Oro Ata

Oro Ata is a Wellington-based collective and platform centring young, Brown, queer, independent, Māori, wider Pacific and Indigenous artists. Through recurring live events, workshops and wānanga, Oro Ata aims to create spaces where artists and audiences can gather to exchange, build more pathways for collaboration, education and sustainable creative practice.

This crowdfunding campaign will help establish the foundations of Oro Ata’s long-term future by supporting artist mentorship, governance development, safe-practice training and the delivery of accessible industry education. The goal isn’t to produce events, but to build on the culture and ecosystems for our artists in Aotearoa.

Oro Ata is led by a collective of people working across music, theatre, screen but also in your backyard, ocean and the political world: Iris Little, LILA JNR, MĀ, Maia-te-oho Holman-Wharehoka, Mara TK, Romi Wrights, Te Rehia Lake Perez and Tony Douglas.

Together, the collective represents a broad range of experiences spanning independent music, live performance, composition, production, education, curation and community-led events. Oro Ata exists because many of the artists involved have experienced firsthand how difficult it can be to access sustainable pathways, professional guidance and safe creative environments while working independently.

Rather than waiting for permission or institutional access, Oro Ata is building a platform where artists can share resources, knowledge and opportunities with one another while developing ambitious new work rooted in community and collaboration.

Funds raised through this campaign will directly support the operational costs of Oro Ata but mainly be used on the establishment and growth of Oro Ata’s foundational systems and programming. 

This includes:

•  Governance support and organisational setup
• Safe-practice, ethics and accessibility training
• Artist mentorship and development
• Venue hire and technical costs
• Workshop facilitation and artist fees
• Equipment and production resources
• Long-term planning toward a dedicated physical space

Oro Ata is developing a recurring series of events and creative initiatives designed to support emerging and independent artists in Te Whanganui a Tara and Aotearoa. While live music performance sits at the centre, the wider vision extends way ahead.

The collective aims to activate traditional and unconventional spaces for performances, workshops, wānanga and artist development programmes. Alongside live events, Oro Ata will host educational sessions leaning on our industry professionals and multifaceted artists that are focused on art making, management, marketing, law and ethics. Areas that most independent artists are expected to navigate without support.

The project also prioritises cross-disciplinary exchange. Oro Ata wants to create opportunities for musicians to collaborate with choreographers, filmmakers, designers, writers and other creative practitioners, encouraging new approaches to performance and storytelling.

At its core, Oro Ata is about building infrastructure and connection. The long-term vision is to establish a sustainable creative model that can eventually support a permanent physical space dedicated to artists and community. Somewhere artists can rehearse, collaborate, perform, learn and develop work together.

Oro Ata exists because there is a growing need for spaces where artists can create on their own terms while being supported by community and without the expectation of doing everything on their own. 

Many artists are producing important work without access to stable infrastructure, professional development or sustainable creative pathways. Oro Ata hopes to help close that gap by building environments where artists can learn from each other, share resources and gain access to practical industry knowledge that is often gatekept or financially inaccessible.

This matters because culture is shaped by whoever is in the room and opening as many doors gives more people opportunity to have a seat. Supporting this kaupapa is investing in space where artists are supported to connect, share, develop and contribute.