast turnaround television here in New Zealand, before heading to the UK, where she worked as a musician and actor for five years.

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Since returning home, Vanessa has been the coordinator and director of Whitireia's Screen Acting course. Vanessa is also guest tutoring with Massey, UCOL, Whiti music programmes, and training young up-and-coming talent, while still working extensively throughout Australasia as an independent musician, actor, writer and director.

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William Brandt has a Diploma in Acting from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in Sydney, and an MA in creative writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters, where he now teaches short fiction.

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His short fiction collection, AlphaMale, won the Montana Award for Best First Book and his novel, The Book of the Film of the Story of My Life, was shortlisted for the Prize in Modern Letters and was one of the New Zealand Herald’s ten best books of the decade. His stage play, Verbatim, is based on interviews with inmates of New Zealand prisons and has toured to Edinburgh, China and the United States. He has been published in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, France and Italy.

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He teaches creative writing at Arohata and Rimutaka Prisons, and is a board member of the Write Where You Are Trust. He is currently working as a screenwriter.

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