We thought that we would write up a small blog about the latest Tertiary Trip to Wellington and try to describe the trip for those that weren’t able to be there.

The road trip began in Auckland at 5:15am with Siliga Setoga and myself performing a dawn procession across the city to collect 20 tertiary art students from 5 different tertairy institutions, Whitecliffe, MSVA, ELAM, Unitec & AUT.

We were off to a slight disadvantage with someone sleeping in… Reina.  With our students still half asleep as we began our journey it was a quiet start to our day long road trip to the countries capital, but as the kilometres notched up, this group of strangers became a tight little whanau.

We stopped in the middle of the country, ate food and introduced ourselves properly.

We then arrived in the capital and it was off to the opening of ‘Poly Wants a Cracker’ at City Gallery Wellington where we were mesmerised by the opening performance by Ioane Ioane and collaborators.

On Saturday Ioane Ioane gave his artist talk (which was very much a highlight of the trip for alot of us) and John shared his thoughts, experiences and time with us in such a way that opened the floor up to dialogue and laughter.

Much of the trip was spent discussing and laughing from one gallery to the next.  From Pataka and the Nollywood exhibition, where Amiria and Forrester were lost in deep analysis and discussion of the work, then to Te Papa with laughter during the behind the scenes tour when we realised that Faafeu was missing.  We thought that he may still be at Pataka!

Imagine our surprise when we walked into Bowen Gallery (off Cuba Street) only to discover Ans Westra standing there!  On her birthday no less!  So our little whanau were more than happy to sing a rendition of Happy Birthday and take in her work.

So from being ‘blown away’ by Ioane Ioane’s stunning performance in Civic Square (for the opening of his show Poly Wants a Cracker), laughter, artists’ talk, more laughter and a chance encounter with Ans Westra, are but a few of the things that made this trip a real life road trip.

In 3 short days we have all created new friendships, through a love of art and by sharing our stories.

We went down to support Ioane Ioane’s exhibition ‘Poly Wants a Cracker’, but I think we all have taken away more than that.

Thanks for the memories Trish Ah Sam.

Fresh Horizons found itself in Hamilton this month held at the School of Media Arts, Waikato Institute of Technology, (Wintec), Hamilton, New Zealand.

The schools involved were Hamilton Girls, Fraser High, Fair Field, Hamilton Boys High, Sacred Heart Girls College, Melville High, Church College of NZ and also Artmakers, a Hamilton based community arts trust.

The theme was URBAN SAVAGE. The workshops taught were Screen Printing, Stenciling and Mixed Media.

The artist tutors involved were Leafa Wilson ( Hamilton based artist/curator), Siliga Setoga (Auckland based Screenprint artist/Graphic Designer) and Teuila Fatupaito (Hamilton based artist/photographer and Art Educator). The Hamilton co-ordinator was Donny Tonumaipe’a and assitant tutor Nastashia Simeona (a past attendee of Waikato Fresh Horizon’s workshop and now a student at Whitecliffe College of Art & Design in Auckland.)

The students were treated to an inspiring talk from Brotha D from Dawn Raid Entertainment