OUR TAONGA BY THE SEA
A three-month celebration of place, voice, and tamariki potential in coastal North Otago.
Our Taonga by the Sea – Empowering Tamariki and Rangatahi in Hampden, North Otago
Between the sea and the hills, the rural township of Hampden in North Otago became the setting for a powerful creative project that helped local tamariki and rangatahi find their voice.
Led by Transformational – Media for Change, a creative charity based in Christchurch, Our Taonga by the Sea invited every student at Hampden School to take part in the full creation of an original song and music video. The kaupapa was clear: support tamariki to express who they are, where they’re from, and what they care about — using music, storytelling, and teamwork.
Phase One: Songwriting and Music Production
Through small-group workshops, students explored songwriting, beat-making, and recording techniques. With guidance from Transformational facilitators, they shared ideas about their connection to the ocean, the land, and each other.
Together they wrote heartfelt lyrics, recorded vocals, and learned studio basics like mic technique, layering, and digital editing. The room was filled with energy — a place where creativity, confidence, and pride came to life.
Phase Two: Filmmaking and Performance
With the waiata complete, students worked together to turn it into a music video. They helped with storyboarding, prop making, and location planning — and everyone had a role on screen.
Transformational brought in Queenstown-based video producer Dana Hemingway, and after weeks of stormy weather, the skies cleared. On filming day, the school came alive with song, movement, and joy — and the finished video beautifully captured the students’ voices and vision.
Phase Three: Community Celebration
The project culminated in a public premiere at the Hampden Memorial Hall, attended by more than 200 whānau, friends, and supporters — including Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher.
Tamariki introduced their video, performed the song live, and shared a behind-the-scenes outtakes reel that had the whole room laughing. The night ended with kai and connection — a moment of pride for the whole community.
Real Impact – For Schools, Communities and Funders
Our Taonga by the Sea is more than just a school project — it’s a proven model for building confidence, creativity, and cultural pride through the arts. It’s one of many Transformational workshops helping young people across Aotearoa express their identity and build strong connections to place, community, and each other.
We partner with schools, community organisations, iwi, and local councils to deliver tailored music and video workshops that respond to local voices and create lasting impact.
Open letter from Matt Hannagan - Hampden School Principal
In 2024 Hampden School were exceptionally lucky to be part of a ‘Creatives In Schools’ project funded by the Ministry of Education with ‘creative’ Rob Greaney and his organisation at ‘Transformational Team’ (formerly called…).
This was a community focused project with Rob living within our school community. This was essential as Rob knew our community, what it had to offer and most importantly he was accessible to support and guide our project without the obstacles our small, rural and semi-isolated school can often face.
The intention of the project was to showcase our area in an audio visual production that focused on the amazing resources in our area - the unique and special people, places and landmarks. The outcome of this project was we collaboratively created a song with an accompanying music video which was widely shared on Social Media and other platforms,
Rob was a dream to work with. He has provided our tamariki with multiple experiences they otherwise would not be exposed to due to socio-economic status, teaching staff capabilities and our general location and funding. Some examples of these skills are learning about components of music such as tempo, beat & other components of a song, brainstorming, writing, learning & recording our own unique song and creating a video to accompany the music where we learnt about different filming techniques and how to present effectively in a video. These skills started as things our students were completely unfamiliar with and they left with a range of new skills and overwhelmingly positive and meaningful learning experiences.
Rob conducted his sessions with understanding, kindness, patience and productivity. He took the time to relate to and interact with our kids and learn our strengths and things we needed support in. His intention was clear - he wanted to support our students to create something unique and special that our students could feel proud of and an immense sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. I am pleased to say that was most certainly the result.
Rob and his team were always organised and efficient. They were inclusive, adapted to the differing needs and skills of our students and genuinely went above and beyond to make sure the children's project was a success.
Our project was a massive success. It has increased our children’s knowledge of some many components of audio & visual technology. As mentioned earlier, this opportunity has exposed our students to experiences they will otherwise have maybe never had at Primary School.
On a personal level I’ve witnessed an increased confidence and knowledge in the students singing, performing and understanding of the components of music. The mana (or pride) the tamariki feel about their area, their school and each other has exponentially increased following this project. It will be a special memory for all involved.
The project has been shared on Social Media, Youtube, we have presented our song at community events and music festivals and we had a local launch evening where we first shared and sung the song which was a huge success. I enjoy hearing from others far and wide who commented on the success of the project and I am personally proud that we have created something which is child-centered, professional, engaging, fun, unique and really is a ‘Taonga’ (something very special) for our area.
I wholeheartedly recommend and endorse anyone who has the opportunity to work with ‘Transformational Media to take this opportunity especially if you are a school! I am more than happy to be contacted to share more about our experience which was one that will always be a highlight of my career and an experience that the Hampden School community will celebrate and remember for years to come.
Kā mihi nui, Matt Hannagan - Hampden School Principal