2022 Archives - Mana Moana

Samoa Asks

Andrew — Thu, 27 Oct 2022 22:52:47 +0000

Samoa Asks

2021

A climate activist and poet of Aotearoa, Aigagalefili Fepulea’i Tapua’i, brings to life her words of youthful wisdom and endearment to her family, that are weaved with honour, love, and respect through ‘Samoa speaks’. Her spoken commitment a shelter of protection for her family both past and present and all they represent in land, ocean and spirit that connects Aotearoa with Samoa and Samoa with Aotearoa.

Credits

Poetry written & performed by
Aigagalefili Fepulea’i-Tapua’i

Director/Visual Artist by
Regan Balzer

Animation by
Manatoa Productions

“A Pei se vaitafe/Faliu le la”
Traditional Samoan song

Arranged by
Steven Rapana

Sung by
The New Zealand Secondary Students Youth Choir

Music and sound design
Horomona Horo and Jeremy Mayall

Full credits at the end of the video

Artist Bio

Aigagalefili Fepulea'i Tapua'i

Aigagalefili Fepulea’i Tapua’i is a Samoan-New Zealander award winning published poet/orator, Pacific youth advocate and indigenous environmental activist. Her work centres around topics such as climate change, educational inequality, Pacific identity and the South Auckland identity. An accomplished spoken word poet and winner of the New Zealand Storytellers competition for her piece Waiting for Water. Her work has appeared in the 2019 Poetry Yearbook New Zealand. During the COVID-19 pandemic she spoke out about racial inequality in education and how the pandemic had forced Pasifika students to leave school to support their families.

Born in South Auckland, she was Head Girl at Aorere College in 2020, co-founded and is Chairman of indigenous youth environmentalist group 4 Tha Kulture and is a member of Pacific Climate Warriors. She has been a guest speaker at the UN General Assembly and the Aotearoa Social Impact Summit New Zealand. In 2020 she was a guest speaker at the UN General Assembly.

In March 2020 she was selected to represent New Zealand at the Global Young Leaders Conference in New York City. In 2020 she won the New Zealand Women of Influence Young Leader Award, SUNPIX Pacific People Emerging Leadership Award, GirlBoss Leadership Award and the Pacific Corporation Forum Supreme Award for Youth Advocacy, and she was a 2021 finalist for the New Zealander of The Year Local Hero Award.

She is a student of Environmental Sciences and Law at AUT and is currently participating in the WorldStrides Gap Year Program studying sustainability and contemporary environmental issues in Europe.

Regan Balzer

Regan Balzer is a visual artist from the Māori tribal nations of Te Arawa & Ngāti Ranginui in Aotearoa (NZ). Specializing in Paint, her works are motivated by narratives of the land, people and culture. Since attaining a Masters in Māori Visual Arts from Massey University (2011), Regan has continued an expansive career in the arts, developing a colourfully expressive style of painting through a dedicated commitment to her art practice. Regan has exhibited extensively (in group and solo shows) throughout New Zealand as well as internationally (including Italy, America, Australia & Tahiti).

Horomona Horo

Composer, musical artist, practitioner and cross genre collaborator, Horomona Horo (Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Porou, Taranaki, English Devon, MacGregor Scotland) has fused the traditional instruments of the Māori, taonga puoro, within a diverse range of cultural, musical and educational forms. Mentored by tohunga (experts), Dr Hirini Melbourne and Richard Nunns, Horo is one of the international Māori faces of taonga puoro. He has developed his mastery and skill of not only the performance practice of taonga puoro, but, has continued the vision of the renaissance of the traditional Māori musical instruments by his mentors and has extended his knowledge and skills across diverse music and art genres.

Steven Rapana

A New Zealander of Maori and Samoan extraction, Steven is best known for his arrangements and compositions of Pacific choral music. Tracing his family lineage back to his ancestral lands of the Hokianga in the north of Aotearoa, as well as to the Samoan villages of Sāfune and Sāmauga in Savai’i, and Vailoa (Aleipata) in Upolu, he was greatly influenced by the customs and music of both cultures. In particular his childhood involvement in traditional Samoan church life, through the insistence of his maternal grandparents, meant that music, both religious and cultural, was always a feature of his upbringing.

A graduate of the University of Auckland in vocal performance and choral studies, Steven has arranged and composed music for many notable national choirs including the New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir and the New Zealand Youth Choir. He currently works as a singing teacher, choral director, language coach (phonology and languages for singers), a professional singer, arranger, and composer in and around New Zealand.

Dr. Jeremy Mayall

Dr. Jeremy Mayall is a composer/performer/artist/researcher from Hamilton, NZ.

His work is primarily in music, sound art, installation and multimedia formats, with a focus on exploring his fascination in the interrelationships between sound, time, space, the senses, and the human experience.  Collaboration is at the core of much of his multi-sensory work, and recent projects have included work with musicians, dancers, poets, aerial silks performers, theatre practitioners, scientists, perfumers, bakers, authors, sculptors, filmmakers, pyrotechnicians, lighting designers and visual artists.

