HUMANS OF THE ISLANDS: Reina Sutton
REINA SUTTON
Arts & Culture Programmer
Solomon Islander
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Tell us a bit about yourself ...
My name is Reina Sutton. I belong to the people of Malaita and Tikopia in the Solomon Islands and when I moved to Te Ika-a-Māui, I settled in Manurewa, Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland.
I hold down a 9 – 5 job as an Arts and Culture Programmer with the arts, community and events team at Auckland Council. The rest of the time I’m a practicing artist, curator and collaborator.
How does your upbringing + culture help you with the job you're doing today?
Great question! My mum taught me patience and to have love for all beings. You might recognise these sentiments having a biblical feel to them and you’d be correct. These are just two of the many values that I take with me to help me do my job. In terms of culture - I grew up in a village so I understand that whatever I do has to have the support and blessing from my communities and elders before they can be put out for public consumption. I’m a fan of pushing and breaking creative boundaries but again, this should be implemented with cultural safety measures in place.
What is the “Pacific Programme call out for ideas” all about?
We’re doing a call out to performers, dancers, writers, singers, musicians, digital content makers, weavers, storytellers, poets, visual artists.. you get the picture. ALL creatives of Pacific heritage. Auckland Council is asking our people if they have an idea that they would like to bring to life in public spaces within the Auckland area. It doesn’t matter if the idea is experimental, fully formed or needs time to develop – if the idea hasn’t been seen in Auckland before, is outside of the box, wild and crazy, we want to hear about it. I think it’s also important to note that the idea submitted remains the intellectual property of the artist, whether it is selected or not. There is a budget to help the idea come to fruition and there is support by way of marketing, communication, online presence and production resources. In a nutshell – we’re looking for one idea and then we want to scale that idea up so it has the potential to be a larger-than-life experience.
Why should Pacific Islanders contribute their ideas to it?
Another great question! This is an opportunity for our people to put forward their ideas, and (if selected) bring their idea to life alongside other people from our community with engagement and focus for our people. We want the idea to be led by our people, produced by our people and made for our people. It’s about having ownership and being able to feel proud of what we’ve produced, with the intent of sharing what we’ve produced. I am available to talanoa/meet up and have a chat with people about their ideas – ring or email me and we can set up a time. Deadline is the 26th of February 2018.
Handy hint: Please download and save the pdf submission form (which you can find in the link below) BEFORE filling it out.
Then save again and email to me https://www.thebigidea.nz/work/217280-pacific-arts-programme-2018-call-for-ideas
Email:
* Top image photo credit: Mahia Jermaine Dean