You can read the series on innovation here.

Innovation in Arts and Culture in Aotearoa Innovation is a phenomenon that is both simple – the successful implementation of new ideas – and complex – the interplay of environmental factors, culture, relationships, activities and capacities that lead people to uncover new ways to do things. 

Aotearoa has a unique arts and culture context. Within it, there is opportunity to bring Indigenous knowledge – Mātauranga Māori – to the forefront of how to understand and build a practice of innovation. Since the beginning of time, Māori epistemology has displayed the innovation and disruption we are also looking to achieve in arts and culture using Mātauranga Maori. 

From the separation of Papatūānuku (earth) and Rangi-nui (sky) where they were joined together, and their children were born between them in darkness. The children decided to separate their parents, to allow light to come into the world. After this, the children became gods of various parts of the natural world. Through to the story of Maui: with the help of his brothers, Maui harnessed the sun to slow it down so that the days would be longer and they would have more time to find food. 

Mātauranga Māori have been pushing boundaries and using innovation to make the world a better place. There are also lessons to be unearthed by the experiences of a range of institutions and agencies, internationally and in Aotearoa, dedicated to designing and delivering innovation programmes. Many of these approaches have been sector-specific (business-, environmental-, social- and science-innovation) but much of this learning can also be applied to arts and culture sector. 

This series is intended as an exploration – a provocation – to start a dialogue about innovation in arts and culture in Aotearoa: it contains as many questions as insights. At the end of each article is an invitation to join the conversation by sharing your thoughts with Te Taumata Toi-a-Iwi on what resonates, what’s missing, or any alternative perspectives that can enrich our understanding and action.

The series includes: 

1. From the place we stand now, what is the future we want to create?

2. Innovation as renewal: how kaupapa guides us?

3. Where do we want to play, and to innovate?

4. Enablers for innovation: what is needed to step forward and create that future?

5. What does this mean for funders of innovation in the arts?

The ‘we’ in discussion includes all of the players in the system that support, nourish and create in arts and culture in Aotearoa – the makers, producers, administrators, advocates, funders, and policy makers, along with all of the other people that collectively shape our sector.