Thanks to everyone who applied for the Indigenous wānaga Wā kāinga. The successful applicants are;
Frankie Millar (Ngāti Rangitihi, Ngāti Ngahere)
Matt Tini (Waikato, Ngaati Tiipa, Ngaati Mahuta, Ngāti Rakaipaaka, Ngāti Kahungunu)
Piripi Mackie / Misty Frequency (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngā Rauru, Kāi Tahu, Scotland)
Led by Tanya Te Miringa Te Rorarangi Ruka (Ngā Puhi, Ngati Pakau, Waitaha) and presented by CIRCUIT in partnership with Native Land Digital, with support from UNESCO, this wānanga will result in new films by each participant responding to themes of land and water.
Through a series of shared readings, screenings and kōrero at CIRCUIT’s offices in Pōneke until December 2026, the artists will reflect on place, language, ecological knowledge, and the ways landscapes hold memory and meaning, and how this is conveyed through artists moving image.
Each of the 3 selected artists will receive a $1000 grant to produce a new work. At the conclusion of the workshop, the completed video works will form part of a larger screening programme alongside artists from North America and Australia whose work explores similar themes. The programme will be shown at CIRCUIT in December 2026 and subsequently distributed to other venues in the Native Land Digital and CIRCUIT networks.
Tanya Ruka is also CIRCUIT’s Kaitiaki Kiriata and Executive Director of Native Land Digital, a Canadian non-profit non-profit website and mobile app that has created a searchable global map of Indigenous languages. Tanya’s own arts-based research practice is focussed on the development of possible net positive futures from an indigenous perspective. See Tanya’s work on CIRCUIT here.