Semi-transparent flyer featuring bold black text and logo with event details for a fundraiser or event in December 2023, organized by TIKA in New Zealand, established 2025, with a website link TIKA.ORG.NZ.

Arrival. Witness. Release.

Format: Live gala fundraiser, cultural production and national broadcast.

  • Live experience: Approximately six hours

  • Broadcast programme: Approximately two hours

  • Production period: Two days of build and rehearsal preceding the event

The Tika Gala is conceived as a premium, values-led national event using performance,broadcast and philanthropy to fund survivor-informed reform, demonstrate best-practice safeguarding and create a visible commitment to change across Aotearoa’s music sector.

This is not a conventional charity concert.

It is a structural intervention expressed through culture: one audience, one journey and three connected chapters.

Arrival. Witness. Release.

The creative treatment should remain elegant, emotionally intelligent and quietly powerful. Music, visual art, architecture, technology and storytelling must work together with discipline. The production should avoid spectacle for spectacle’s sake, favouring cultural credibility, dignity and purposeful moments of transformation.

creative overview.

The event moves through three interconnected environments:

  • Chapter

  • Environment

  • Creative purpose

Arrival

Reception and red carpet

Public visibility, portraiture and cultural presence

Witness

Gala Dinner

Intimacy, reflection, ritual and commitment

Release

Revealed concert stage

Orchestral scale, collective performance and national broadcast impact

The dramatic spine is not built around one featured song or one headline artist.

Instead, the evening develops through:

  • the living portrait installation of Chris Cuffaro;

  • the architectural transformation of the Gala Dinner room;

  • digital work by Kereama Taepa;

  • two performance sections featuring Theia with Kapa Haka;

  • creative direction and transitional interventions led by Tiki Taane;

  • the reveal of the concert stage;

  • Auckland Philharmonia and choir;

  • featured appearances by Hollie Smith, Jon Toogood, Boh Runga and MC Tali;

  • collaborative performances commissioned specifically for the Gala;

  • clear, survivor-informed impact and pledge segments.

Central Creative Idea

From Portrait to Whare to National Stage

The audience begins by seeing the people of Aotearoa’s cultural community represented at monumental scale.

They then move into an intimate, contemporary interpretation of a whare—a held space for gathering, witnessing and commitment.

Finally, the architecture opens and the audience discovers a fully formed stage occupied by the Auckland Philharmonia and choir.

The creative progression is therefore:

We see ourselves.


We gather beneath one roof.


We raise a collective voice.

CHAPTER ONE — ARRIVAL

“Good evening, and welcome to The Tika Gala. Around us are the faces of artists, leaders and guests choosing to stand visibly for a safer future. Tonight, we become part of a shared portrait—not as spectators, but as participants in a collective act of responsibility, hope and change.”

CHAPTER ONE — ARRIVAL

Title

The Living Portrait

Environment

The reception area becomes a large-scale photographic and projection installation led by international music photographer Chris Cuffaro.

The visual environment features portraits of New Zealand musicians, performers, artists, broadcasters and cultural figures photographed by Chris in the period before the Gala.

These portraits are projected at architectural scale throughout the reception area, creating a living gallery of Aotearoa’s creative community.

The installation then evolves in real time as arriving attendees are photographed and progressively incorporated into the visual environment.

Chris Cuffaro Red-Carpet Portrait Experience

Every attendee is offered a highly controlled editorial portrait rather than a conventional event photograph.

The experience is designed to be fast, premium and visually consistent.

Portrait workflow

  • The guest arrives through the red-carpet pathway.

  • Chris photographs the guest within a purpose-built portrait environment.

  • A digital technician selects the strongest approved frame.

  • The image is processed using the agreed 110B emulator treatment.

  • The guest receives a digital version suitable for social media.

  • A high-resolution version is retained for print.

  • Approved images may enter the venue projection sequence.

  • Selected images may appear on digital out-of-home screens around Auckland.

  • Approved images may also be incorporated into broadcast montages and event documentation.

The image treatment should create a recognisable signature across all portraits, giving the Gala a coherent visual identity rather than producing a collection of unrelated red-carpet photographs.

CHAPTER TWO — WITNESS

Title

The Whare

Creative Purpose

The Gala Dinner is the moral and architectural centre of the evening.

The room is inspired by the idea of a whare: a gathering place, a protective structure and a space in which people come together under one roof.

This should not be treated as a literal scenic reproduction.

Instead, the design draws from the principles of:

  • shelter;

  • gathering;

  • collective presence;

  • ancestry;

  • intimacy;

  • relationship between floor, wall and roof;

  • the sense of being held within a shared structure.

The interpretation and use of cultural concepts, Atua and visual language must be developed with Kereama Taepa and appropriate tikanga and cultural guidance.

Artist Kereama Taepa
Mai Te Uira

Through the presence of Te Uira, Tānemahuta and Hine-te-Iwaiwa, Mai Te Uira offers a powerful contemporary meditation on culture, innovation and identity.

Illustration of a historical ship with sails, rigging, and flags, set against a white background.

