tourist in my own land....

Have you ever had that experience where you wander around your neighbourhood and suddenly discover something new that you hadn’t seen or experienced before? Something that was probably there all the time, but you took it for granted, or missed it in the daze of just getting through life? That happened to me recently at Manukau Festival of the Arts 2008.

Manukau is one of the most diverse districts in NZ with over 180 ethnic groups living in the surrounds, and nearly 40 percent speaking two or more languages (with Samoan being the most widely spoken language after English). It’s a place where new sub-divisions sit uneasily next to state housing ghettos, and roads often are the only barrier between utter poverty and suburban utopia.

Over the weekend I attended several different events in the final days of the festival: a writing workshop, an exhibition of work from students at Manukau School of Visual Arts, and a Pecha Kucha evening.

Highlights for me were… the work of final year student Raewyn Pope who made wonderful light installations using second hand and recycled materials.

Tin cans, plastic plates, old gardening implements…all of them were illuminated to create grass-roots chandeliers and glowing Tupperware. (I have a project in mind that I would love to entice her into;-)

I also liked Charlie Lu’s illuminated pictures depicted life in Auckland in shiny 2D, kitchy but fun.

Another student, Krystle Tavai, created an un-fictional suburb called Mannixville using life size figures and the graphic novel form. The feel of it was very south Auckland but the style was comic book/colouring-in book. This caught my eye because one of my current projects/experiments involves older youth creating books for younger children in their neighbourhoods.The idea of colouring books featuring pictures of people and things that kids can relate to in their own neighbourhood inspires me!. (This idea was generated by Tama Johnson at CEAT Ltd, the alternative education school I am collaborating with).

At the Pecha Kucha night http://www.pechakucha.co.nz/?page_id=6 held at the Telstra Pacific Centre, there were many standouts. Benjamin Work, a born again Christian graffiti artist who has achieved some degree of fame internationally with his grass-roots based work.
[if you are into some pretty innovative graffiti art see ANATs site! http://grl.anat.org.au/grl]

Siliga David Setoga who uses t-shirt as his medium for cultural commentary.

Other speakers included: Coco Solid an independent publisher revolutionary comic book creator and musician, Raymond Raymond Sagapolutele aka RIMONI ‘brotographer’at large in South Auckland, Matthew Salapu Faiumu aka ANONYMOUZ a classically trained pianist and rapper working with youth in the area and Andrew Tu’inukuafe architect who’s work in NZ is inspired by the idea of NZ as a pacific nation. Take a look at the site…I was incredibly inspired by the people who spoke, all of whom affirmed for me the tremendous creative power generated by diverse identity within close knit community.

PS: I also really enjoyed seeing people being forced to present well by nature of the format. Will definitely experiment with that format (20 photos of 20 seconds each) next time I run a gig.

welcome to awhiworld

It’s been interesting times here in NZ.

I have been reactivating urban spaces using ideas from geo-caching and treasure hunting; opening portals and generating parallel worlds in deprived sub-urban neighbourhoods; and facilitating photo rap odes to abandoned netball courts.Basically putting the ideas from this blog into practice!

Spawned from my work with Foam - and particularly groWorld http://www.fo.am/groworld/ - the South Auckland suburb of Papakura (my home town) has been the site of a number of semi-subversive experiments.

A local community worker inspired one project after she read my blog entry on geo-caching. By using a set of written clues, in combination with GPS units, we encouraged youth to visit and engage with derelict and marginal spaces.

The next evolution of this will involve clues different media (ala ARG), a larger space, and tasks to be performed at each location with the assistance of mentors from different disciplines. I’m waiting for funding to come through to take this to the next level.

In the meantime, running parallel to this is a more comprehensive initiative called AwhiWorld. AwhiWorld combines ideas and practices drawn from art, technology, alternative and virtual reality gaming, techno-treasure hunting, urban regeneration, community development, youth empowerment and leadership development.

My vision is that, using ARG type clue systems and storylines, marginalised youth will engage with neglected spaces in creative ways that build the capacity of deprived neighbourhoods. At the same time spaces that are already filled with potential and life, will regenerate other parts of the community. For example, the garden at a local school can spread into many different spaces (including backyards) through imaginal and virtual portals that are created by children through painting, storytelling and digital imaging.

Over the next few months I am working with teaching staff to integrate AwhiWorld ideas into the curriculum and will write about this process as I go. But one small success already, is the production of a photo rap montage that was created by some youth from the local alternative education school. (Alternative Ed is where children are sent if they cannot engage well in traditional schooling and/or are excluded).

Using a combination of ideas from Appreciative Inquiry http://appreciativeinquiry.case.ed digital cameras (mobile phone or otherwise) and the help of their teacher and a local rap artist, we created a presentation that will be shown at a large community event. The rap song/visual is focussed on some abandoned netball courts that are now derelict…but have the potential to be reactivated into a fabulous community space. The kids were encouraged to see this potential through a cameral lens, and write about it … then the rap artist helped them put this together with an original beat. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN3F65vssec

AwhiWorld generated as a complement to the Papakura Awhi Wraparound Project, an initiative where a Police Officer takes responsibility for a the most crime ridden and economically section of a small township (in Papakura this involves an initial pilot block of 11 streets). [Awhi means to embrace in the indigenous Maori language.]

After attending a community meeting and seeing the kinds of issues the people in the neighbourhood are facing (drug houses, gang violence, neglected children, tagging etc etc etc) I decided that it was time to see if some of the ideas in this blog could work in this kind of environment. The answer is so far, yes.