Kia ora, Dobar Dan, Hello,

I’m excited to be launching the Oratia Autumnal Walk – Community Art Project starting Tuesday May 12th until May 31st which is part of Wild Walks a series of audio-visual walks in and around the West Auckland area.

The Oratia Autumn Walking project is a community art project based in Oratia with Oratia District school students inspired by the sensations of the Autumn season in the Month of May. An Audio-visual performance aims to reveal the past and present of Oratia through the sensations of Autumn capturing the history and experience of Oratia (including fruit growers history and early inhabitants of the area).

I will be guiding a series of after school field trips and workshops 3pm -4:30pm that visit a selection of locations and locals around Oratia (all walking distance). The kids will get a special opportunity to meet some locals, hear their stories and contribute to the artistic archiving of Oratia’s fascinating origin. During these sessions students will record sounds of autumn, take photos and video documentation of: interviews with locals and activities investigating peoples stories, memories and histories. We will then present them as an Audio-visual performance walk.

The performance walk will be shown to friends and family as a community performance event SUNDAY MAY 31st (so look out for details of this) and the recorded Audio/Visual work will become an archive for the Oratia community.

This project is supported by the Auckland Council Creative Communities Scheme and produced in Association with Oratia District School. It was inspired by the Oratia Rate Payers Association and the historic Fruit Pickers Ball which is being planned for this winter. There also used to be an Autumnal Ramble that walked across private land and is being planned in the near future also.

I am still looking for inspirational and creative students to join in and participants may like to contribute their family history to the project. You can attend all or some of the workshop events and don’t necessarily have to be available for the final showing. Furthermore if you are a local who would like to be part of this exciting project please contact me.

Christina (Artist/Choreographer)
Please contact for programme and more information. ph 8149540, 02102237414 dancedancedanceschool@gmail.com

Christina Houghton is a New Zealand Artist (with a background in choreography and costume design) based in West Auckland who has shown work both locally and internationally. Her performance work circumnavigates between social choreography, ecology and art as site specific and participatory.