Lalaga Youth Ambassadors Art Tour: Taranaki to Tāmaki

Over the last year, a growing group of rangatahi from Ngāmotu, Taranaki - known as the Lalaga Youth Ambassadors (LYA) - have been mentored by leading Pasifika artists and curators with the support of the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery to develop original visual and performance art work, engage with local communities, and contribute to cultural programming at the Gallery. They serve on the Gallery’s Te Moana Nui A Kiwa Advisory Group and support its efforts to uplift Pasifika protocols. Their most recent project is a thrilling collaboration with the award winning creative artist Leki Jackson-Bourke who has been workshopping and devising an original performance that reflects on what it means to be a Young Pasifika person living in regional Aotearoa. 

The group has been invited to Tāmaki Makaurau in 2026, to reconnect with networks of artists and museums, and to perform at the annual ASB Polyfest—the largest Polynesian dance festival in the world. 

The Gallery provides ongoing support to enable the Ambassadors, and their engagements by funding operations and the specific visiting artists and creatives funded to come to Taranaki for the group. The LYA group is now seeking financial support to be able to take up the unique opportunity to travel together that will allow them to share a regional perspective, represent multiple schools and cultures, and bring their creative voices into a space of national and international significance.

This collective of 30 young people is supported by the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, Vaimoana Trust, and a dedicated team of more than 30 parents, alongside a wider network of over 40 artists and arts workers who have contributed to the Lalaga Project since its inception in 2022. 

Over the past nine months, the Ambassadors have created an original performance that weaves together the stories of their families and community, original musical compositions and choreography developed in collaboration with supporting artists, locally crafted instruments and costumes, and audio-visual documentation of their journey. Drawing on their diverse cultural backgrounds and shared experiences as Pasifika youth in Taranaki, this innovative performative work reflects on the vital role of young people—not only as custodians of culture but as co-creators of the communities and futures they aspire to build.

These funds will go towards: 

• A simple, respectable team uniform for each member to uplift their participation at formal functions and enhance the ways they are able to represent their community in every space. 
• Materials for making costumes for performance that appropriately draw on traditional materials and methods of making through collaboration with local artists. 
• A a daily stipend for meals and essentials for each Ambassador. 
• Supporting the cost of transport to and within Tāmaki Makaurau. The group will fly from  Ngamotu New Plymouth to Tāmaki Makaurau and return, and will hire 3 mini vans to travel in Tāmaki Makaurau. 
• Support preparation of gifts to appropriately acknowledge relationships, knowledge and time offered to this project . 

The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery will fund staff to travel and manage the trip, the artist fee for Leki Jackson-Bourke, and koha for the host organisation and the LYA engagements.

When the Lalaga Youth Ambassadors first formed, they developed - four main aims for themselves: 

1. Develop as an Artist Collective – Generate new creative outcomes that emerge from collaboration and contribute to social and cultural development of Taranaki. 
2. Advance Professional Development – Expand awareness of career pathways and explore how engagement in the arts can enrich professions both within and beyond the cultural sector. 
3. Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing – Generate, document, and share learning through active participation in advisory roles and partnerships with cultural and educational institutions, fostering new models of creative and cultural engagement.
4. Enhance Leadership Capacity – Strengthen confidence, communication, and collective decision-making skills by taking on leadership roles within creative projects and community initiatives. Develop the ability to represent youth perspectives in regional and national contexts, and cultivate the sense of responsibility, vision, and service that defines leadership grounded in culture and collaboration. 
    

Over the Course of the four-day Lalaga Youth Ambassador Art Tour, the LYA collective will visit and talanoa with established artists, curators and academics working at a range of educational and cultural institutions including: Taro Patch Creative Inc, Auckland Memorial Museum, Fresh Gallery, the Mangere Arts Centre and Pacific Advance Secondary School. These visits will provide the opportunity to learn from and exchange insights gained from experiences related to the group's key aims. LYA will also have the opportunity to attend and perform their original work at the 2026 ASB Polyfest. The invitation to participate in Polyfest in this way provides a rare opportunity for the collective to engage with participants as artists and to reflect on the broader significance of the distinct stories and perspectives they are learning to express through the arts. 

It is vital to nurture the voices of our young people and create opportunities for them to broaden their knowledge and experiences beyond the region, so that our communities can fully benefit from the unique gifts each one brings. Pasifika peoples remain disproportionately represented in some of Aotearoa’s most challenging social statistics, and we cannot afford to wait until our youth are grown before equipping them with the tools and confidence they need to thrive. Yet for many Pasifika youth in regional Aotearoa, opportunities to explore artistic and cultural expression are limited, often overshadowed by the visibility and resources of larger cities where Pasifika communities are more established. Initiatives like Lalaga are therefore essential—expanding access to the arts, strengthening cultural identity, and building relationships with those at the forefront of creative and social change who can help uplift young voices

We are reminded of the words of the esteemed Tongan scholar Professor Epeli Hauʻofa, who declared: “We should not be defined by the smallness of our island nations but by the greatness of our Ocean.” In this spirit, we want the Lalaga Youth Ambassadors to recognise the strength of their culture and understand the indispensable contributions they can make to the societies in which they live.

The Lalaga Youth Ambassadors are the first collective of their kind to emerge in Taranaki—bringing together young people from diverse cultures and schools, elevating culture as a socially valued practice, drawing on and introducing multiple artforms— all  strengthened by the support of families, local organisations, and institutions. Supported by a shared intent from the Gallery and community leaders, and united by the conviction that young people must be supported to develop culturally, intellectually, and spiritually, they represent the highest aspirations of their community in stepping forward as the leaders and storytellers.

The upcoming Lalaga Youth Ambassadors Art Tour is a powerful opportunity for an entire community to enable these outcomes, witness the broader significance of these efforts and to establish a precedent for what is possible for future generations of Pasifika youth growing up in Taranaki.