Collaboration. Community Initiatives after a Traumatic Weather Event. Ep 23 Precipice Podcast

Mette Hay joins me in this episode. Mette is an artist/designer and Muriwai resident. Her art practice explores the visualisation of soundscapes, both natural and voice 

Mette talks about an artistic activation she created for the community after the cyclone at a gathering at the surf club, using voices of the community. 

Mette talks about the fundraising initiatives that were taken to support the sculpture project.

The community voices soundscapes created from this collaborative activation were then used for Jeff Thomson’s commemorative sculpture, covering one side of one of the pou or pillars. Mette shares the process for producing the soundscapes on to materials sourced from the homes that were to be demolished, the screen printing process and her interest in the natural weathering of the work over time.

Precipice launched on July 20th 2026. 3 seasons will be released across 4 weeks and then the full series of 26 episodes will be available for you to listen to at your leisure.

Season 1: Cyclone Gabrielle Hits Muriwai 

Season 2: Disaster Recovery and Community Restoration                     

Season 3: Community Initiatives after a Cyclone

Listen on You Tube  https://www.youtube.com/@precipicepodcast

Follow on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/precipicepodcast

Hosted and produced by Mandy Jakich. Commissioned and funded by Muriwai Community Association, supported by the Auckland Council Recovery Office.

Transcript

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Mandy 0:10

On the 13th of February 2023, the small, vibrant coastal community of Muturawai Beach, northwest of Auckland, New Zealand, was ripped apart by Cyclone Gabrielle. This podcast captures what happened on the night and in the days, months and years that followed. Join me, Mandy Jakic, as I speak to fellow Murrui locals, volunteers and those involved in the emergency and recovery effort. Hear about their experiences of loss and upheaval, the impact on their lives, and the community-led initiatives that helped Murrui find a way forward. Welcome to Precipice. Meta Hay joins me in this episode. Mede is an artist designer in Murrui Resident. Her art practice explores the visualization of soundscapes, both natural and voice.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

All of my work is really based on movement and change through time.

Mandy 1:19

Meta talks about an artistic activation she created for the community after the Cyclone at a gathering at the Surf Club using voices of the community.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

The method that I use to visualize sound as a way of kind of what we call an activation which allowed people to come in and just speak into a microphone and then see the beauty of their own voice projected up onto a wall.

Mandy 1:44

The community voices soundscapes created from this collaborative activation was added to Jeff Thompson's commemorative sculpture.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

It would be really lovely to be able to use these voice images from local people that that were affected.

Mandy 1:59

This work was placed on one of the sides of one of the Po or pillars. Meta shares the process for producing the soundscapes onto materials sourced from the homes that were to be demolished, the screen printing process, and her interest in the natural weathering of the work over time.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Hi, my name is Metahei. I'm an artist that lives here in Murawai with my husband and my two kids here on Waitia. And uh we've been here for about it's gotta be ten years now, and I'm part of the Murawai Artists Collective as well. And I'm undertaking my PhD at AUT. Um as an artist designer I work with visualizing soundscapes, uh usually natural soundscapes, but also voice. And I create my artwork using that as kind of a little doorway into the unseen. Yeah, so and just working with the senses really and how we perceive the world according to our senses.

Mandy 3:06

And you were very involved um with creating response to the cyclone in the Murrowai community through art and through creativity. Can you talk to us about the project that you led?

SPEAKER_01 3:21

Uh yeah, so I think I contemplated what is it that I can contribute to this. There were quite a few different activities and and came up with uh yeah, the idea of using the method that I use to visualize sound as a way of kind of what we call an activation, which allowed people to come in and just speak into a microphone and then see the beauty of their own voice projected up onto a wall. So had all ages, all kinds of people, kids coming in, having a giggle, and and just being able to see their voice, um, yeah, it was quite magical, really.

Mandy 4:00

Can you talk us through the process of creating these sound images?

SPEAKER_01 4:04

I project sound through water, and then that's filmed and was projected up onto the wall in real time. So they could see it kind of pop up there as this, yeah, this kind of magic light show.

Mandy 4:16

How did you actually set that up or communicate with the community what you were actually doing?

SPEAKER_01 4:22

We put it all down there. I think everyone set up their own little station, and I had one that was called Motowai Voices, and it was in one of the side rooms, and I just set up a microphone in my little setup, and then I have a video camera that that sort of films at the same time, it films those voice patterns as they come up through the water. So people just came in, whole families. I had someone come in that it I think it was their anniversary, and she'd written a song for her husband, but she was too emotional to sing the words, so she just hummed it into the microphone, which was really beautiful. And then also people that came in from I think it was council that came in and helped as well during that event. They came in, one of them it was their birthday, so we all sang happy birthday to them, and then lots of kids coming in and just screaming into the microphone, and you could tell there was all kinds of different levels of emotion and just the ability to be able to do that and then kind of be a little bit sort of distracted and amazed by just what you were seeing on the wall, and so it kind of I guess helped soften the blow, maybe a bit.

Mandy 5:32

Were people actually um you know talking about how they were feeling in response to what had happened at all? Or was it a bit more lighthearted?

