He Waka Eke Noa surprised by Sustainable Business

He Waka Eke Noa surprised by Sustainable Business Award

“I feel like Ana Paquin at the Academy Awards,” said an emotional Richard Green while accepting the Sustainable Business Network Auckland-Northland Trailblazer Regional Award for a non-profit organisation. The appropriately named Mr Green is the Executive Director and only full-time employee of He Waka Eke Noa Charitable Trust (He Waka). The trust’s name refers to a vehicle on which anyone may embark, and the trust’s mandate is to provide community access to arts experiences. Their flag-ship project is the Ugly Shakespeare Company (USC), which each year offers thousands of secondary school students around the country access to contemporary comedy theatre exploring the themes and language of Shakespeare’s plays.

But the recent Sustainable Business Award recognises that the trust’s activities go well beyond those of a conventional touring theatre company. He Waka is committed to environmental sustainability, something which Richard Green admits “creates many challenges” for a touring theatre company. He and other employees are encouraged to commute by bike, and the trust is currently establishing a carbon-offsetting system for the diesel van in which the actors tour. Meanwhile, back in the office, recycling, composting and a worm farm are just part of the day to day fabric of the place.

However, it is through its focus on social responibility that He Waka really shines. Internally, He Waka is a family-friendly employer, offering staff the flexibility they need to achieve a positive work-life balance. Touring for six months a year can be emotionally draining work and the actors’ morale is kept high by modest touches such as a shout to the movies. He Waka also works actively to give back to the wider community. Ugly Shakespeare Company shows are donated to local schools and community groups for fundraising. Richard is also given the flexibility to attend meetings, during work hours, as chairman of the local primary school’s Board of Trustees.

Richard Green’s real passion though is for Te Tiriti o Waitangi (The Treaty of Waitangi). Himself a pakeha, he says, “The Treaty is not just a Maori issue. It involves everyone living in this country.” Richard has been a treaty educator for 10 years, facilitating workshops for both community groups and businesses. He sees this as an opportunity to provide the community with information they might not otherwise have access to through the media.

Richard’s show of emotion at the Sustainable Business Awards stemmed mainly from He Waka’s latest project – a te reo Maori adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello (Te Taipo). Set in 1794 Aotearoa, Te Taipo sees a reversal of the traditional racial roles, with a white Othello living among a Maori hapu. Dialogue will be almost entirely in te reo Maori and working with writer, Brad Haami, the play is set in a completely real Maori context of the time. Richard wants Te Taipo to help make te reo Maori “part of the normal landscape of our media culture, rather than the exception”. As tangata tiriti (people of the treaty) he believes it is the responsibility of all of all of us, not just Maori, to make this happen.

However, it’s been an uphill struggle finding the funding needed to change his dream into an on-screen reality. On the very day of the awards ceremony, Richard had just opened his fourth rejection letter from a funding agency. “We often fall between the gaps with funding. Are we arts or are we education? Are we economic development or are we youth?” So the award was a much needed boost to morale, reassuring all at He Waka Eke Noa of the value of what they’re doing. It reinvigorated him to keep going with the project and he hopes they will be able to secure investment from other companies that see social sustainability as an important issue.

The emphasis on environmental sustainability will continue when the film makes it to the production stage. “Film sets can be wasteful, energy intensive beasts, with many a disposable coffee cup heading straight to landfill” says Richard. “We hope that through careful waste management and other strategies this will be one film with a not-so-big footprint.”

And speaking of footprints, footwear will play a key role in the production’s environmental responsibility. Many of the scenes will be shot in native bush in the Waitakere ranges. As human activity is one of the strongest predictors of weed invasion, the good people at He Waka are keen to ensure that their crew don’t leave behind a weedy legacy for years to come. Footwear and other equipment will be cleaned before entering and leaving bush locations. This will ensure weed seeds are not spread on the many pairs of feet which inevitably come with a film crew. Footwear hygene will be particularly important when filming in the Waitakere ranges due to the spread of Kauri Dieback. This disease is spread by a microscopic fungus-like organism call Phytophthora, and is threatening one of Aotearoa’s most iconic trees. Like weed seeds, the pathogen is spread on footwear. In addition to cleaning footwear and other equipment, crew will be kept, where possible, away from the base of kauri trees.

Just another challenge to ensure that He Waka maintains the right direction and is able to offer leadership for other arts practitioners and arts based organisations. Richard Green believes that still more can be done and intends finding more ways to ensure that theatre and film can show other, more conventional businesses, how sustainablitiy - both evironmental and social – can be achieved.

They are now up for the national award and also the People’s Choice award. You can vote for them here: www.sustainableawards.org.nz/2010/peoples-choice-award

ENDS

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