ABOUT BCA

Black Creatives Aotearoa is a community network of artists who have Black (African/Caribbean whakapapa) and who call New Zealand home. Founded in Feb 2018 by Dione Joseph, our aim is to support and facilitate black creatives across the country to connect, create and collaborate.

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WHO WE ARE

We currently have over 500 members across the country and represent a broad and diverse range of ages, genders, sexuality and nations including tangata whenua, NZ-born and 1.5 generation Black New Zealanders. We have poets and playwrights, chefs and entrepreneurs, hair braiders, rappers, writers, creative entrepreneurs, doll makers, models, visual artists, web designers, photographers, MCs, cake artists, musicians and more!

Mission

OUR VISION

To contribute to a transformational future where our members and their communities are given the resources, time and support to make their dreams, aspirations and their deeply audacious goals a reality right here in Aotearoa New Zealand. 

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We are committed to manifesting this future by creating and working together with partners, sponsors and allies to develop the necessary new infrastructure for success. This includes increasing the capacity and capability for our members in ways that are healthy, meaningful and relevant to us; making resources available and accessible to those in our community; and finally prioritizing people, relationships and sustainability.

OUR MAHI

Over the past three years we have held national gatherings, connected with different festivals, opened live art studios, spoken at symposia, produced an art and poetry exhibition, two playwrights labs, poetry and short story writing workshops, staged readings, an online web series (The Black Out Series) and are developing a BLM archive to capture the moment when Black NZ came together in Aotearoa.