"Ordinary Wonders" by Hikitia! RISE's ACC funded primary prevention mahi

Ordinary Wonders refers to the little moments or experiences that we remember as funny, deeply special, formative, or that connect us to important people or places. These are often moments that don’t seem big at the time – planting a garden, cooking bread, picking fruit, listening to stories about when our grandparents were little, the sound of rain on the roof, jumping in puddles – but they live on in our memories. These memories are not always about grand adventures – it’s in the connections formed through gentle rituals, the feeling of being safe, the freedom to imagine wildly, making blanket forts, or building dams in a creek. 

OUR INVITATION TO YOU:
OPTION 1: We’d love it if you could share a memory from your childhood that fits our theme of Ordinary Wonders. You might only need a few sentences to share this memory, or you might want to write a couple of paragraphs.

You could share something your parents/caregivers/grandparents said or did, traditions, or a memory from visiting family. It could be that they tucked you in and read to you every night, or that they showed up at an event that was important to you, or they told a joke that made you laugh, or that you all slept in the lounge and watched a movie, that they told you important stories about the places your family are from, or that they made you fry bread when you were sad, or that when you were a teenager your dad let you play whatever music you liked when you drove together in his truck.

OPTION 2: For those that are parents, or who have parent roles, you could choose to reflect instead on moments of parenting rather than moments of being parented – a child’s face lighting up at the news their grandparents have arrived, a messy kitchen making pancakes, muddy gumboots at the farm door, smiling when remembering a toddler’s giggles when the family dog licked its face.

WHAT NEXT?
Once we have collected everyone's Ordinary Wonders memories, we are going to invite local amateur and established artists to help us bring each of these memories to life in a piece of art. Each artist will receive one story and create an artwork based on it. These artworks will be shown in a collective exhibition at Refinery ArtSpace in July 2026. Images of the artworks will be included in an exhibition book. At the end of the exhibition, each artwork created will be gifted to the person whose story they represent.
Themes (not detailed information) from the written memories will also be collected and shared in the exhibition and in the exhibition book. 
*All personal information will be kept confidential.
Please contact us at Hikitia@rise.net.nz if you have any questions.
Please share this invitation with others who may want to join the Ordinary Wonders project.

Thank you for sharing your story and your willingness to join this project. We look forward to connecting with you. 

Ngā mihi nui, Best wishes, Hikitia! team