28/04/2026
Today, through Toi Aro Trust, I’ve launched something important - He Kete KōreroProject.
For a long time, I’ve found myself sitting with our kaumātua — listening to their stories, their wisdom, their experiences of life.
They are answers. Answers about how we live well, how we care for each other, and how we look after our world. But here’s the hard truth — too many of these voices are never recorded and hardly ever truly amplified. And when they’re gone, they’re gone.
As the Kaipātiki region and communities across Tāmaki Makaurau face rapid urban growth and development, the spaces and structures through which kaumātua voices were once heard and genuinely considered in community decisions are minimal and diminishing. Their counsel risks going unshared. Their advice, unconsidered. Their guidance, absent from the very conversations that will help shape the future of the communities they call home.
Our kaumātua hold within them the answers to challenges our communities face right now — how to live well together, how to care for our environment, how to build a future that works for everyone. But two challenges are working against us. We are losing our elders, and we are losing the spaces where their voices were once heard. He Kete Kōrero is our response to both — and it cannot wait.
He Kete Kōrero is about embracing and preserving these stories — so they can be shared with our whānau, our communities, and future generations.
We have launched a Boosted campaign, supported by Etu Toi Maori initiative (they will provide match funding up to $5,000) to help make this happen.
Funds raised through the campaign will be invested directly into three key deliverables for the Kaipātiki community and beyond:
A Digital Film Series Professionally produced documentary sessions capturing the oral stories, teachings, whakataukī, and lived experiences from a group of kaumātua from the Kaipātiki region. This digital archive will be accessible to whānau, rangatahi, schools, and communities across Aotearoa — ensuring these voices are not only preserved but actively shared.
A Collective Sculptural Kete A physical collective sculptural kete developed by our kaumatua and representing thier korero. The sculptural kete will serve as a permanent testament to the wisdom, identity, and cultural heritage of the Kaipātiki region.
Community Exhibitions and Screenings A series of public events designed to bring the captured stories of kaumātua directly into the community — ensuring this wisdom does not sit in an archive, but lives and breathes where it has always belonged. Exhibitions will be designed specifically to reach rangatahi and communities of Kaipatiki.
If this kaupapa speaks to you, I’d really appreciate your support — whether that’s donating, sharing, or even just following the journey.
This is about more than a project.
It’s about making sure these voices are never lost.
Ngā mihi
Lofty
🔗 https://www.thearts.co.nz/boosted/projects/voices-of-our-kaumatua
NZ
