If you’ve got a high-schooler at a loose end on this Thursday’s strike day, perhaps give them a nudge to register for a free Nelson Arts Festival event, designed especially for teens.
‘YES YES YES’ kicks off at Nelson’s Suter Theatre at 10am, opening with a theatre show created to explore the “knotty and necessary topics of healthy relationships, desire and consent”.
After all, says Kaiteriteri-based Dr Nikki Evans, the arts are a wonderful vehicle for change.
The daytime show is billed as “part documentary, part confession, part open conversation,” with a free lunch to follow, and then a choice of workshops to follow.
School groups had originally booked in – now, with schools closed on 23 October due to the national megastrike, the organisers are welcoming youth aged 14-19 to come along to the free event.
The event is presented by Hikitia!, RISE’s family violence and sexual violence primary prevention team.
Nikki is the programme’s manager, and she says the workshops include art, activism in music, drama, sports, and others that have a more “chilled kōrero” style.
Each is “based around explaining consent and healthy relationships”, with the aim of creating space for conversation and normalising kōrero around these issues.
“It’s a third person, right? It’s not about you or your situation,” Nikki explains.
RISE – Respect, Inspire, Support, Empower – is contracted by ACC to provide the Hikitia! programme.
Nikki says it is a primary prevention initiative, aimed at “advocating up” to help prevent harm and reduce future offending.
The show’s creators, Eleanor Bishop and Karin McCracken, provide “powerful modelling” around a really difficult subject.
Nikki’s background is in psychology and social work, and she has previously worked for STOP, a non-profit organisation that provides treatment for young men engaged in harmful sexual behaviour.
She later worked as a senior lecturer of social work at the University of Canterbury, and at Oranga Tamariki’s national office.
She is passionate about her work, aware that official statistics on sexual violence significantly underrepresent the reality.
“I feel like we’re making a real genuine contribution.”
For balance and decompression, Nikki says she enjoys spending time with her grandchildren at Kaiteriteri Beach.
There are also tickets available at https://nelsonartsfestival.nz/event/yes-yes-yes/ for the theatre piece’s 6.30pm show, which is followed by a 30-minute forum.
