Our panel of artists from Utu ā Matimati Takatāpui Art Collective will discuss elements of our kaupapa, inspired by our latest magazine. Topics of decolonizing mental health and art spaces within this modern world and society, the importance of our existence as takatāpui and how visibility and solidarity are integral to surviving in this political climate.

Join us for a hands-on wānanga where we’ll learn how to process, and create traditional paint using kōkōwai (earth pigment).

Toi Pōneke Art Centre, WIFT and Massey University are proud to host a special presentation from director Rob Sarkies (Out of the Blue, Pike River, Scarfies) and screenwriter Fiona Samuel (Piece of My Heart, Consent: The Louise Nicholas Story, Pike River) to launch the Wellington Write Room Screenwriter's Residency for 2026. 

Come along to the opening celebration of Te Whare Mahana - A Takatāpui Exhibition. You are invited to our housewarming party, a celebration of queer indigenous love. It’s virgo season, spring is blooming, Mahuru Māori is here, all your queer Māori dreams are possible!

Join artist Katy Cottrell as she chats with academic researcher Matteo Collina and director of the Victoria University Coastal Ecology Lab – Alice Rogers. Alice and Matteo will talk about their work with marine reserves from a scientific perspective and how this has inspired the artworks by Katy Cottrell and Rick Allender for their exhibition Taputeranga: Above and Below.

Marquetry is the art of ‘drawing’ with wood veneers, cutting intricate jigsaws of imagery and inlaying in, or onto timbers. In three hours have a go at exploring the different veneers, get to know the chisels and knives, and create your own ‘take home’ block (or coaster) having discovered the fundamentals to take it further.

In the third of three artist’s talks about Azúcar/Sugar, the latest installation from With Lime, join Dr Miki Seifert and Dr Arini Loader at ‘The Colonisers’ Banquet Table’. Dr Seifert will talk about how sugar was transformed from an exotic luxury item into a global ubiquity. Dr Loader will use te reo Māori as a gateway to talk about sugar’s associated health and societal issues along with alcohol and other colonial introductions. 

In the second of three artist’s talks about Azúcar/Sugar, the latest installation from With Lime, hear about Dr William Franco’s journey from travelling in Mexico to learn how to make Mexican sugar skulls for Dia de Muertos to exploring the connection between sugar and colonisation of the Americas to expanding the boundaries of this traditional method of sugar art.

In the first of three artist’s talks about Azúcar/Sugar, the latest installation from With Lime, learn how Dr Miki Seifert used the concept of Wunderkammer to explore the connection between sugar, colonisation, global trade and climate change.

Dr Seifert will be joined by Dr April Henderson who will talk about the impact of sugar, colonisation and global trade in the Pacific.

Join us at Toi Pōneke for our second Wāhine Wānanga for artists.  A presentation from wāhine toa Lynell Tuffery Huria about copyright and intellectual property in Te Āo Toi Māori (The World of Māori Arts).

Kieran Monaghan will be in the gallery performing with vegetable.machine.animal 'trio', which involves plants, a synthesiser and live drumming. Joining him on keyboards and fagufagu will be GUEST recording artist Andrew Faleatua. 

Kieran Monaghan will be in the gallery performing with vegetable.machine.animal 'trio', which involves plants, a synthesiser and live drumming. Joining him on taonga pūoro will be Ruby Solly. Solly appears on the album GUEST.

Join us for this talk facilitated by K Monaghan, Assoc. Prof. Dr Julie Deslippe - from Victoria University School of Biological Sciences and Dr Eli Elinoff - from Victoria University School of Social and Cultural Studies. This discussion will touch on interesting studies around human and non human life patterns, interspecies connections, living with plant and fungi rather than alongside.  

Kieran Monaghan will be in the gallery performing with vegetable.machine.animal 'trio', which involves plants, a synthesiser and live drumming. Joining him on electronics, keyboards, domestic objects will be GUEST recording artist Chrissie Butler (DSLB)

Te Whē Wānanga is an empowering, transformational wānanga that explores the Whakapapa of Sound & Vibration through the lens of Māori cosmology and traditional music practices used for art, healing, health and community.

Facilitated by internationally renowned artist and Tohunga o Te Whē, Māmā Mihirangi, this wānanga offers a sacred, creative space for participants to experience the vibrational and ancestral power of music as a conscious and expressive force.

This panel gathers a remarkable group of artists, and academics. Rooted in creative practice, scholarship, and lived experience, each speaker brings a perspective that challenges dominant narratives and illuminates alternative ways of seeing, knowing, and belonging. Together, they explore how voice, vision, and artistic expression become powerful tools for personal and collective change.

A relaxing class of meditative slow stitching whilst learning about the health benefits of creativity. Create a small improv quilt by hand and learn some big stitch hand quilting.