Fostering hope and solutions in young arty activists

Many gnarly issues face humanity now and in the future – climate change, global terrorism, religious extremism, refugee crises, Donald Trump, to name a few. Daunting, yes. But a Massey University competition is encouraging teens to get creative in thinking how to make the world a better place.

The competition, dubbed Create1world as part of the Creative Activism and Global Citizenship Competition, is open to all Year 11 to 13 pupils in New Zealand. They have just under a month ­– including two weeks of school holidays – to hone their entries.

Hosted jointly by Massey University and the New Zealand Centre for Global Studies, the aim of the competition is to challenge teen students to make a video, write a song, create a drama or speech, or write a poem or short story about creativity and global citizenship.

Competition organiser, Associate Professor Elspeth Tilley (pictured), of Massey’s School of English and Media Studies in Wellington, says, “Being a global citizen means recognising that issues like sustainability, peace, human rights, climate change, refugees, global inequality, international law or the responsibilities of multinational organisations transcend national borders and need 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 cooperative initiative needed for working together as a planet, she says.

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