Toi Piringa - The Art of Connection

WORKSHOPS

Artsenta Creative Connection

Get creative with the help of our team and tangata whaiora. Artsenta brings a bit of creative magic to the symposium with hands-on art activities to support your wellbeing.

ASMR Audio Theatre
Amy Grace Laura

Award-winning performing artist Amy Grace Laura uses ASMR to create comedic yet calming theatrical experiences for the very young and young at heart.

ASMR – Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response – refers to the scientifically recognised ‘tingling’ sensation some people experience from seeing or hearing certain ‘triggers.’ Triggers can include whispering, tapping objects, or cutting paper. It’s a phenomenon that has seen millions of videos created for YouTube with billions of views. Research has found ASMR to have the same relaxing and calming effects on the body as meditation.

In this workshop, Amy will share ways she has combined her creative practice with the wellbeing tool of ASMR. You’ll experience her ASMR Audio Theatre! first hand, get hands on with objects and mics to create your own audio art, and maybe… just maybe you’ll experience the calming ASMR tingles audiences book tickets for, too!

Writing for Wellness
Jenny Powell, Rohana Weaver & Sarah Redfearn

This workshop emerges from an innovative collaboration between Health Improvement Practitioners (HIPs) and the creative arts. In 2025–2026, Dunedin HIPs Sarah Redfearn and Rohana Weaver partnered with City of Literature South D Poet Lorikeet, Jenny Powell, to bring Writing for Wellness to the community through a series of free public workshops. Across a series of sessions, participants explored a range of writing techniques as tools for psychological and emotional wellbeing. In this one-hour taster session, Sarah, Rohana, and Jenny invite you to experience this approach firsthand.

Jenny Powell is an experienced educator and award-winning writer. Her ninth collection of poems was recently published by Cold Hub Press. As ‘City of Literature South D Poet Lorikeet’ she has worked with a variety of community groups, promoting literacy, literature and wellbeing.

Sarah Redfearn is an experienced Occupational Therapist with a 35-year career dedicated to supporting wellbeing through the power of creative occupation. Currently, Sarah serves as a Health Improvement Practitioner (HIP) at Mornington Health Clinic with WellSouth.

Rohana Weaver is an Occupational Therapist and artist with a passion for the transformative power of creativity. Over the last 20 years, Rohana has been involved in many community arts projects in visual arts, circus, music and performance. She currently works as a Health Improvement Practitioner (HIP) with WellSouth at Musselburgh Medical Centre.

Creative Action in DMT
Barbara Eberhart

Experience and understand how Dance/Movement can be used as a learning tool to help increase physical, emotional and social integration, communication skills and problem solving.

Barbara Eberhart is a creative dance–movement therapist trained in Munich, Germany who has learned and taught in Europe, USA and India. Since moving to New Zealand in 1997, Barbara has worked in schools, health centres, rest homes, and community groups, using creative arts as a learning and therapeutic tool to support wellbeing.

Barbara uses movement with visual arts mediums in her workshops. Through movement Barbara helps the mover to increase body language, body awareness, self-expression, authentic movement, physical and emotional well-being and creativity.

"Sometimes the simplest movements can work wonders—especially when they're fun!"

Explore Burnout Before Burnout Explores You
Ruchita Parekh

Sometimes change fatigue can lead to burnout. In the rush of work and constant change, come take a moment to slow down, cope with the busyness, and refill your cup through art and exploring how we respond to change.

A registered Creative Arts Therapist who loves colour, curiosity, and creative mess, Ruchita helps people of all ages explore emotions, relationships, and self-expression through art, play, movement, and imagination. A place where healing often feels lighter, safer, and even a little fun.

The Power of the Pause: The Frottage Threshold Anne-Marie Hamilton & Ingrid Campbell

The Power of the Pause is a collaborative, participatory workshop exploring how slowing down and becoming present to a creative process can support individual and collective wellbeing. The Pause is the therapeutic space. Frottage is the creative vehicle. The threshold is where noticing and possibility begin to emerge.
Participants will be invited to pause at this threshold—between the textured block and the image that emerges, between expectation and discovery, and between what is known and what is still forming. The process encourages people to slow down, tolerate not knowing and notice what becomes visible when an outcome is not forced.

Anne-Marie Hamilton is a Frottage Artist based at CS Art in Invercargill. She brings her specialist frottage practice, artistic knowledge and purposefully designed textured blocks.

Ingrid Campbell is a counsellor, creative arts therapist, poet, researcher, storyteller and founder of Re:Woven Therapy Charitable Trust in Murihiku Southland. Ingrid brings a trauma-informed therapeutic lens, supporting reflection, emotional safety and an understanding of how sensory creative processes can foster grounding and wellbeing.