I’m sitting in Auckland airport staring out across the runway to a stunning bay surrounded lurking volcanic-looking mountains.  It’s a beautiful place, and I’ve had a very fine week here, talking about NTW’s work and meeting a range of artists, companies and festivals.  I was invited by Creative New Zealand (the equivalent here of Arts Council Wales) to talk about our work at their annual conference. People here seem excited by what we’ve been doing in Wales and keen to hear more about it. 

Of course, part of the benefit of a visit like this for me is the opportunity to look for potential partners – whether that’s to create work together in the future, or to bring NTW’s productions over to New Zealand.  But the most immediate impact comes from the experience of other people’s ways of working – their challenges, assumptions, solutions, and the opportunity to see or hear about their work. 

I’ve been fortunate enough to be in New Zealand a couple of times in the past, and I’ve always been impressed by it as a country where the differing populations are genuinely trying to find ways to understand each other and live and work together.  The longest established population her is of course the Maori, and much of how New Zealand understands itself today grows out of a founding document – the treaty of Waitangi the treaty of Waitangi – signed between the British and the Maori in 1840. 

Though by no means always honoured historically, and still very much part of the process of colonisation by the British, the treaty nonetheless has formed an important start for a society that at it’s best tries to negotiate shared agreements to problems, and find ways to live together productively. 

I was here for three days of conferencing, talking and discussing, and was inspired by many of the artists and organisations I met here – including the wonderful Gap Filler project which creates temporary art spaces in the gaps left in the city of Christchurch by the devastating earthquake of 2011.  There were also inspiring speakers from elsewhere, including community artist and producer Leanne Buckskin from Auckland Australia, who has been doing amazing work with young indigenous people in the far outback of the country.

All of this conferencing was framed by Maori welcoming ceremonies, and, on the third day, a smaller group of organisations (the ‘leadership organisations’ who have been identified by Creative NZ to take a strategic role in key areas of the arts) met together on a Marae (meeting houses), where a far fuller series of rituals framed the day.  

The day was hosted by Muriwai Ihakara – one of the senior managers at Creative NewZealand, who is also a Moari elder, and I was fortunate to have individual access to his explanations for the events, and his descriptions of building itself with its many beautiful carvings – each of them telling a significant Maori story.

In this context it was great to see how quickly a spirit of collaboration and problem-solving established itself among the arts organisations present – definitely a case of context influencing content!

There’s a lot of interest and enthusiasm around Wales in New Zealand – rugby of course is a big shared interest, along with opera singing, and the development of a bilingual society.  Here’s hoping we can add theatre to one of the shared Aotea-Cymru passions.