Episode 6: From My Heart To Yours; Creating calm amongst the noise

homegroundponeke
May 21
3 min read

Updated: Jun 3

Episode 6 of the Home Ground Audio Journey, Take The Space

Home Ground, a creative collective dedicated to empowering women in the justice system through creativity, is excited to share the new episode of "Take the Space".

From My Heart To Yours; creating calm amongst the noise will be available on Wellington Access Radio 6pm on Tuesday 22nd of April 2025.

The Home Ground Collective, a community of artists (inside and outside of prison), uses dance, performance, writing, music, and visual arts to address the issues women and whānau face within the justice system. This project gives voice to women reclaiming their identities and navigating systemic challenges in creative ways.

Take the Space invites you into a world where the voices of women impacted by the justice system are heard, valued, and amplified. In this audio journey, the Home Ground Collective shares their stories of survival, strength, and creativity, taking control of their own narratives and shaping the future of the justice system.

From My Heart To Yours; creating calm amongst the noise

In this episode, Roseanne shares how she has shaped her writing and found her creative voice. She discusses the Creative Writing fellowship that helped bring her family together, to turn their experience of the justice system into a transformative creative project.

From My Heart To Yours, captures an initial moment in desperate times, where finding space and creativity quieted the noise, to allow for the words. Roseanne's poems tell the story!

It’s you

Hā ki roto, hā ki waho

One journey

Many paths

Embrace the process

Gather the wisdom

Remember the past

Overcome the future

Unleash the creative spirit

Nurture your soul

Do no harm

Soar

Should my scars be deep

Defined as if identity

Parted cloth, seeping

The wounds of past life lived

Learned and forgotten

But still recorded

In books of law

Perfunctory pages

Open sores evading clean slate

Muzzled bubbling

Malemo (drowning)

Gasping

Intentionally breathing

Shedding mottled shawls

He korowai emerges

Te rā glistens

Reflects, protects

Embracing parts unmolded

Shaping melted molten shards

Hardened

Bevelled smooth, rounded

Nothing's new

Reformed, reforged, reclaimed, re-you

Moving crisply she flows

Unashamed, naked

Clothes laid bare

For all to view

My making and staking

Mistaken now shaken

Owned and condoned

Spacing breath anew

My korowai to steer

For you to make and wear

Poems by Roseanne Leota

Call to Action

❤️ Write your heart out ❤️

Why "Take the Space" Matters

“We are telling our stories on our own terms, in our own voices,” says a Home Ground participant. “It’s time for us to take the space that has always been ours, and to invite others to join us in creating a more just and compassionate world.”