For ‘The Mixing Room: stories from young refugees in New Zealand’.

The Mixing Room is a product of collaboration between Te Papa and 70 refugee background young people from diverse communities, including Afghani, Bhutanese, Burmese, Burundian, Cambodian, Colombian, Congolese, Eritrean, Ethiopian, Iranian, Kosovar-Albanian, Rwanadan, Somali, Sudanese, Tamil, and Vietnamese. The exhibition presents the young people’s stories in a range of creative mediums, including art, short film, poetry, performance, screen-printing, cast glass and digital story-telling. It was underpinned by the ‘capacity building’ approach, whereby the young people were able to tell their stories in their own way and upskill themselves in the process.

Freedom banner made at Christchurch workshop.

Following initial consultation with community leaders, a youth forum was held. This confirmed the exhibition’s concept: ‘Optimism in a new land’, with the three themes of Challenge, Connection and Freedom. Subsequently, a Youth Reference Group was established in Wellington comprising 10 young people. The group has helped with choosing material for the exhibition and provided feedback to the development team, ensuring the project is defined by young people. Next, a set of 12 professional tutorial workshops were held with young people in the six main refugee settlement areas: Auckland, Hamilton, Palmerston North, Wellington, Nelson and Christchurch. Young people from refugee backgrounds were employed to rally other young refugees to attend the workshops.

A taste of what is to be included in the exhibition can be viewed on the new Mixing Room blog. You can also watch the music video ‘Belong’ on Youtube. The end product, the multimedia ‘Mixing Room’ exhibition will open at Te Papa on April 10 and will run for three years in the community gallery.