Nau mai, haere mai,
welcome to the Blue Stories Project. Our kaupapa is to create a culture of supporting women and their families throughout Aotearoa New Zealand.
Ki te kotahi te kākaho, ka whati; ki te kāpuia, e kore e whati.
When we stand alone we are vulnerable, but together we are unbreakable.
by Kīngi Tāwhiao
WHAT’S ON
Currently, the Blue Stories Project is creating a series of exhibitions that share inspiring and encouraging stories as told by people who have found their way out of perinatal depression, The Blue Stories Project: Sharing Journeys out of Perinatal Depression. These are set to take place in Pukekohe, Blenheim, Christchurch, Queenstown, Tauranga and Wellington in 2022 and 2023. Alongside these are a series of audio interviews that are posted here, on this site. Our nationwide poster campaign, featuring the original artworks of illustrator and designer Karolina Gorton, was launched in September 2022, in time for Mental Health Awareness Week. The project aims to educate communities, increase visibility of support structures, and normalise the topic of perinatal depression. We are eternally grateful to our supporters and to our courageous storytellers.
Blue Stories Project has received funding and support from Nelson City Creative Communities Scheme, Tasman District Creative Communities Scheme, National Lottery Community Grants, Perinatal Support Nelson, Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Aotearoa (PADA), VenuTech and Bay Landscape & Garden Centre.
Ngā mihi nui to these organisations and to all of our supporters, collaborators and story-sharers.
The Blue Stories Project in collaboration with Perinatal Support Nelson - an opening in Elma Turner Library, May 2021, Nelson
BLUE STORIES PROJECT REGIONAL EXHIBITIONS
Pukekohe Library, Franklin - in collaboration with Well Women Franklin
from 2nd of September until 30th of September 2022
South Library, Otautahi Christchurch - in collaboration with Perinatal Wellbeing Canterbury
from 24th of September until 21st of October 2022
Digital exhibition at Tūranga Library, Otautahi Christchurch - in collaboration with Perinatal Wellbeing Canterbury
from 10th of October until 6th of November 2022
Frankton Library, Queenstown - in collaboration with Central Lakes Family Service
from 19th of November until 16th of December 2022
Marlborough District Library, Blenheim - in collaboration with Maternal Mental Wellbeing Marlborough
from 25th of February until 11th of March 2023
Rangiora Community Health Service, Tauranga - in collaboration with True Colours - Honouring the Mother
from 18th of March until 15th of April 2023
Johnsonville Library at Waitohi Hub, Wellington - in collaboration with Greenstone Doors and The Ruth Project.
from 11th of March until 10th of April 2023
BLUE STORIES PROJECT NATIONWIDE POSTER CAMPAIGN
26 SEPTEMBER - 8 OCTOBER 2022
In 2022, during Aotearoa New Zealand’s Mental Health Awareness Week, the Blue Stories Project was launching a nationwide poster campaign to promote awareness of perinatal depression and bright up the streets of Aotearoa with a vibrant pop-art-with-a-purpose. That purpose was to shine a light on perinatal depression, an illness that all too often goes undiagnosed and often carries with it a stigma that is unhelpful and unjustified. Joanne Teina, the Kaumātua and Kaiārahi Māori at Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Aotearoa (PADA) shares, “I’m not just my diagnosis, there’s more to me than that, I have wairua, that’s what I’ve inherited from my ancestors, how does that shape and influence me?” Towards sparking these conversations and more, a series of four large posters were beaming out from bollards in our main centres.
Stories from Nationwide Poster Campaign, from left: Paul’s story, Maraea’s story, Jeremy’s story and Xingfang (Rachel) Cai’s story.