31 Oct 2018
On November 8 2018 the Arts Centre of Christchurch will become home to the inaugural Necessary Traditions Festival – a celebration of resourcefulness, craft and the reinvigoration of traditions vital to the sustainability of our people and planet.
On November 8 2018 the Arts Centre of Christchurch will become home to the inaugural Necessary Traditions Festival – a celebration of resourcefulness, craft and the reinvigoration of traditions vital to the sustainability of our people and planet.
Hosted by Rekindle, Necessary Traditions brings together over 40 resourceful craftspeople with a vast array of practices including shoemaking, Windsor chair making, rag-rug making, blacksmithing, willow basketwork, pin-hole photography, sourdough baking with local flours, soap making and other household essentials, cup, bowl and spoon carving, Kintsugi, reforestation, darning and hand-sewn button-holes, preserving and fermenting, heritage building techniques, raranga harakeke weaving, bookbinding, ceramics with local pigment and clay and many more.
During the week of the festival, from November 8 to 17 2018, these craftspeople will share their unique resourceful skills with festival goers through demonstrations and workshops.
Rekindle founder Juliet Arnott describes the festival as “reinvigorating the way craft is viewed in our society, that it is seen as necessary for a healthy future, both in terms of our wellbeing and the health of the ecosystems we rely upon.”
Background:
Rekindle is a social enterprise that creates opportunities for resourcefulness. Focusing on transforming undervalued resources through care, connection and craft; this being the opposite of wastefulness. Being resourceful is both good for us and good for the earth upon whose finite resources we depend. Resourcefulness requires us to utilise and value our inner resources and our ability to access to what we need for lives we value. Being truly resourceful connects us within communities as we share the resources we have.
Since the beginning of Rekindle in 2011 in Auckland, then Christchurch, Rekindle have run various different projects that have been inherently focused on resourcefulness; some small, some as big as a whole house.
Important Necessary Tradition Festival dates:
- Thursday 8th November – Festival Opening and Pecha Kucha in the Great Hall at the Arts Centre of Christchurch
- Saturday 10 – Sunday 11 November – Necessary Traditions main event. Over 40 skilled people demonstrate their necessary traditions at the Arts Centre. An opportunity to learn new resourceful skills, enjoy local food and music.
- Saturday November 10 - Saturday November 17 – Necessary Traditions Guest Speakers. Hear from botanists, ecologists and other tohunga about the history, use & health of local resources or taonga e.g. harakeke, tī kōuka (cabbage tree), tōtara and other indigenous species, basket willow, water and land.
- Monday November 12 – Saturday November 17 – Necessary Traditions Workshops. Learn from craftspeople in a vast array of classes. Bookings will be essential.
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