About
Mōhiohio

Touch Compass is Aotearoa New Zealand’s leading professional arts organisation whose work is disability-led. We deliver high-quality performances and arts activations.
To support a stronger resilient arts sector and disability-conscious society we offer youth (tamariki/rangatahi) and adults (pakeke) community classes, school programmes and workshops, and pathways to professional development for disabled artists and practitioners and non-disabled people wishing to engage in the performing arts through creative expression.
Founded in 1997 by Catherine Chappell MNZM we continue the mission to serve and support access to the arts for disabled people.
Our PeopleRerehua Aesthetics - We honour disability and its aesthetics as a powerful source of creativity and a specific way of navigating the world.
Disability Equity Statement
Tauākī Ōrite Hauā
DISABILITY EQUITY STATEMENT
Our disability equity statement is built upon our three strands of strength:
- Our commitment to the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi
- Our honouring of the Five Pillars of Disability Consciousness / Disability Leadership
- Our role as an Aotearoa arts organisation
Ōritetanga | Equality - Our artists and creatives are at the centre of our decision making and this approach is integral to our Five Pillars of Disability Consciousness.
Taurite | Equity - We champion the affirmative model of disability recognising that disability is a positive and contextual experience. Identifying as a disabled person is a political choice. We support the social model of disability by proudly using the words disabled and non-disabled.
Rerehua | Aesthetics - We honour disability and its aesthetics as a powerful source of creativity and a specific way of navigating the world.
Tautoko | Support - We are committed to supporting the work of Hau Tipua Toi, our extraordinary disabled artists and creatives, providing a platform for and sharing their strong creative voice.
Huringa | Shift - We shift the narrative, altering perspectives of disability, disabled artists and their creativity and capability through artistic expression.
Tūākiri | Identity - We champion diversity and inclusivity, supporting everyone’s right to uniquely identify themselves. We promote the agency of language in self-identification. We support gender pronouns and gender diversity.
Pono | Integrity - We honour the authenticity of lived experience through unique perspectives of disabled artists, creatives and their communities. We acknowledge all disabilities, visible and non-visible.
Haepapa | Accountability - We support the efforts of disability justice, acknowledging disability and ableism across other forms of repression/oppression (race, class, gender and sexuality).
Rerenga | Time - We honour ‘crip time’ and ‘crip s p a c e’.

InMotion Matariki (2018)
We are guided by our Five Pillars of Disability Consciousness
Nothing about us without us, led by us!
Five Pillars of Disability Consciousness
Ngā Pou Rima o te Mōhio Whaikaha
1. Mana Whaikaha Hautūtanga Disability Leadership:
Nothing about us without us, made by us
2. Tino Mana Whaikaha The Affirmative Model of Disability:
We recognise valuable and positive lived experience, challenging the medical model and building on the social model by dismantling barriers for artists with disabilities
3. Rerehua Whaikaha Disability Aesthetics:
We reflect in our work the extraordinary qualities of people with disabilities, the multiplicity of creative expression through authentic experience
4. Mātau ā-wheako Lived Experience:
We promote lived experience and disability-led work as an evolution that rebalances the historical systemic benevolence associated with disability art-making
5. Mana Taurite Equity:
We support active equity across all levels of our organisation and we expect it across all levels of society

Our strategy
Kaupapa
Our Strategic Plan sets our strategy through to 2025, and is supported by our Three Strands of Strength:
- Commitment to the principles of Te Tiriti O Waitangi (Partnership and Consultation, Participation, Protection)
- Our Five Pillars of Disability Consciousness
- Our role as a leading Aotearoa arts organisation (Creator, Curator, Collaborator, Connecter, Conduit)
Our strategy was built on a foundation of consultation with multiple stakeholders inside and outside of Touch Compass's organisation.
Download Our Strategic PlanOur People
Tō tātou iwi

Alisha McLennan Marler
Kairuruku Tautoko Urunga - Access Inclusion and Outreach Coordinator

Allie Fitzgerald
Te Poari Kaitiaki - Board of Trustees

Andrew McMillan
Te Poari Kaitiaki - Board of Trustees

Anna Tapine
Te Poari Kaitiaki, Kaikaute - Board of Trustees, Accountant

Caroline Tate
Te Poari Kaitiaki - Board of Trustees

Duncan Armstrong
Kaikanikani - Associate Dancer

Emilia Rubio
Kaikanikani - Associate Dancer

Guy Ryan
Tiamana, Te Poari Kaitiaki - Chair, Board of Trustees

Helene Burgstaller
Kaikanikani, Kaiako Tautoko - Dancer, Support Tutor

Izzy Robinson
Kaihautū Auaha - Creative Producer

Jon Tamihere-Kemeys
Kaiwhakahaere Matua - General Manager

Julie van Renen
Kaiako Toi Toi, Kaikanikani - Tutor, Dancer

Linda Parker-Wendt
Te Poari Kaitiaki - Board of Trustees

Lusi Faiva
Te Rōpū Kaiarahi Toi, Kaikanikani - Artistic Direction Panel, Dancer

Rodney Bell
Te Rōpū Kaiarahi Toi, Kaikanikani - Artistic Direction Panel, Dancer

Sierra Diprose
Kaikanikani - Associate Dancer

Sue Cheesman
Kaiako Toi Toi - Tutor

Suzanne Cowan
Te Rōpū Kaiarahi Toi, Kaikanikani - Artistic Direction Panel, Dancer

Vivian Medina
Kairuruku Matauranga - Education Programme Development Lead

Xan Hamilton
Kaihautū Tauhokohoko - Communications & Marketing Lead
2023 Copyright Touch Compass Dance Trust