Holding it together: resilience and solidarity in the economies of Auckland youth performance companies

ABSTRACT

When financial resources are scarce and uncertain, youth performance organisations find ways to ‘hold it together’: to carry on no matter what. Engaging critically with theories of organisational resilience, this article examines how two youth performance companies in Auckland experience and respond to a precarious funding environment. The local policy and funding context compels organisations to ‘shape up’; to become more effective in the competitive system. Within this environment, however, the promise of sustainability remains ever-elusive. An alternative response, then, is found in the different ways organisations experiment with localised, culturally responsive community and solidarity economies.

KEYWORDS:

• Economy
• funding
• precarity
• resilience
• solidarity

Acknowledgements

The Creating Change research has ethics approval from the University of Auckland’s Human Participant Ethics Committee (number 022238). Participants are named with their permission or pseudonyms are used. I would like to thank the Crescendo Trust of Aotearoa and the Black Friars Theatre Company for their generous support of the project. I also thank the Research Assistants, Amber Walls, Maria Ahmad and Julie Skelling. Funding was received from the Faculty of Education and Social Work and School of Critical Studies in Education at the University of Auckland.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Ethics approval was obtained for the Creating Change research from the University of Auckland’s Human Participant Ethics Committee: number 022238.

2 ‘Creative spaces are organisations and places where people who experience barriers to participation can make art, or participate in artistic activities such as theatre, dance, circus, music, film and creative writing’. https://artsaccess.org.nz/creative%20spaces

3 Iwi can mean tribe or ‘extended kinship group, tribe, nation, people … often refers to a large group of people descended from a common ancestor and associated with a distinct territory’. https://maoridictionary.co.nz/search?idiom=&phrase=&proverb=&loan=&histLoanWords=&keywords=Iwi.

4 https://www.ctoa.co.nz/what-we-do/.

5 Work and Income New Zealand.

6 Pasifika (sometimes Pasifika peoples) is used by the Ministry of Education in New Zealand as

a collective term used to refer to people of Pacific heritage or ancestry who have migrated or been born in Aotearoa New Zealand. Pasifika include recent migrants or first, second and subsequent generations of New Zealand born Pasifika men, women and children of single or mixed heritages … Pasifika people are not homogenous. (Ministry of Education, 2008, 3)

7 ‘Disabled people’ is used here in alignment with the social model of disability and the New Zealand Disability Strategy.

8 Creative New Zealand’s annual Nui te Kōrero (leadership conference) in 2020 focuses on resilience in the arts sector.

9 J. K. Gibson-Graham is the pen name shared by two feminist economic geographers, Julie Graham and Katherine Gibson.

10 Kaupapa can mean ‘topic, policy, matter for discussion, plan, purpose, scheme, proposal, agenda, subject, programme, theme, issue, initiative’. https://maoridictionary.co.nz/search?idiom=&phrase=&proverb=&loan=&histLoanWords=&keywords=kaupapa.

11 I acknowledge that understanding these concepts requires deep engagement with Māori knowledge and the Māori language. This summary version of CTOA’s kaupapa gives a brief definition:

Aroha means love but it also means respect. Mana relates to power, dignity and respect. Titiro, whakarongo, kōrero means to look, listen and then speak. Whakawhanaungatanga refers to the building and maintenance of relationships. Manaakitanga describes sharing, hosting and being generous. Mahaki is about showing humility when sharing knowledge. He kanohi kitea means being a familiar face.

A fuller explanation of the kaupapa can be found here: https://www.ctoa.co.nz/. For widely accepted definitions of these words see here: https://maoridictionary.co.nz.

12 Matua has many meanings including ‘father, parent, uncle’. https://maoridictionary.co.nz/search?idiom=&phrase=&proverb=&loan=&histLoanWords=&keywords=matua.

13 Whānau, ‘extended family, family group … sometimes used to include friends who may not have kinship ties to other members’. https://maoridictionary.co.nz/search?idiom=&phrase=&proverb=&loan=&histLoanWords=&keywords=whanau.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Auckland [grant number 3716975].

Notes on contributors

Molly Mullen

Molly Mullen, PhD, is a senior lecturer in applied theatre with experience producing theatre education, youth theatre and community arts in the UK and New Zealand. Her book, Applied Theatre: Economies, examines the ways socially committed theatre makers resource their work and negotiate tensions arising from particular funding contexts.