Ngā Toi Advocacy Network - Te Taumata Toi-a-Iwi

Kotahi te aho ka whati, ki te kāpuia e kore e whati | One strand of flax is easy to break, but many joined together stand strong. – Na Kingi Tāwhiao

Ngā Toi Advocacy Network

We are building a collective approach to advocacy on the value and impact of creativity, arts, and culture, to develop a stronger arts and culture ecosystem in Tāmaki Makaurau.

This advocacy will create the foundation for engaging and challenging the sector, and central and local government, to co-create a strategy to develop a stronger arts and culture ecosystem in Tāmaki Makaurau, and Aotearoa.  The Network’s most recent initiative is a letter to government leaders inviting them to consider a range of actions to provide the long-term support and investment needed to strategically strengthen ngā toi in Aotearoa.

This mahi sees us working alongside organisations and individuals already involved in sector advocacy, including The University of Auckland, Creative New Zealand, and arts sector leaders. Ngā Toi Advocacy Network is central to this. The rōpū was formed at a hui we hosted in April 2020 to address sector challenges from COVID-19.

A shared vision

A diverse range of organisations participate in network hui.  The network focuses on building sector strengths around six strategic priorities:

  • Connect and unite the sector
  • Evidence and research
  • Equity and inclusion
  • Visibility and profile
  • Recovery and rebuild
  • Resource base for advocacy.

The outcomes sought from the network include;

  • Strengthening sector connections
  • Creating a stronger sector voice, and developing a shared advocacy vision
  • Building an evidence base to inform advocacy
  • Achieving greater representation, access and inclusion
  • Greater visibility and understanding of the sector, and the central role culture, creativity and the arts can play in COVID-19 recovery and rebuild
  • Increased central and local government engagement and action on arts advocacy across the sector
  • Increased capacity, capability and resourcing for arts advocacy.
A living document

Ngā Toi Advocacy Network Voices

Some of the Ngā Toi Advocacy Network members got together late 2020 to talk about priorities for the year ahead.  While we had them together, we did some vox pops with them. These brief videos cover how COVID-19 had affected network members work and their organisations, their impressions from the pre-election forum on the arts, and their messages for the incoming government.