He Waka Eke Noa Charitable Trust

He Waka Eke Noa Charitable Trust is a non-profit organisation that provides leadership, resources and opportunities in the area of Arts Infrastructure enabling community and arts groups to improve, develop and contribute to the further development and strengthening of the New Zealand Arts irrespective of social, economic or geographical isolation.

“He Waka Eke Noa refers to a canoe on which anyone can embark”. The trust is about precisely this, providing access to the experience of the arts for young people in remote communities such as Twizel, Ruatoria, Wairoa – young people experience the arts first hand working with and learning from a visiting professional theatre company.
He Waka Eke Noa's vision is to be socially, environmentally, economically and ethically sustainable so that the work of the Trust can continue to provide services to the community indefinitely. Coming out of a very difficult year financially He Waka Eke Noa has survived and is on track for bigger and better things this year.

The two key sustainability issues facing He Waka Eke Noa both relate to the “on the road' nature of their work. Touring with a full theatre company can take it's toll on staff as well as having a large environmental impact. He Waka Eke Noa take seriously these challenges and are constantly looking for ways to innovate and improve their performance in these areas. Staff welfare is crucial when operating a travelling theatre group. Looking after staff and volunteers is essential as their work involves “weird hours and strange locations”. Staff members who are on the road have time allocated to spend with family to make up for those lost hours. Also, family are facilitated to travel to events where appropriate. Staff also have the benefit of free calls home and are provided with suitable technology at no cost to maintain that communication.

The environmental impacts of a travelling theatre company are a challenge. He Waka Eke Noa is working on the impact of touring. “We cannot function as a touring company without travelling with props, sets and actors nationally”. They travel more than 22,000km per year and are working with their board and stakeholders such as schools on creative ways of mitigating this, such as optimising their travel routes and schedules in the short term, and in the longer term there are plans to upgrade their vehicle to one which can run on bio-diesel. The trust is also investigating planting initiatives with the schools and communities they work with to offset GHG related to travel.

Consideration is given to all projects as to their long term environmental impact. Where possible all events are designed to be zero or low waste, for example the trust had success hiring Ngati Whatua to manage zero waste at Whanau Christmas in the Park Concert. Meetings with remote team members are held on skype, eliminating the need for travel by the Executive Director.