Welcome to Part One of our 10th Anniversary season of the Asian Aotearoa Arts (AAA) programme.

What began as a humble gathering of Chinese Tauiwi creatives in a room together for the first time a decade ago, has grown into a network of hundreds of artists, and thousands of supporters across Aotearoa and overseas. Our activities support artists from diverse backgrounds to lead creative conversations that challenge and nuance what Asian Aotearoa Arts might be. The theme of our anniversary season therefore focused on The Past, Present and Futures.

• What does it mean to create in the space between cultural frames, and how does this change over time?

• How can we honour our ancestors and Te Tiriti? And how do we acknowledge the urgency, complexity and the long-game of this mahi?

• What do we need – both personally and collectively – to nurture and sustain our hopes and dreams, our plans and schemes?

Our 2023 programme ran from 25 Sep - 6 October and featured presentations, workshops and gatherings that encompassed a wide scope of practice, and aspired to be both inclusive and inspiring. We celebrated with a roundtable conversation with AAA founding organisers, Filipino kai and kōrero, zine-making, a film screening with friends in Singapore, Digital Rangoli, Asian Aotearoa Collection tours at Te Papa, the return of our AAA Reading Room and more. In 2023 we also extended a very warm welcome to members of Seat at The Table Asian Club from Wellington East Girls College to our programme.

Huge thanks and appreciation to our funders, Massey University and Creative New Zealand for their continuing support.

AAA 2023 Organising Team

Kerry Ann Lee (Creative Director and Producer)
Herbert Bartley, Georgiana Morison & Jon He

With support from Abhi Topiwala, Gia Espelita, Maria Milmine, Amber Clausner, Craig Cherrie, NJ Jayne, Sam Duffy, Grace Gassin, Linda Lee, Sonya Withers, Angela Kilford, Durgesh Patel and others.

Photography by Jo Sunga
2023 Logo Design by Chai

Presented by

Toi Rauwhārangi College of Creative Arts