COMMUNITY ARTS PROGRAMS
We facilitate creative spaces to process and explore connections to self, community, and nature.
WAI CIRCLES
In response to the Kapūkakī/Red Hill water contamination crisis, Wisdom Circles Oceania has been organizing free therapeutic arts spaces for frontline workers, water protectors, youth, and impacted communities. Our collaborators include Women's Voices Women Speak, Oʻahu Water Protectors, Hawaiʻi Peace and Justice, and the Shutdown Redhill Coalition.
December 2021
In December 2021, we facilitated an expressive space for our community in response to the water contamination crisis at Red Hill and offered therapeutic tools, such as textile printing, poetry writing, and creative art making.
Participants increased capacity to balance emotional and mental well-being, support their stress response, and bring creative processes into their individual work and our collective work in responding to the crisis.
Participants included artists, community health workers, non-profit leaders, volunteers and aspiring youth activists. One participant shared that it "felt like a space of peace-building" as both military personnel and de-militarization activists worked alongside each other.
March 2022
In March 2022, we collaborated with Nā Pua Kū’e, Hawaii Peace & Justice, and Oʻahu Water Protectors on an arts-education workshop for youth in Kōkua Kalihi Valleyʻs KVIBE bike program on issues at Red Hill + supporting civic engagement and leadership of youth in protecting our ancestral waters across the pacific. Youth were excited to create a poster incorporating a pattern, a message, and a symbol to represent themselves and to display on their annual ahupuaʻa bike ride through Kalihi Valley.
March - Dec 2022
Through 2022 we collaborated in a series of women's wai circles with members of Women's Voices Women Speak, sharing stories of interconnection and dedication to the protection of our waters. We supported a nurturing space for many of these frontline workers through intentional art-making in preparation for a large Story Art Quilt to represent a shared visions of safety for our bodies, land, and waters.
These workshops have been planning spaces for our Summer programs in collaboration with the Shut Down Red Hill Coalition, Oʻahu
Water Protectors,Hawaiʻi Peace and Justice, to center intentional art-making and conversations around mitigating contamination due to militarization and occupation. Our next event in June will be an intergenerational space for these community workers and youth to engage in therapeutic arts to nurture and regenerate inspiration for this deep work together.
Our arts workshops support spaces of collaboration creating an opportunity for peace building and bridging deeper collective understanding for the protection of our precious resources.
Through 2021 - 2022 we served over 250 individuals (adult and youth in-person) with these efforts having a positive impact on thousands through social media and collaborative education efforts. Our ongoing collaborations include Womenʻs Voices Women Speak, Nā Pua Kūʻe, Hoʻopae Pono Peace Project, Oʻahu Water Protectors, and the Shutdown Redhill Coalition.
The longer the tanks remain, the more fuel seeps into our water systems. The Navy isn’t being accountable to their plan of shutting down the tanks. The public is not fully aware of the impact, like imminent water shut downs during the summer months.
We will continue supporting spaces of artistic collaboration for youth and community to address critical issues in Hawaiʻi with events planned for 2023.
We envision dynamic partnerships with organizations large and small who are working to protect the earth, address the challenges facing Hawai’i, and promote indigenous leadership. By bringing youth-led art campaigns to the table, we hope to demonstrate the powerful impact that youth can make in bringing about positive community change