Bloggers

CITIZEN GENERATED CONTENT appears here as an automatic feed (link) from a host of Flightdec enabled websites in New Zealand. We expect reliable and fair content from broadcasting websites, however content is the responsibility of each originating website and this website takes no responsibility for the accuracy or legality of the content received as a link. As a reader, you are invited to report any content that appears to breach reasonable standards and we will consider removing offending links from this website.

The transformative power of music

Music therapy has a profound impact on individuals and communities throughout Aotearoa, writes registered music therapist Ella Polczyk-Przybyla.
Jolt Dance's diary on residency in Seoul

Lachlan Oakes and Joel Forman are dance teachers with Ōtautahi-based inclusive dance company Jolt Dance. In November last year they travelled to South Korea for a residency with Korean inclusive dance company Light Sound Friends.
Art, the fifth pillar of health

Are you suffering from the condition known as arts scepticism? Symptoms include espousing the idea that the arts are a nice-to-have and a waste of taxpayer money. If so, a new treatment has just become available. It’s Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Transform our Health by UK scientist Professor Daisy Fancourt (Cornerstone Press,...
Toi Ora helped me regain my creative voice

I first attended Toi Ora in Auckland in 2010, soon after I became blind. My background at that time was in fine art. I loved painting, drawing, photography and printmaking. So becoming blind was devastating. I was very unsure of how I could channel my creativity as I felt that visual art was my main strength.
Festival season shows why arts funding matters

Across the country, councils invest between $500 to $600 million annually into arts, culture and heritage. Richard Benge’s opinion piece in The Post argues that investment in their community’s arts and culture is not a nice-to-have. It's sound governance backed by evidence.
All roads lead to arts accessibility

Over the past 15 years, Aotearoa New Zealand has seen a steady growth in accessible arts and cultural events – from a handful every year to hundreds every year. What was once occasional is now becoming embedded practice across a number of arts festivals, venues, performing arts companies, museums and galleries.
Whanaungatanga and building a revolution

My whakaaro for Waitangi Day, for every day really, is about gratefulness, and about whanaungatanga. I am grateful for all of the generosity that mana whenua, and tangata whenua have shown to me as Pākehā over my lifetime, in all the many ways this has manifested.
Tūhono Impact: start where you are and measure what matters

Creative spaces are very good at recognising impact. You see it when people walk through the door for the first time and gradually find their feet. You feel it in the shift in energy in the room, the new connections forming, the confidence that grows through making, sharing and belonging. You hear it in the stories people tell about what...
Fellowship opens doors to possibilities

What makes life, particularly a creative one, easier and more enjoyable for disabled people? Access. And that’s what the Whakahoa Kaitoi Whanaketanga Creative New Zealand Deaf and Disabled Artists Fellowship, presented by Arts Access Aotearoa, provides.
Arts in Corrections stands on strong ground

For Arts in Corrections in Aotearoa, the year has been shaped by strong evidence, vital research getting under way, powerful moments of lived experience, and the chance to celebrate people doing steady, committed work in prisons across the country.
Arts For All Network celebrates 2025

A round-up of arts accessibility achievements across Aotearoa in 2025, celebrating the mahi of Arts For All Network members, from museums and galleries to performing arts, festivals, and accessibility service providers.
“Profound ability of toi Māori to create change”

"I was born to a Māori father and Pākehā mother. After three generations of whānau urban migration, the negative and brutal experiences dad had as a boy, and because we were born pale-skinned, my parents did everything to stop us from being Māori."
A love letter to Crip the Lit

It’s International Day of Disabled People on Wednesday 3 December. So to mark the occasion in true Crip the Lit fashion, a group of hilarious, talented and imaginative writers are getting together to honour and memorialise the disabled ancestors who came before us.
Shift perspectives and improve funding outcomes

"The value of bringing people together in person rather than on a screen was evident at the recent Shifting the Stream: rethinking arts investment forum, held in Tāmaki Makaurau'" blogs Richard Benge.
Both+and thinking needed to change the funding landscape

There’s significant evidence here in Aotearoa and internationally showing the difference that participating in arts and culture makes to health and wellbeing. This applies across individual, community and societal levels and includes prevention, health promotion, treatment and management.