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

This advocacy is creating a foundation for engaging and challenging the sector, and central and local government, towards the development of a stronger arts and culture ecosystem in Tāmaki Makaurau, and Aotearoa. The rōpū was formed at a hui hosted in April 2020 to address sector challenges from COVID-19.

This mahi sees us working alongside independent artists and practitioners, arts companies and organisations, enablers, activators, cultural leaders, arts networks, hauora and wellbeing networks, cultural institutions, tertiary institutions, festivals, venues, local and central government, crown agencies, and others already involved in sector advocacy.

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.

Interested in joining the Ngā Toi Advocacy Network? Get in touch with us here.

The Ngā Toi Advocacy Network’s hui are an opportunity for people in Tāmaki Makaurau’s ngā toi / arts and culture sector to meet bi-monthly, engage with thought leaders in the sector, and identify opportunities for advocacy action. During 2021, the network has provided platforms for provocation for inspiring speakers such as Rosabel Tan, Shona McElroy, Eynon Delamere, Nigel Borell, Ema Tavola, Borni Te Rongopai Tukiwaho, Rose Hiha-Agnew and Huia O’Sullivan. They opened conversations on issues such as decolonising thinking and practice in ngā toi spaces, and new forms of governance.

Each hui, facilitated by Eynon Delamere, Chantelle Whaiapu, Kylie Sealy and Jane Yonge, opens with a karakia and whakawhanaungatanga. The kaupapa and speaker is then introduced. Following the kōrero, the hui is opened up for updates and discussions on advocacy needs, actions and opportunities.

This is a brief overview of the primary focus of each of the hui of 2021.

The Ngā Toi Advocacy Network podcast is a series of conversations that were recorded over the last 18 months by the team at Te Taumata Toi-a-Iwi.  The podcast feature arts and culture leaders, practitioners and impact makers from the Tāmaki Makaurau creative community. These conversations weren’t produced to be podcasts. They were a series of Zoom hui discussing innovation, systems change, hauora, governance, joy – amongst other things – all while navigating the uncertain waters of an emerging pandemic. Once we looked at the whakaaro as a whole, we thought it was too powerful not to share with a wider audience. And so here we are.

Please excuse the audio quality on some of the episodes, we’ve tried to clean it up as much as we can! The recordings are a little rough around the edges, but this is the nature of the work we do – we create, morph, make things fit into spaces they traditionally don’t.  Join us as we kōrero, and share insights, challenges and tribulations about life for the arts, culture and creative community, highlight the mahi and creative projects our guests are working on, and the difference they are making in the lives of their communities.