In 2023, Daegan Wells received a Creative Communities Grant to present Local Makers to the Aparima Riverton community that first inspired the project. The exhibition, held for one week in the historic Union Church Hall, traced the life and legacy of Aparima’s clothing factory workers.

First presented at the 2022 Aotearoa Art Fair, the Aparima showing offered a chance to bring these stories home, celebrating the people whose work shaped the town’s history and identity.