Te Kāhui will enter a period of much-needed strategy, rest, and reflection to consider how we can continue to best serve rangatahi in community and correctional settings, while ensuring equitable access to creative expression. 

It’s been a challenging few years for our small rōpū. A combination of factors, including a constrained funding ecosystem exacerbated by significant changes in public funding to arts and culture budgets, has created difficulties in our sustainability. After implementing various strategies to maintain our high-quality programming, including voluntary hours reductions across an already lean team and community fundraising, Te Kāhui Creative Writing has made the difficult decision to enter a strategic period of indefinite hiatus. 

We do not make this decision lightly. We recognise the duty and privilege that come with facilitating creative spaces for our underserved communities. That has always been our focus. We are grateful to all the rangatahi and whānau who have shared their creative selves with us. Thank you to all our mentors and their steadfast belief in us. Thank you to our community supporters and funders who have trusted us. 

We are proud of the work our team have done. We step away with our hearts filled with treasured memories, having shared space with some of the most talented, honest, and real storytellers. We’re ending strong, having worked with over 1000 rangatahi and tangata whaiora. We have published two poetry and prose anthologies, collaborated with 14 of 18 correctional facilities, and held workshops with a collection of community organisations across the motu. 

Te Kāhui Creative Writing enters our hiatus knowing that creatives and organisations will continue to advocate for impact in arts accessibility, youth and community, abolitionism, restorative justice, and decolonial spaces. Many hands keep the fire burning. Our liberation is interconnected. As artists, you’ll still see us in the space, just serving in different ways and forms over this quieter period for Te Kāhui Creative Writing. 

We have one final project to celebrate over the next few months. We look forward to sharing Wāhine Inside, our second publication, an anthology of prose and poetry featuring storytellers from Christchurch Women’s Prison. As a not-for-profit kaupapa, donations and funds from this project will continue to go towards initiatives that support incarcerated wāhine and their whānau. 

Our inbox: tekaahui@youtharts.co.nz, will remain open and checked periodically throughout this hiatus period as we strategise our re-emergence. Please reach out to us with any thoughts or questions; we’d love to hear from you.

Till then, 

Te Kāhui Creative Writing