SPEAKER_01 5:41

No, it was more lighthearted than that. There was no there was no you could say whatever you wanted, but people tend to just come in and try and hum and just wanted to see what does this look like? And then they might come back later and say something else. But it wasn't really talking about how they felt or anything like that, and that was certainly not a requirement. It was just come in and have a bit of fun with this.

Mandy 6:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

And what was your intention for these works? There was no intention for it actually. It was only afterwards when I kind of went and looked through the video that I'd captured and looking at all the different frames and different voices and how different they all looked. And I thought that they were really quite beautiful. And then I had an exhibition coming up at QMUArts um of some of my other work, which bit was based on natural soundscapes here in Motorwai. And I thought it would be really nice to kind of honor the people of Murawai by having that be a work in itself, and so the voices were printed out anonymously on these little sheets of transparent paper and then pinned to the wall, and that kind of grew throughout the exhibition and thought that was really beautiful.

Mandy 6:56

A committee was formed in Muri to um work towards creating a commemorative sculpture in uh Murawai. You were part of that committee, and then you also contributed to the artwork. Could you tell us how that committee came together and your role within that? And the work that you did around funding the project?

SPEAKER_01 7:18

So I came in a little bit a little bit later than the original committee, but then just asked if there was anything I could do to help. And at that time I had come across um Boosted, which is part of the Arts Foundation, and that's a platform, a fundraising platform for artists. Uh you basically have to do your own fundraising if you like, but it's a good platform for people to be able to donate. And so I suggested that as one of the things we could do to raise funds for the actual sculpture itself.

Mandy 7:50

Meta also instigated a sculpture walk as part of the funding process.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

It was a fundraising event up at Gibbs Farm, and they were fantastic. Gibbs Farm was fantastic. We we managed to raise quite a bit of funds with just a day out at Gibbs Farm, and of course, that's all sculptures, and that includes some of Jeff Thompson's sculptures. And Jeff was there to go around and and speak to a lot of the sculptures because he'd he'd met the artists, and so that was a really fun day out, and that was more sort of towards the end a little bit that we were able to do that, which was yeah, that was great. So yeah, needing to run it raise the funds to make it happen. Was boosted. It was the the event that we had there, it was also a dinner from good from scratch, and then of course the generous donation by Motowai Arts as well. So between those four, we managed to raise what we needed um to make it all happen. And we raised it fairly quickly, you know, once you get a good group of people together to get it cross the line.

Mandy 8:55

Meta's collaborative community artwork that was created at the Surf Club was then used to be part of Jeff Thompson's commemorative sculpture in Muriwai.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

Yeah, so we were sitting there one day just in the committee, and it was suggested that maybe there was some contribution in the way of sound, sound images, something like that. And I thought of this afterwards as well. I thought it would be really lovely to be able to use these voice images from local people that that were affected and and well, which we all were in some to some degree. Um, and I thought, wouldn't it be fabulous to be able to create something using those? And then this opportunity, and so I put that on the table saying, what about if we use some of these voices that were captured that at that event down at the surf club? And everyone really liked that idea. And then Jeff and I talked about how we might do that. Because these were all materials that were from the um decommissioned homes, the deconstructed homes. We thought it would be great if we could get them onto some of the aluminium or steel splashbacks, steel sinks, that kind of thing. So that that became the substrate or the material that that I was going to use. And in initially I was gonna etch into it, but steel is too hard to etch into, so that didn't work out. But um basically Jeff cut all the little squares that we needed um for one panel on the sculpture. He created the screen, so I gave him the images, and then he made the screens for screen printing it on. And so then it was a matter of finding the right type of ink that was gonna work and stay outdoors and all of that. So screen printed them on and then put a UV protective coating on them, and that was that. And now there's a bunch of them up on one of the panels, and I think they look really beautiful.

Mandy 10:50

So obviously stainless steel um is going to weather pretty well, but do you have any plans for making sure that it's you know in good order for the future?

SPEAKER_01 10:59

Well, it's quite an interesting thing with I think with public sculpture as well, is that there is a natural weathering, patining, that kind of thing of all these different materials. And so, of course, the sculpture will weather with time to some degree, but of course you want it to last as long as possible, so we'll just keep an eye on it, and then if any of the pieces start to look like they're weathering, then I can easily take them off and do them again. All of my work is really based on movement and change through time. So everything I do is is based on that. I think trying to keep things pristine. Um, for one, I think it wouldn't it wouldn't fit with the rest of the sculpture, so it's probably more just about putting a new layer of coating on just to keep them, keep them somewhat, you know, it's more the images fading and that kind of thing than it is the metal changing. I think the metal is fine. Um so no, I like to see things change and move with time.

Mandy 12:10

Precipice was commissioned and funded by Mudawai Community Association, supported by the Auckland Council Recovery Office. Artwork by Taylor Williams, soundtrack by local Mudawai band Tin People, written in response to Cyclone Gabrielle. Nam Mahi, thank you to the Mudawai community for their input and bravery and for sharing their stories. And thank you for listening.