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Remember Us

Andrew — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 02:20:25 +0000

Remember Us

2022

A new voice from environmentalist and youth activist Okalani Mariner brings us the powerful poem ‘Remember Us’. A call to action for our Pacific youth to carry the wisdom of our ancestors to fight against the impacts of climate change, for the survival of our ocean and our environment, for present and future generations.

Credits

Poetry written & performed by
Okalani Mariner

Music and Sound Design by
Laughton Kora

Full credits at the end of the video

Artist Bio

Okalani Mariner

Okalani Mariner was born and raised in Samoa and hails from the villages of Tulaele, Lalomanu, Sinamoga, Afega, Lano and Salelologa with ancestors from the islands of Niue and the kingdom of Tonga.

She is an artist, poet, environmental activist and social entrepreneur. As someone who identifies as Neurodiverse, she is passionate about creating more equitable and inclusive spaces for neurodiverse individuals in Pacific Communities.

She is the co-founder of Onelook Studio, a social enterprise that imagines a world In which young people have the means to make a living, wake up fulfilled by their work, and create meaningful social connections.

She is the youngest elected National Human Rights Advisor for Children and Young People in Samoa.

As a Pacific Climate Warrior and Human Rights Activist, she represented Samoa and the Pacific Islands at the Youth4Climate2022 Powering Action Summit in New York. Okalani uses spoken word and poetry to share pacific people’s frontline truths and stories to advocate for Climate Justice.

Laughton Kora

Laughton Kora (Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Pūkeko), with his incredible voice and immense talent has been at the forefront of New Zealand music for over the past decade. Laughton has been playing music since the age of 6 appearing on stage as part of his father’s band until 17 years old when he won Smoke Free Rock Quest. His band Aunty Beatrice toured New Zealand and released a single. He moved to Queenstown and formed Soul Charge with members KP (Sunshine Sound System) and P Digsss (Shapeshifter). In 2001 he headed to Wellington and formed KORA (2003-2012) with his brothers.

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a period on the world map fighting giants

Andrew — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 02:18:35 +0000

a period on the world map fighting giants

2022

Rebecca Tobo Olul-Hossen brings vivid stories from Vanuatu on the impacts of climate change to the environment and our Pacific Island people. ‘a period on the world map fighting giants’ embodies the essence of why the Pacific islands are global leaders on fighting the impacts of climate change. Rebecca reminds us that no matter our size, climate change is not a matter of choice but one of survival, where every life is one worth saving.

Credits

Poetry written & performed by
Rebecca Tobo Olul-Hossen

Sand Artist by
Edgar Hinge

Music and Sound Design by
Mona Sanei

Full credits at the end of the video

Artist Bio

Rebecca Tobo Olul-Hossen

A ni-Vanuatu poet, storyteller, and editor, Rebecca co-edited Vanuatu’s first women’s anthology, Sista, Stanap Strong! (THWUP, 2021) and first non-fiction children’s book, Taf Tumas. Her poems and short stories were published in anthologies in Vanuatu, Fiji, and Aotearoa, including Sport 47, Voes, Rising Tides, A Game Of Two Halves, and Va – Stories by Women of the Moana. She participated in the 60th Brisbane Writers Festival and 32nd Medellin Poetry Festival. A recent publication is a collab. poem in the NZ climate change anthology No Other Place To Stand (AUP, Jul 2022). Upcoming publications include stories in a Pacific children’s fantasy anthology and a Vanuatu children’s book. She is committed to growing literature in Oceania.

Edgar Hinge

Edgar Hinge, originated from the northern Pentecost Island, Abwatvenue Village, Vanuatu. Mata Sangvulu is his chiefly title, which means “ten eye”. He is a sandroing (sand drawings) artist. These geometric figures drawn on to the ground with the fingertips and are an important means of recording and communicating cultural practices. Each design is a type of maze, which is traced as a continuous line, often without lifting the finger from the ground. They are used to explain concepts, and teach children, and are often accompanied by stories or songs. Edgar teaches sandroing in primary classrooms at the Vanuatu Kastom School in Port Vila, and is a museum guide at the National Museum of Vanuatu.

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Beached

Andrew — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 02:16:43 +0000

Beached

2022

A leading voice on climate change and Pasifika poetry Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner combines these two worlds in her poem ‘Beached’ which takes us on the emotional roller coaster and isolation of international climate negotiations. Her powerful words take us inside the negotiations room and the contrasting worlds of tradition and modernity, and the politics of climate and international diplomacy.

Credits

Poetry written & performed by
Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner

Music and Sound Design by
Laughton Kora

Full credits at the end of the video

Artist Bio

Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner

Kathy is a Marshall Islander poet, performance artist, educator. She received international acclaim through her poetry performance at the opening of the United Nations Climate Summit in New York in 2014. Her writing and performances have been featured by CNN, Democracy Now, the Huffington Post, NBC News, National Geographic, and more. In February 2017, the University of Arizona Press published her first collection of poetry, Iep Jāltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter.

