Onions Talk: Change making through social engagement

Teiti Majik Nepia is a Māna Wāhine and art activist from Aotearoa. She is a fiercely independent and curious maker of art. She spent over a decade in central Australian desert, living in a swag under the dark skies. She is an avid cyclist and star gazer who moved back to Aotearora in 2021. In this episode, Ti shares about her Home project which saw her living as a responsible freedom camper living...

5ever Books is an underground publishing house that publishes punchy, intense and interdisciplinary work, woven together by a shared transformational kaupapa. They recognise the collective necessity of actively infiltrating and affecting their playground and home. In this episode, we talk about activism, empowerment, community and publishing. https://5everbooks.bigcartel.com/ This podcast season i...

Debbie Fish is a set designer, installation artist and performer, and co-director of GoldFish Creative. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from Victoria University and a Graduate Diploma in Economics from Massey University. Her theatre, performance, and set design background feeds into her practice as an installation artist, unfolding the enduring drama of social and biological life and the oft...

Everybody Cool Lives Here produces art that reflects and celebrates Aotearoa’s unique and diverse identity. They connect artists and groups and empower them to create dialogue within the wider community by bringing the marginalised to the middle and supporting those at the fringes to drive conversations. In this episode, Jacob, Nic and Rose talk about creating inclusive spaces and communities thro...

Jacqui Moyes is the creative director of Home Ground, a collaborative creativity and wellbeing initiative for women in the justice system. Home Ground creates space for women to pause, nurture hope, activate social change and create better lives for themselves and future generations. On a Home Ground project, artists (inside and outside of prison) make creative works using dance, performance, phot...

Jo Randerson is the founder and artistic director of Barbarian Productions, a Wellington-based theatre production company. The Barbarians are driven by their belief in radical fun, courageous expression, fluidity, generosity and participation. They make works that are fun, interactive and often chaotic... but good, fun chaos. Jo also played an essential role in revitalising Vogelmorn Bowling Club...

In this episode, Su-Lin Ngiam, Executive Director of ArtsWok Collaborative shares her journey of setting up a socially engaged art intermediary in Singapore. Some of the topics we covered include: Starting a socially engaged art intermediary in Singapore Crossing sectors, building projects: Working with the healthcare sector and the importance of supportive funding Opening up taboo topics through...

Samantha Scott is the founder of Massive Theatre Company based in New Zealand. Their work comes from real stories, reflecting the rich diversity of Aotearoa. Through access to free workshops and ongoing mentoring/training, emerging artists are able to become a part of the company from age fourteen and stay with them throughout their professional career. Massive is a pathway, a whānau and a way to...

Leila Hoballah is an entrepreneur, a community builder, a facilitator, an activist and a coach. She co-founded makesense.org in 2010 (left the organisation in 2018), thence led a collaborative action-research program, Boundless Roots, that looked at the conditions needed for radically transforming ways of living. In this episode, we talked about approaching climate action from a holistic systems v...

Chantal Stormsong Chagnon is an indigenous Cree Métis singer, drummer, artist, storyteller, actor, educator, workshop facilitator, social justice advocate and activist with roots in Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, Saskatchewan (situated in Canada). She creates opportunities for cooperation, education, and empowerment everywhere she can. This episode dives deep into what it means to respect and care for n...

Ra’z Salvarita is a cross-disciplinary creative artivist who was born on the island province of Negros in the Philippines. His creative endeavors reflect the convergence of the three pillars he primarily works with: Creative Healing Expressions, Sustainable Sacred Ecology, and Practical, Mindful Spirit Vitality. Ra’z moved to his mother’s hometown during the pandemic and started working with the w...

Lynn Yau is the CEO of The Absolutely Fabulous Theatre Connection, which also stands for also stands for Arts For Transformative Educational Change. She shares her decades of experience working at the intersection of art and education. Key points: Changing the education system of Hong Kong through the arts Against the modernist paradigm: mass manufacturing model in education Understanding the cont...

