Home Ground on the Road: Tairāwhiti

Karanga mai te Tairāwhiti, ara ko ngā hapu ō Ngāti Porou Kua tae pai a Home Ground ki ēnei whenua ataahua -

nei rā te mihi mai i a mātou ki a koutou katoa

Our acknowledgement to the lands of the East Coast and the tangata whenua (iwi/hapu) that whakapapa here.

This year Home Ground will deliver a 3-day CARE workshops in Tūranga nui a kiwa (Gisborne), Te Papa-i-Oea (Palmerston North) and our last one in December here in Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington).

With these workshops Home Ground aims to connect the dots between communities, supporting local arts, artists and creative spaces to grow our whānau.

Our first stop this year was Tūranga Gisborne. We want to connect and work with the people who will help us make our CARE workshops a success.

We visited Kiri at the Gisborne Community Corrections and connected with Alofa Aiono, who talked with us about community connections and her amazing advocacy.

We met the incredible team at Tāikie E!, and talked about awesome rangatahi and the need for positive space and connection to the community.

We also visited all the amazing arts institutions up there! Thanks to all the amazing makers and creators that shared their precious time with us.

L-R: Our small airplane propeller taking us to Tairāwhiti through beautiful blue skies. / Connecting with Alofa Aiono, Tana Rangiānewa Pohe (Home Ground Wellbeing Navigator) and Jacqui Moyes (Home Ground Creative Director). / Art work by Dr Elizabeth Kerekere at the Community Corrections office.

We honour the manaakitanga we were shown by the Mana Wāhine from @hoeagallery.

It is pretty special when you can walk into a space, and create connections with like-minded creatives. Home Ground is always searching for a home, searching for a way to authentically connect, to build on our strengths, to do no harm, to keep it real in a tough time.

Thank you for sharing your time and energy with us and giving us your collective mātauranga to help us support our growing Home Ground community.

Everyone deserves a space to create. If you are up in Tūranga, make sure you visit the inspiring Hoea! Gallery and their incredible collective of artists and artworks.

We felt welcomed here in Te Tairāwhiti and we look forward to bringing Home Ground to Tūranga nui a kiwa (Gisborne)!

Look out for the project dates on our website here!

L-R: Tana Rangiānewa Pohe (Home Ground Wellbeing Navigator) and Jacqui Moyes (Home Ground Creative Director) in front of Hoea! Gallery window with neon pink sign. 2. Art work in the gallery window, a neon sign: 'He aha te say a tõ kuini?' by Glenis Philip Barbara.

"Part of Glenis' beautiful Masters performance installation that considered how we ignore or fail to understand, or don't even notice, the colonial chains that bind our towns and cities. This project looked at the seeming banality of street names and the real people who they represent."

3. Outside Hoea! Gallery, Ron Te Kawa's quilt, Slab 1 in the gallery entrance.

4. SLAB 1 (or Wild dogs under my prison overalls) - quilt made from found fabrics and prison overalls by Ron Te Kawa "This piece is a comment about State violence against Māori women in prisons. Slab refers to the lintel above the door of a meeting house. It also refers to the bed that doctors do random cavity searches on ." On display now as part of WHAKAKAHA at Hoea.]

5. Home Ground flyers at Hoea! Gallery entrance.

6. Connection! Jacqui and Michelle Kerr sitting by a table in Hoea! Gallery talking.

7. "Te Puna Korero" Strings of beads, threads of korero and a well of knowledge and memories, by Michelle Kerr. 8. Tana creating at the Hoea! Gallery project space.

9. The Hoea! Gallery team, Mel and Nikora, working!

10. Purapura Whetu rangatahi mural created by Bonni Luafutu Tamati with a roopu of super talented young people.