Zakea Page performing at the Youth Olympic Games Opening Ceremony in Lausanne, Switzerland
Zakea performed his unique artform, which blends sport and art, in front of thousands at Vaudoise Aréna on 9 January, making him the first person to design a Youth Olympic medal and perform at an opening ceremony of a Youth Olympic Games.
A passionate hockey player, he executes fast-paced, energetic painting performances using a hockey stick and a ball soaked in Chinese ink.
"My ultimate life ambition has been to perform at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, so to be able to achieve that is incredibly humbling,” he says.
Zakea Page, left, with International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach
Page won an international competition to design the medal for the Youth Olympic Games in April 2019. His design, Beauty in Diversity, which was rendered by fellow Massey student Ryan Ardern, beat more than 300 entries from 60 countries. As a result, he travelled to Lausanne for the games where he received the gold, silver and bronze medals from the president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach.
Zakea Page will begin his third year of a Bachelor of Creative Media Production degree at Massey's College of Creative Arts in Wellington this year.
"There's not much between sport and art. For me, it's more of a blur than different disciplines. There's not much that can make half the world cry and half the world cheer at once – sport has immense power, and so does art."
Zakea credits studying at Massey with helping him achieve his ambitions. “The peers, mentors and friendships I've developed at Massey have really helped me elevate my craft and myself as a person."
Students
In 2018, Courtney Gilbert led a team of Creative Media Production students to create Kiwis Can Fly, a fun animated series for children. Now, Kiwis Can Fly is broadcasting to kiwi kids via NZ On Air's HEIHEI platform.
Students
Toioho ki Apiti Bachelor of Maori Visual Arts student Jessica Collins was awarded the Prime Minister’s Exemplar Award at the 2019 New Zealand Youth Awards in June.
Students
Our Bachelor of Design with Honours students Ashlee, Frankie, Georgia, Lillian and Troix spent Semester One of 2019 interning at agencies in Hong Kong.