Jess Holly Bates is a queer Pākehā artist, writer and theatre practitioner who communicates cultural criticism through performance. She believes the only way to acknowledge our difficult history is to lean into the real discomfort of being Pakeha. Her performance work Real Fake White Dirt, an investigation into our continuing colonial hangover was published as a book of poetry by Anahera Press and in 2016 her collaborative body project The Offensive Nipple Show became both a platform for public engagement and a theatre show, sparking conversation about authentic female multiplicity and the ways our bodies have been disconnected from themselves. She is the founder of the Body Sovereignty Art Collective and a member of The SaVAge K’lub. In 2017, her new works One Sacred Settler and White VA’se were shown as part of the Making Spaces exhibition at CoCA
