Home Ground

04/05/2026

✨ SPARKLE BOMB 2026 ✨

Is back! A programme supporting wāhine through creativity, healing and connection! 🙌🏾

Designed for women affected by the justice system or navigating big life changes. 💪🏾

This series of workshops kicks off 12 May in Newtown, Wellington! Check out poster for all the workshop dates. 💓

Only 10 spots available. Sign up to carve out space for yourself and get stuck into exploring creativity ✨

We’ve got some of Home Ground’s incredible Art Heroes facilitating across the workshops 👀 whoop whoop! 🌈

If this sounds like you (or someone you know), reach out to secure a spot. Link in bio to sign up, our poster also has our contact dets! 💖

24/04/2026

It’s Conservation Week and we’ve been thinking about our connection to te taiao…🪾

Looking after te taiao = lowkey looking after yourself too! 👀

Our wellbeing is tied to whenua, moana, ngahere, places of strength and healing. 🌊

A common whakataukī we hold true to at Home Ground, ‘He toka tū moana’ meaning standing strong like a rock in the ocean, a reminder of the resilience nature holds, and what we see in the women we work with on the regular! 💪🏾

We also know not everyone can access te taiao, especially those inside. Connection to whenua shouldn’t be a luxury, and we know it matters most in the tough times.💚

So if you can, take a moment to care for the whenua, learn the names of our manu, pick up some rubbish at the beach, or just get yourself outside and look up. ✨

However you connect, it matters.

Image: print inspired by ‘He toka tū moana’, created by our own Jacqui Moyes. 🌈

14/04/2026

🎶 It’s Music Therapy Week, finishing āpōpō 15 April 🎶

This year’s theme is Weaving Connections – Te Poutama Hononga.🫶🏾

Music therapy uses music to support healing and wellbeing for all ages – from pēpi to kaumātua. Through listening, creating, and sharing music, people can express, process, and connect in ways words sometimes can’t.💓

So take a moment e te whānau to reconnect with sound – sing, move, listen, feel. Notice what it does for your wairua ✨

Check out our audio journey - Take The Space - on Wellington Access Radio 106.1FM - we select a range of waiata throughout our episodes to reflect and connect to our kaupapa – creativity, wellbeing, justice and connection! Mauri Ora!

Home Ground creates space for women in the justice system to pause, nurture hope, activate social change and create better lives for themselves and future generations. On a Home Ground project, artists (inside and outside of prison) make creative works using dance, performance, photography, writing,...

06/04/2026

🔥NEW AUDIO JOURNEY DROPPING TONIGHT🔥
6PM - Tuesday 7 April

Tune in to Wellington Access Radio 106.1FM

E te whānau - we’re back for our first Home Ground Audio Journey of 2026 and we are coming in HOT.

✨Reflections from Newtown Festival
✨Real kōrero on move-on orders and what better pathways forward could look like
✨Highlights from our Mighty Moemoeā workshop
✨Sneak peek at what’s coming .... Sparkle Bomb💥
✨AND stunning waiata from the artists who lit up Newtown Festival….
...Poems, waiata, whakaaro, and real talk - all led by wāhine who drive our mahi!

Listen in and turn it up - 6PM tonight! MAURI ORA! 🙌🏾

26/03/2026

This Sunday 29 March is the national day of action against move-on orders 🪧

We’ve shared some whakaaro on why this matters, pānui mai e te whānau! Have a read!

From where we stand in Omārōrō - Newtown, the path forward is clear:

❌ Say no to move-on orders
✅ Say yes to housing justice, collective care, and community solutions

Everyone deserves a place to belong 💖

We all deserve housing, dignity and care.Through our mahi at Home Ground in Omārōrō – Newtown, we run a creative wellbeing space for women in the justice system based in the Newtown Park Apartments. Every week we sit alongside wāhine building their lives after prison or court involvement.We se...

06/03/2026

Rehekō Omārōrō! Let’s go Newtown! ✨

We’ve been busy getting our sparkles, signs and badges ready for Newtown Festival this Sunday, March 8!

Come down, have a kōrero, and get creative with us!
🌸 Help us make a beautiful community lei celebrating the awesomeness of Omārōrō / Newtown
✨ Create your own badge to wear proudly on this big day of good vibes and Newtown community magic.

📍 Find us at Stall Site 60-01
🕚 11am – 4pm-ish
📍 Corner of Normanby St & Riddiford St, across from McDonald’s

We’re joining forces with Te Toi Mahana so keep an eye out for the sparkles, our boss as signs, and our special kaitiaki!

25/02/2026

Last weekend, Home Ground was lucky enough to participate in Ngā Mokopuna a Hineteiwaiwa: Textile Wānanga 2026 at Tuahuru Marae, Māhia.
Our art hero, Ron Tekawa, created this- supported by Polly, champion of sequins! Massive thanks to Ihipera, Dale and her epic whānau, and to everyone at Tuahuru Marae for their exceptional manaakitanga.
A group of phenomenal artists came together, dreaming, creating and making over three days (and nights...). The joy!!! How incredible to be in such a generous, inclusive space.

"Love is at the center of everything ###" - Ron. "You have to create space to take space" - Kaizah.

05/02/2026

🤍🖤❤️ Toitū te Tiriti! Today we honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi as a living commitment.

At Home Ground, Te Tiriti guides how we work and what we stand for. It asks us to uphold the mana of tangata whenua, protect all taonga, including the arts, and to show up fully in our responsibilities as tangata Tiriti in Aotearoa.

Like these taniwha, our mahi is grounded in creativity, collective action and plenty of sparkles! Te Tiriti calls us to actively decolonise how we create, lead, and care for one another, and we commit to doing this across all our spaces and mahi.
Toitū te Tiriti! 🤍🖤❤️

20/11/2025

The best thing about pausing- is that you can take a moment to celebrate the wins.

We’re excited to share with you a short film which captures some of the incredible impact that our team has had over the past few years. It’s a testament to the creativity and commitment of our community, and the resilience and courage of the women and whānau that we are privileged to work with.

Thanks to the amazing Java Dance, the incredible Maungarongo TeKawa, our wonderful film maker and storyteller Mahana Dexter, Tristan Carter for the sounds, and the Home Ground whānau!

The world doesn't move without our supporters and collab crew, Te Toi Mahana, The Patil Family, Arohata Prison and Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage.

19/11/2025

From November 2025 to March 2026, Home Ground is taking a pause. After six years of incredible work with our communities, we will be taking some time reflect on ‘where to from here’ - who we are serving, and how we are serving them.

We’ll keep nurturing community events in Newtown Park over the summer, so keep an eye on our social media to stay in the loop, and come find us at Newtown Festival on March 8th to celebrate our amazing community.

We love you
Team Home Ground

01/10/2025

🌷 A Place to Belong: Explore, connect, create. 🌷

🎨 Morning workshops for the creativity to flow

🌿 Afternoon open studio for play and experimentation

This space was dreamed up by wāhine, for wāhine: a chance to slow down, recharge, and reconnect through creativity. 🌀

Carve out time for yourself, starting Oct 16, 2025. Sign up via our website. 🤍

Poster image taken by the amazing at the HG HQ 🌟