Tēnā koutou!

He uri ahau nō Ngāpuhi, Waitaha, Ngai Te Rangi. E tū ana au i te maunga tapu ō Puhanga Tohora. Ka mātai whakararo ki ngā wai tuhonohono ō Tāheke. Ko Mahuri te whare tīpuna. Ko Cat Ruka tōku ingoa.

My name is Cat (she/her), I’m from the far north of Aotearoa, New Zealand and I live in the beautiful city of Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. I have been working in leadership roles in the arts for 15 years aross education, mentorship, festival artistic direction and venue management. My own artistry is grounded in choreography and performance art.

Over the years I have mentored and encountered so many incredible young artists, and I want the world to know about them. This website is a platform to celebrate and globally promote some of those artists, and I’d love to help you get to know them by being a safe bridge-builder into their practices. These visionaries echo the multidimensional richness of where we come from, are bold in their risk-taking and fearless in the possibilities that they imagine. Aotearoa is wildly abundant with artistic mavericks - there are many more than what you’ll see here.

In this space I also share passages of writing that unfold as a result of my leadership and activism work in the arts. The practice of written reflection has always helped me to organise and make sense of my experiences as I navigate through this industry. I hope that this writing might help to strengthen arts leadership practice in Aotearoa, even if just through the solace of hearing about someone else’s journey.

All images of Cat are taken by the incredible Aotearoa-based photographer Ralph Brown