Creativity + practice = joy?
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about why I like to spend time being ‘creative’ - whether it be sitting outside on a sunny day with a sketchbook or huddled around a table with like-minded folk at Sketch@Tūranga.
Flicking back through the pages of my sketchbook I rediscovered this quote from my favourite Irish poet, David Whyte:
“Art is the act of triggering deep memories of what it means to be fully human” – David Whyte
I remember these words hitting deep when I read them first- so much so that I just had to scribble them down as a special message to my future self! For me, they really sum up the way art (visual, literary, performance, applied and conceptual) can evoke profound, often subconscious, connections to our deepest emotions and experiences. While I often find it so hard to get started on a creative session (cue the classic image of a soul tortured by creative paralysis), once I manage move past my fears and settle into the process, I realise just how rewarding it can be. It's in these moments that I feel my thoughts become just a little bit lighter ... and I develop a sense of ease within myself, and with those around me.
Indigi-joy
After serendipitously discovering Indigi-joy in this year's WORD Festival programme, I started to become really excited to learn what else there is to discover about the power of creativity. I'm looking forward to hearing how four amazing Indigenous writers and artists - Dominic Guerrera (Kaurna, Ngarrindjeri), Ariana Tikao (Ngāi Tahu), Juanita Hepi (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngātiwai, Ngāpuhi) and Tina Makereti (Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Rangatahi-Matakore, Pākehā) cultivate and communicate joy through their creative practices. Their kōrero is going to focus on the vital force of joy in our world - how it can act as a powerful form of resistance, and as a wellspring of hope when the world feels overwhelming.
Whether you already incorporate creative activities into your everyday life, you'd like to be inspired to do more, or you simply intrigued to discover how our brains work 'on art', I'm thinking this event will have lots of warm words of wisdom for us all. Don't forget to book your tickets!
What does being creative do for you?
But while you wait for this delicious dollop of inspo from Dominic, Ariana, Juanita and Tina to arrive, how about checking out some of these resources to start a meditation on what creativity means for you:
- Ngā Kōrero Auaha – Creative Stories: Listen to locals who have incorporated the library's creative technology into their creative practice
- Arts and Culture Subject Guide: Explore the creative events and meet-ups on at your local library, and check out our blogs and booklists
- Art Appreciation reading list: Find out what motivates and inspires artists. Discover the creative process behind the works and learn how to take time to appreciate them.
- Writers on Writing reading list: Whether you’re fascinated by language and craft, the creative process, or how a writer’s life unfolds, something in this list will appeal to you.
Who are the Indigi-Joy Artists?
Ariana Tikao (Kāi Tahu)
A writer, singer, and leading player of taonga puoro (also, formerly a staff member at Christchurch City Libraries!). She draws upon ancestral kōrero for her music and writing and often explores the theme of mana wahine. She is currently working on her first poetry collection "Pepeha | Portal" due to come out in 2026, but in the meantime, you can check out her work in these titles at your local library:
Juanita Hepi (Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngātiwai, Ngāpuhi)
Juanita walks around in a perpetual state of confusion telling yarns to find peace. She has a Masters, a Graduate Diploma and a Bachelor of Arts. When not being a hearty Ōtautahi arts nerd, hautūtū and māmā, she reads, writes, plays capitals of the world, reflects on determinism and rote learns Māori and botanical names for NZ native plants. Check out her conversation with Tia Barrett as they go on a journey of rediscovery through the articulation of moving image, mōteatea, natural ambient soundscape and stone installation in:
Tina Makereti Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Rangatahi-Matakore, Pākehā)
Tina teaches a Master of Arts in Creative Writing workshop at the International Institute of Modern Letters. She is the author of three acclaimed novels: Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings, The Imaginary Lives of James Pōneke, and most recently The Mires, which was shortlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the 2025 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. This was followed by her collection of essays, This Compulsion In Us, published in 2025. In 2022, her essay ‘Lumpectomy’ won the Landfall Essay Prize, and in 2016, her short story ‘Black Milk’ won the Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize for the Pacific Region. Her first novel won the 2014 Ngā Kupu Ora Aotearoa Māori Book Award for Fiction, also won by her short story collection, Once Upon a Time in Aotearoa, in 2011. Alongside Witi Ihimaera, she co-edited Black Marks on the White Page, an anthology that celebrates Māori and Pasifika writing. Check these titles out below:
The Imaginary Lives of James Pōneke
Dominic Guerrera (Ngarrindjeri, Kaurna and Italian)
Dominic Guerrera is a Ngarrindjeri, Kaurna and Italian poet and artist living on Kaurna Yarta. His practice includes, text-based work, poetry and ceramics that focuses on the lived experience of Aboriginal people and their social justice movements. Dominic is the receipt of the Odgeroo Noonuccal Indigenous Poetry Prize and the 2024 David Unaipon Prize. He is currently the First Nations Editor at Cordite Review and his first collection of poetry titled Native Rage will be publish through Queensland University Publishing.
More WORD Christchurch
Check the programme online or pick up a printed copy from your library.
- WORD Christchurch website
- Follow WORD Christchurch on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok
- Our WORD Christchurch 2025 page - Find books by writers coming to this year's festival
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