Iteration 4; Ngakinga
Papa ki Awataha
Tāmaki Makaurau,
2025/2026
The fourth iteration of Inhabit will be activated at Papa ki Awataha, Northcote from March 2025 to April 2026. . This project is in collaboration with Uru Whakaaro and supported by NorthArt and the Kaipātiki Project.
Char and I are excited to be working with a 200 sq meter piece of land at Papa ki Awataha for the next year. This is the home of the puna that feeds Te Awataha. The land is bare, raw, hard and cracked, waiting to be nurtured back to its full potential. We will inhabit here for the year, nourishing the whenua intentionally along its journey to good health.
We are inviting folks to join us in building community around this land. To help us care for it softly and radically, with creativity and interconnectedness. Across four seasons.
It will be a place to share personal stories and collective reflection with our feet in the soil and our faces in the flowers. A place to make art with natural dye plants through a lens of decolonisation and ecosystem regeneration, addressing the importance of sustainable practices and connection to the whenua while the Northcote towncenter is under redevelopment.
We acknowledge Mana Whenua as the kaitaiki of this land, and their tupuna past, present, and emerging.
Ngakinga Participation Schedule
We will be on the land a lot over the year, if you see us come say hi.
Autumn/Winter hours:
Every Wednesday morning 9:30-12:30pm
Drop in for a chat and help us with some mahi
Monthly Sundays from 9:30 ish
First Sunday of every month we will be on the land, caring for it and holding workshops. Workshop details and additional days will be announced on instagram @hollimcentegart.studio on the website and on the notice board at Ngakinga as it unfolds.
Upcoming Sunday sessions are:
March 23rd
April 6th
April 13th - School holiday special 😉
May 4th
Nagkinga is a living laboratory for taiao, creativity and natural dyeing practices; an ongoing public art project nurturing interconnectedness and care.
Introducing a fierce and brilliant māmā, friend and collaborator, Charmaine Bailie (Te Uri o Hau – Ngati Whatua ki Kaipara).
Char is an inspirational taiao practitioner working across ecology, ethnobotany and as an active community leader for more than 30 years. Her voluntary work has had a profound impact on communities and the land. She facilities Te Aka Kōtuia, the kaitaki and community nursery network, and Para Kore ki Tamaki, a zero waste program for Maori communities. Char designed and implemented the Ōkahu Rākau nursery and restoration of Whenua Rangatira in Ōrākei, which was the largest urban, Māori-led restoration project in Aotearoa at that time and has become a template for others to learn from. Working on Motutapu with Ngāi Tai Ki Tāmaki, Char helped establish a nursery, developed a kaitiaki team and plan for the planting of 120,000 natives on Hukanui Pā. Char grew up just down the road from the Kaipātiki Project centre and has been involved with Kaipātiki Project since 2000 in many different roles. She is also a Director of Uru Whaakaro Ltd - a natural heritage company and the Winner in Te Toa Taiao o Te Tau / the Environmental Hero of the Year 2022.
When I told Char about my dream of regenerating (un)under used urban land to grow a social sculpture made of natural dye plants her response was deep, heartfelt and pragmatic. “Let’s get started”. We have been softly and radically working together on this ever since.
