The Incubator Creative Hub is organising a photo competition to celebrate International Day of Older Persons on October 1. Pictured is a poster to help market the competition.
The Incubator Creative Hub is organising a photo competition to celebrate International Day of Older Persons on October 1. Pictured is a poster to help market the competition.
Tauranga pensioners are not all “sitting around” knitting or using walking sticks - most of them are “living their best life”, such as riding their bikes on a Saturday morning.
A photo competition - organised by The Incubator Creative Hub - aims to capture the latter and change the way people view those aged 65-plus.
The competition is part of a week-long celebration called “Young at Heart” to mark International Day of Older Persons on October 1, planned by the Incubator Creative Hub and Tauranga City Council.
“What we really want to do is hopefully get a whole lot of photos showing older people doing what they love and what we love about them,” hub director of support and project management Marama Mateparae said.
Tauranga has 31,000 people aged 65 and older. This was projected to increase to 54,000 by 2048, the council said.
“We really wanted to change the way that people viewed older people in the community, because most older people that we know ... they’re not sitting around with walking sticks or doing knitting.
“Most of them were kind of living their best life.”
For example, Mateparae said if she went to Welcome Bay on a Saturday morning, there were groups of “older people in their lycra who just go racing past on their bikes”.
“That’s how we see older people in the community and that’s how ... they see themselves as well.”
The Incubator Creative Hub director of support and project management, Marama Mateparae.
Mateparae said the aim of the competition was to “kick that ageism to the curb”.
It was open to all ages but photos must feature someone aged 65 or older.
There were six categories: our whānau, volunteers, sporty spice, vibrant attire, “our grandies”, and a “favourite photo” of someone senior.
The photographs will be part of a gallery for the council “to showcase the beauty of ageing with dignity and visibility and [allow the subjects to] become empowering examples of growing older with mana”, the Hub’s website says.
The winning photos will feature in an outdoor exhibition in Tauranga and prizes will be awarded.
People can enter the competition on the Incubator website. Anyone can enter and it is not restricted to Tauranga. Submissions close on August 31.
Celebrating the ‘significant contributions’ of older people
Council community development and emergency management manager Paula Naude said International Day of Older Persons was a great opportunity to celebrate the “significant contributions” of older people.
“Our vision is for Tauranga to be a place where the older population are highly valued and recognised as an integral part of society.”
Naude said the council supported the Incubator’s photo competition in recognition and celebration of people aged 65-plus and it was about breaking down stereotypes surrounding older people.
Pictured is a poster to help market the competition. Submissions for the photo competition are now open and close on August 31.
She said the council was partnering with the community to plan the Young at Heart events, which will run from September 31 to October 6.
The council will host an event at the Holy Trinity Church on October 1 from 10am to 2pm featuring performances, guest speakers and activities.
Last year, the council supported Spring Fest, which celebrated parents, grandparents, friends, and neighbours “who do so much for us and our city”.
