Recovery Street presented: He aha te mea nui o te ao…? (What is the most important thing in the world…?), a performance and workshop exploring Māori-informed practices in addiction recovery–engaged arts, with Chris Ranui-Molloy and Leon Clowes.
Recovery Street is an arts-led recovery organisation from Aotearoa New Zealand that works at the intersection of creativity, cultural knowledge, and clinical practice to support people experiencing addiction and mental health challenges.
Marking their UK debut, this two-hour session brought together live performance by four Recovery Street performers, followed by a Q&A and an interactive workshop. The event drew on Māori-informed practices, psychodrama, and drama therapy to offer practical exercises and tools used by Recovery Street to support people facing addiction and mental health challenges.
The session was led by Recovery Street Aotearoa founder Chris Ranui-Molloy, and introduced by Leon Clowes, co-founder of Performing Recovery magazine, a publication that highlights and shares artistic practices developed to support addiction recovery internationally. Together, Chris and Leon presented an arts-led methodology shaped through lived experience, cultural knowledge, and clinical practice.
Chris Ranui-Molloy is a Māori Addictions and Mental Health Clinician, Creative Arts Therapist, and founder of Recovery Street Aotearoa. He works at the intersection of storytelling, art, and recovery, developing Māori-informed, peer-led methodologies that support people facing addiction and mental health challenges to reconnect with their identity, voice, and community. His practice helps those impacted by addiction and mental health challenges to stand in their truth, reshape their narratives, and reestablish connections with identity and Te Taiao (the natural environment). Through live performance, pūrākau processes, and creative facilitation, his work centres lived experience as a powerful pathway to healing and collective transformation.
Leon Clowes is a multidisciplinary artist in addiction recovery and a co-founder of Performing Recovery magazine, a publication that platforms the emerging international field of addiction recovery arts praxis.