Chetnaa Mehrotra is an applied arts practitioner and the founder of Rangbhumi. The company’s vision is to spread joyousness, power of expression, compassion & a sense of equivalence among people through Applied Theatre Based facilitation. The organisation works in the area of Applied Theatre with children, youth and adults. Chetnaa also uses arts-based learning to explore areas such as leadership,...

Raïsa Mirza is an interdisciplinary socially engaged practitioner with international work experience all over the world - including Bangladesh, Canada, Ethiopia, Japan, Malawi and the Philippines. She works and lives in emerging economies driving social innovation work in challenging contexts within a diversity of sectors. Raïsa has worked on many SDG goals including conservation, agriculture, wat...

This was a project between Seppure and artist Ng Sze Min. Seppure is a chemical filtration company whose technology allows industrial filtration processes to happen at room temperature, essentially cutting the energy traditionally required for such processes by up to 90%. Currently industrial filtration processes take up 15% of the world's energy consumption.  Tune in to understand the challenges...

This is day 11 of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. History repeats itself as Russia's invasion of Georgia in 2008 remain painfully raw in Georgians' memories. This is a special episode covering the Georgian perspective and what this war means for Georgia and Moldova next. This episode provides some historical context of the conflict as well as the genocide of Georgians by Russians back in 1993. It gi...

This episode is part 2 of our #Sustenarts series featuring biotech company TeOra (Rishita Changede and Yasaman Tavakoli) as well as artist Wendy Zhang. Tune in to hear about how microbes, algae, bacteria and yeast can protect our ecosystem and save our world. For more images of algae painting and this project’s social media engagement posts, check out @sociallyengagedpractices on instagram or go t...

Sustenarts is a program by INSEP that brings together sustainable enterprises and socially engaged arts to create projects that can scale climate solutions. One of the projects is Insect Protein Pals, led by artist Fié Neo, alongside Asia Insect Farm Solutions and SLICE to explore ways to increase the adoption of cricket powder through participatory arts. Tune in to hear Aaron, Yuvanesh and Fié ta...

Marco started his change making journey as a counsellor in Hong Kong. Since then he’s worked in non profit, social enterprise, policy influencing advocacy and social innovation community and capacity building. Key points in this episode: What are the gaps in the Asian changemaking ecosystem? How could transnational exchanges and learning build better social support? How do we develop alternatives...

Zsolt Bugarszki is the founder of SEIP Social Entrepreneurship Incubation Program and associate professor at Talliin University. Key points from this episode: Social hackathons: implementing speedy tech processes on social problems Bridging social solutions and business Moving beyong dependence on governments Convincing the Estonian Ministry to include social entreprenuership in their na...

Rachel Uwa is the founder of The School of Machines, Making & Make Believe, which provides one-of-a-kind hands-on learning experiences in the areas of art, technology, design, and human connection. Centred around the philosophy of lifelong learning, they are on a mission to nurture critically-minded individuals to be more deeply engaged with their surroundings and with themselves.  Tune i...

Moving to Germany and starting The School of MA  A moment for Afghanistan  Processing the traumas of the world  Holding space for human connection and intimacy in our work  Getting students to think about who they are, what they care about and how to put it into the work they are doing  Learning to be whole together, through creativity and technology Rachel Uwa is the founder of The School of Mach...

Priyanka Shahra is the founder of One with Earth, a social enterprise which develops and supports projects that promote urban sustainability. Singaporeans are perhaps most familiar with their social enterprise Swapaholic, an online and offline fashion swapping platform. Swapaholic allows consumers to declutter and refresh their closets without having to buy new clothes. Priyanka herself was a shop...

This conversation with Nicky Wilkinson, executive director of Firetree Philanthropy is a peek into the funders’ world, from Firetree Philanthropy’s perspective and approach as well as a glimpse into what other funders look at and some prevalent conversations in the Philanthropy circle. Here are some key points from this episode.  The starting of Firetree Philantropy and their link to Southeas...

What’s the value of arts and cultural education? How do you build a social enterprise supporting creatives? Let Jeff tell you all about it. Jeff M. Poulin is an American educator, non-profit administrator, and social entrepreneur whose work takes a justice approach towards uncovering transformative youth-led local solutions for complex global challenges. He’s a performer, teaching artist, and acti...