CHAPTER THREE — RELEASE

Title

The Collective Voice

The final chapter expands from the intimacy of the whare into a national concert and broadcast environment.

The Auckland Philharmonia performs specially commissioned orchestral arrangements of New Zealand music. The reference concept positions this as a one-night-only programme combining symphonic performance with contemporary artists and cinematic scale.

Featured Artists

  • Auckland Philharmonia;

  • choir;

  • Tiki Taane

  • Hollie Smith;

  • Boh Runga;

  • Jon Toogood;

  • MC Tali;

  • Theia;

  • Kapa Haka ensemble;

  • additional collaborative artists to be confirmed.

The site reference also proposes an Auckland Philharmonia collaboration with Tiki Taane and MC Tali, combining orchestral performance with dub, drum and bass and soulful vocal elements.

A group of musicians performing on stage with colorful light effects and motion blur.
A digital graphic with the text "Auckland Philharmonia" over an abstract purple and pink gradient background.

Auckland Philharmonia X Tiki Taane & MC Tali

Featuring Tiki Taane and MC Tali in an electrifying live performance that fuses dub, drum & bass and soulful vocals.
Renowned for their dynamic stage presence and genre-defying sound, the duo will deliver an unforgettable performance that brings energy, intensity and unmistakable Aotearoa flavour to The Tika Gala. 

360°

Black and white image of the Insta360 Titan 360-degree camera with text 'Insta360 TITAN Built for cinematic VR' and the word 'LOVE' in a stylized font.
Blue banner with black TIKA logo, text 'FOR JUSTICE', website TIKA.ORG.NZ, and 'EST. 2025'

Chapter 1

— Arrival / Witnessing / Social glamour

Ariki 3 becomes the red carpet and reception world

Chapter 2

— Reflection / Ritual / Commitment

Ariki 2 becomes the draped gala dinner room with the digital mask, pou reveal and

Artist • Kereama Taepa work

Chapter 3

— Collective release / National broadcast scale

Ariki 1 becomes the major concert broadcast room opening with the

Auckland Philharmonia

reveal and the contemporary artist collaboration

This structure fits the broader Tika Gala intent:

  • a six-hour live experience

  • with a tighter two-hour broadcast cut

  • major reveal moments

  • safeguarding language

  • and a premium multi-camera environment

The image features a black silhouette of a person sitting on a ledge, overlooking a city skyline at sunset.

The Tika Gala is a premium, values-led national event that uses live performance and broadcast to fund survivor-informed reform, showcase best-practice safeguarding, and create a visible commitment to change across the music sector.

It gives all involved the opportunity to be part of a constructive, accountable national moment with real social and institutional outcomes.

Tika Gala - Stars for Justice

The Tika Gala is designed as a nationally significant cultural event that combines performance, storytelling, and philanthropy to support systemic reform and survivor services in Aotearoa.

Blue background with black text reading 'TIKA' and 'FOR JUSTICE.' with a logo of a question mark and square symbol above the text

the Team

  • Black and white close-up photo of a man wearing sunglasses, with short hair and a beard, against a plain background.

    Joff Rae

    Creative / Executive Producer

  • Black and white photo of a woman with shoulder-length blonde hair wearing a dark top, looking directly at the camera.

    Alison Mau

    Host / Tika Founder

  • A young woman with long hair smiling at the camera, black and white photo.

    Zoë Lawton

    Host / Tika Founder

  • Black and white portrait of a woman wearing a feathered costume with a headpiece, looking over her shoulder.

    Stacey Morrison

    MC

  • A young man with tattoos on his arms and neck, wearing a cap and a sports shirt, is holding his hands together in a prayer-like gesture near his face and looking at the camera.

    Tiki Taane

    Creative

  • Black and white portrait of a woman with shoulder-length blonde hair, wearing a suit jacket over a shirt, and a chain necklace, against a black background.

    Ange Watson

    CEO Colenso BBDO

  • A smiling woman with shoulder-length dark hair, wearing hoop earrings and two necklaces, dressed in a dark top.

    Katharine Broughton

    Strategy

  • Black and white photo of a smiling woman with her hair in a bun, wearing a dark, sheer top with lace and polka dot details.

    Deb Wooton

    Event Manager

  • A man wearing a black cap with the number 3 on it, and a dark button-up shirt, smiling at the camera in black and white.

    Jason Steel

    Production Design

  • Side profile of a woman wearing a large floppy hat and a patterned dress, with long curly hair and layered necklaces.

    NinaKaye Taane Tinorau

    Tikanga

  • Black and white portrait of a smiling man with short, styled hair wearing a dark collared shirt.

    John JR Robertson

    Event Producer

  • Black and white portrait of a young man with short, wavy hair, wearing a button-up shirt, smiling softly.

    Mark Rule

    Broadcast

  • A smiling man with a beard wearing a vest and a lanyard around his neck.

    Aaron Hobman

    Production

Retro logo featuring a stylized orange with a vinyl record as the top, and the text 'SWEET ORANGE' in bold red letters.

www.sweetorange.app

GET TICKETS ~ CLICK HERE ~

GET TICKETS ~ CLICK HERE ~