Creativity Communication Community

Affiliation

This website is part of the Placing Unheard Voices project: www.placingunheardvoices.org

We create collaborative arts-based projects exploring themes of illness, identity and belonging.

We work in partnership with communities to co-create inclusive approaches to health and research.

We support people with Parkinson’s and other neurological conditions to communicate and connect with themselves, their loved ones, and their communities through art, poetry and community led projects.

Our resources are valuable for people living with chronic illnesses and disabilities of all kinds. We offer workshops and materials for individuals experiencing these conditions, as well as for their friends, families, colleagues, and healthcare providers.

If you are a researcher studying an illness you live with, or undertaking a co-design project, we can also offer mentoring.

Creative Dialogues is led by
Dr Tara Coleman.

Tara is a researcher-poet and the principal investigator of the Placing Unheard Voices project - a Marsden-funded study of early-onset Parkinson’s. She also lives with early-onset Parkinson’s.

Creative Dialogues grew from Tara’s research into how poetry and art can both support people with illness and assist researchers interested in deepening understandings of illness and wellbeing,

Start At Belonging
Art & Parkinson’s in Dialogue
Tara Coleman & Sam McLaughlan

AVAILABLE as a free download or read directly on his site

Pill-Rolling Fingers
Poems About Early-Onset Parkinson’s
Tara Coleman

AVAILABLE @ atuanuipress.co.nz

Buy now

Introducing Pill-Rolling Fingers: Poems About Early-Onset Parkinson’s - by Tara Coleman

Pill-Rolling Fingers is a series of poems by Marsden-funded researcher Tara Coleman. It brings together personal poems from her own experience of early-onset Parkinson’s and research poems crafted from the stories of 48 other New Zealanders living with the condition.

LISTEN

Listen to Tara chat with Mihingarangi Forbes on RNZ about Early-Onset Parkinson's and her new book Pill-Rolling Fingers

CREATIVE DIALOGUES

Creative Dialogues are artistic exchanges — a way of expressing the experience of illness through art-making, creative writing, poetry, performance, and shared reflection.

• In everyday life, to process and reflect
• In healthcare, to build understanding
• In research, to center lived experience

E-BOOKS & RESOURCES

Our e-books and tools are designed to support reflection, communication, and belonging through creative practice. We are committed to open-access publishing whenever possible to support equitable and inclusive research practices.

WORKSHOPS

Participants, partnerships, and Patti Smith: People (with Parkinson’s) have the power.
A workshop on spoken word and sharing the research process.

Start At Belonging
Art & Parkinson’s in Dialogue
Tara Coleman & Sam McLaughlan

Available as a free download PDF, and to read directly on this site.

ENGAGE

CONTRIBUTE

Want to be featured? Email us a short description of your creative work related to illness, art, or research.

CONTACT

We’d love to hear from you. Email: placingunheardvoices@outlook.com

Alternatively, complete the form below