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Project Whā

OBJECTIVE​​

Build a strong creative response to the challenges we and our whānau face in the justice system

PROCESS

Collaborate with practicing artists in chosen art forms

 

OUTCOME

We are involved in ongoing creative opportunities and events, and are empowered to advocate for social change

Project Whā 2022

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Home Ground at the NZ Fringe Festival

 

One of the Home Ground project outcomes we have is that women with lived experience of the justice system will see themselves represented in the work, see value in their artistry and make visible their contribution to the body of work that Home Ground creates during their time on the project.

 

We believe the Fringe Festival plays an important part in our Home Ground mission to advocate for this incredible talent and passion communicated by these women.

 

We are very excited to present our Project Whā 2020 short films, created by our participants and artist collaborators, at the New Zealand Fringe Festival 2022.

 

For the first time we will showcase our mahi, Home Ground: Carving Our Name Into The Space, at the Te Auaha Cinema, as part of the Fringe Festival, here in Pōneke.  

 

The short films will be open to public viewing throughout the day in the Cinema on level 1, on Friday 4 March and Saturday 5 March.  

 

The three 5-minute short films were created by our participants on Project Whā and are based on women’s experiences of the justice system and their reintegration back into the community.

 

We are grateful to Te Auaha for hosting us and to the creative Fringe Festival team for this platform where we can advocate for our projects and connect with our community. 

 

Our hope is that audiences will leave feeling a greater understanding of the impact of the justice system, that they have listened to what these women have to say.

Project Wha 2020
Project Whā 2022

Project Whā 2020

“Trust is the circle, trust is the ingredient of names in the boil up. To trust must be the ultimate reason, only then can it be a work. Together!”

Project Whā is the fourth of the Home Ground projects in 2020, and is the social action platform of Home Ground. 

 

In this project we build a strong advocacy and awareness campaign on the challenges women and whānau face in the justice system

 

We work in collaboration with artists through creative mediums and advocate that we listen to women who know what they need, when no one has listened before.

The Project Whā 2020 videos were screened during the New Zealand Fringe Festival
from 3 March until 5 March 2022.

For more on Home Ground at the Fringe Festival, read here

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“Wow, all the hard mahi and more to come has been an achievement getting to this stage of Home Ground Poneke. Thanks to you and Anita guiding all us ladies through so much of the mahi projects have been awesome, especially inviting all the professionals in.

 

I am so proud to have met two amazing wāhine who have given me the opportunity and inspiration to continue the art I thought I gave up on, big aroha from me and all the ladies who attended Home Ground.”

About Project Wha

Project Whā

2020

Project Whā ran from May to September. As a collective, we created and curated content to showcase the work that has been achieved over the last year with Home Ground.

Our response to the COVID-19 crisis was to work across multiple platforms:

  • an online classroom

  • a community workshop space

  • Arohata Upper Prison

  • Arohata Tawa Prison.

 

We used everything from pen and paper sent to a PO Box, to multimedia digital work.

 

Fifteen women participated in the different workshops, and thirteen artists collaborated on the work.

 

The artistic aims of Project Whā needed to change to suit the alert levels, therefore we focused on the digital work as we knew we could do this collaboratively – from a safe distance!

Digital advocacy project

Our aim was to create four curated digital advocacy pieces based on the participants’ experience of the justice system and their reintegration back to the community.

Three of the films were created by women in the justice system in collaboration with artists, while the fourth was created by Transmit media to explain the kaupapa behind Home Ground.

 

These short films were created in response to the impact of incarceration and the justice system.

  • Tahi: Where we come from makes us who we are. Ko wai au? Who am I?

  • Rua: Inside out, and outside in.

  • Toru: He kākano: The magic seeds of the circle.

 

The big question was, ‘How do we want people to feel at the end of what we put out into the world?’

 

These were some of the answers:

  • “That we are strong, we have strength in this place.”

  • “Respect. Family/Whānau. (family through art)”
  • “For people to have a better understanding of who we are, what we do.”
  • “That we are heard”
  • “That we are listened to”
  • “That the creativity born of our lived experiences is recognised not only as showcases in courage and growth, but also as a wellspring to inform conversations for women, about women and with women; throughout the justice and corrections space.”

 

A number of artists collaborated on Project Whā's digital advocacy piece.

Digital Advocacy
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The Kitchen Table project

A series of installations and carved letters

The Kitchen Table Project is an ongoing experiment looking at what it means to have a kitchen table. This was explored through our digital media, but also in future exhibitions and workshops.

Since 2011, Kath Foster has worked on a series titled Reproportioned Tables. Each work in the series takes an old dining table and cut-and-pastes it to be half as wide and twice as long as it was to start with; the resulting objects are around three metres long. No part of the old table is wasted in this process: every scrap is used to determine the new table’s dimensions.

 

On Project Tahi we had no table. On Project Rua, we had tables inside the prison. In Toru, we had one of Kath’s tables installed in our space. We ate, talked, worked and shared around that table. It became an essential character within the Home Ground projects.

 

On Project Whā we planned to carve the table, but had become so attached to it we couldn’t make a mark. We had also been wrestling with how this relates to tikanga: if we carved the table it would make it tapu, meaning we couldn’t interact with it in the same way.

 

We filmed the table, making it a part of our digital advocacy series. In the future, we plan to work on and develop this concept for different projects.

Kitchen Table
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JOIN THE NEXT PROJECT

For more information, email kiaora@homegroundnz.com

or talk to your case manager or probation officer.

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