Sharu Delilkan

Sharu Delilkan’s combined experience of over 30 year spans media, communications and performing arts.

Her track record as founder, leader and Creative Producer of Sharu Loves Hats, for over 12 years, demonstrates her ability to be agile while coordinating numerous varied projects and events with the utmost professionalism and flexibility. On the back of a brief hiatus from the arts industry, she has joined TAPAC (The Auckland Performing Arts Centre) as Funding Manager and has also been appointed to the New Zealand Dance Festival Trust/Tempo Dance Festiva Board.

Having grown up in a multicultural country, Malaysia, Sharu has first-hand knowledge and is inherently sensitive to cultural differences and race. Identity-centric projects prioritising cultural and gender justice have been a fundamental part of her work in the performing arts, empowering and creating equal opportunities to advocate for systemic change within marginalised communities.

Her production skills include managing 40 female actors to stage Henry V at the inaugural Pop-up Globe and managing a team of 37-creatives, representing over 90 ethnicities, to deliver Creative New Zealand’s Auckland Diversity funded production of Dominion Rd The Musical. Sharu has a BSc in Journalism (St Cloud State University, USA) and an MA in Arts Management (Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design, NZ).

Following the loss of a dear friend and arts collaborator to suicide, Sharu collaborated with the Mental Health Foundation and Changing Minds to deliver a series of fundraising events in Wellington and Auckland raising over $10,000.

Sharu Loves Hats’ projects are tīkanga Māori framework-led in keeping with her ongoing Te Reo Māori and Te Ao Māori study over the past seven years.