Teens tackle social issues

PROBLEM-SOLVER: Associate Professor Elspeth Tilley. PHOTO: MASSEY UNIVERSITY

One act of creativity can have an impact on issues facing today's society, according to the organisers of a competition centered around global citizenship.

Create1world is open to all Year 11 to 13 pupils and encourages them to come up with an idea to tackle issues facing humanity.

Hosted by Massey University and the New Zealand Centre for Global Studies, entrants have one month to create their message through artistic expression or performance. This can include poems, song, videos, speeches or short stories.

Competition organiser Massey University associate professor Elspeth Tilley says being a good global citizen means recognising these types of issues can transcend national borders, and require empathetic and collaborative responses.

"The Create1world competition asks young people to suggest how artistic and creative forms (including their own art and creativity) can help create the compassionate and co-operative initiative needed for working together as a planet.

"Maybe a good shorthand for the theme of this competition is 'one person's problem is everyone's problem'."

She says young people care about things such as justice, inequality and peace but often felt they were unable to make a difference. "Not so many are interested in attending political conferences to further their interests. However, many are willing to respond or express themselves through art and performance as a way of getting involved."

Dr Tilley said she had met young people who felt overwhelmed by the problems they faced today, but reassured them an act of creativity can foster change.

"If you write one poem about something that matters to you, you can post it on Facebook, share it with others and it has the potential to affect someone else's thinking. Art can be powerful in this way."

Dr Tilley's own shortplay Flotsam, which was written in the lead-up to the Paris climate change talks, was selected to appear on 10 stages across the United States.

"We wanted to give high school students a taste of the kinds of hands-on creative action learning that is open to them through Expressive Arts," she said. "Plus, we actually know from our interactions with high school students that they are already very connected to social issues, highly creative, and we wanted to see what they could come up with.

"Far from fitting the stereotype of a disengaged generation, today's young New Zealanders actually care passionately about the future of the planet and we know they will have amazing creative ideas about how we can all work together to save it."

Create1world is open to all Year 11 - 13 students. Entries close May 2. For more details see www.massey.ac.nz/create1world.