Kathy also co-founded the youth environmentalist non-profit Jo-Jikum dedicated to empowering Marshallese youth to seek solutions to climate change and other environmental impacts threatening their home island. Kathy has been selected as one of 13 Climate Warriors by Vogue in 2015 and the Impact Hero of the Year by Earth Company in 2016. She received her Master’s in Pacific Island Studies from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

Laughton Kora

Gallery

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Solo o le Vasa | Poem of the Sea

Andrew — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 02:15:01 +0000

Solo o le Vasa | Poem of the Sea

2022

What is shared are extracts from ‘Solo o le Vasa/ Poem of the Sea’ by writer and artist Frances C. Koya Vaka‘uta. There is beauty in her words and her voice that gives us a place to understand our relationship with our environment, nature and each other, both past and present. It articulates the importance of defining our own narrative and shifting the terms of meaning and understanding.

Credits

Poetry written & performed by
Frances C. Koya Vaka‘uta

Video Art & Animation by
Manatoa Productions – Kennedy Kioa Faimanifo, Lee Tawhai, Dmytro Vlasov, Waiari MacMillan

Music and Sound Design by
Mona Sanei

Full credits at the end of the video

Artist Bio

Frances C. Koya Vaka‘uta

Frances C. Koya Vaka‘uta is a Suva-based writer and artist of mixed heritage with links to Sāmoa, Fiji and Vanuatu. Her work explores what it means to be of and belong to the islands, and contemporary issues in the islands under the pseudonym 1angrynative. She has published in journals and anthologies and has two poetry collections titled: of schizophrenic voices (2002) and Fragments (2018) which are available through the University of the South Pacific Book Centre.

Manatoa Productions

Manatoa Productions was founded by Kennedy Kioa Faimanifo in 2020.

It is a Social Enterprise specializing in producing Māori & Pacific Digital Content by Māori Pacific Artists (Tangata Moana). With their team of artists they make up over 50 + years of commercial experience within the creative tech industry.

Manatoa’s kaupapa (initiative) is to support more tangata moana (Pasifika peoples) into the creative tech industry by mentoring and building employment pathways. They do this by getting work from potential clients and giving our upcoming artists opportunities to learn and earn towards their careers.

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In truth, I have gathered you all from the same garden.

Andrew — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 02:13:40 +0000

In truth, I have gathered you all from the same garden.

2022

‘In truth, I have gathered you all from the same garden’ is a poignant reminder that despite our differences, that we have a shared humanity and relationship with nature and our environment. This is the opening poem of Mana Moana Pasifika Voices brought to you as an overarching visual poem from the trail blazing academic, thought leader and creative, the late Teresia Kieuea Teaiwa who continues to gift us with her generosity of knowledge, perspective and spirit.

Credits

Poetry written by
Teresia Kieuea Teaiwa

Poetry performed by
Katerina Teaiwa

Artwork by
Kimi Moana Whiting

Animation by
Moretekorohunga Lloyd

Music and Sound Design
Laughton Kora

Taonga Pūoro
Horomona Horo

Full credits at the end of the video

Artist Bio

Teresia Kieuea Teaiwa

Poet and scholar Teresia Kieuea Teaiwa was born in Honolulu, Hawai‘i, to an I-Kiribati and Banaban father and African American mother, and was raised in Fiji. She was the author of the poetry collection, Searching for Nei Nim’anoa (1995) and co-author of Last Virgin in Paradise: A One-Act Play (1993, with Vilsoni Hereniko). Her creative work was also published in Terenesia: Amplified Poetry and Songs by Teresia Teaiwa and Sia Figiel (2000) and I can see Fiji: poetry and sound by Teresia Teaiwa (2008, featuring Des Mallon and produced by Hinemoana Baker).

Teaiwa is internationally known for her ground-breaking scholarship, teaching and mentoring in Pacific Studies. She earned a BA from Trinity College in Washington, DC, an MA in History from the University of Hawai‘i, and a PhD in History of Consciousness from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She taught history and politics at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji, before moving to New Zealand to found Pacific studies at Victoria University, Wellington.

Teresia died in March 2017. It was a loss that reverberated throughout the Pacific community in the region and around the world. Sweat and Salt Water: selected works by Teresia Kieuea Teaiwa (2021) is a collection of some of her most influential writing.

Kimi Moana Whiting

Kimi Moana Whiting is a multi-talented illustrator and designer of Te Whānau-ā-Apanui descent. She graduated from Massey University in 2018 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Design with Honours. Her distinctive lively style and approach embraces colour and movement. Her work is varied and includes her independent artistic practice and work for clients including Google, Wellington City Council, City Gallery Wellington, The Electoral Commission and many more.

Moretekorohunga Lloyd

More (Te Whakatōhea, Te Aupōuri) graduated from Massey University in 2019 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Creative Media Productions. He specialises in 2D Animation and Illustration. He’s already put these skills to great use for a number of artistic and client based projects as part of the core team at Storybox. More grew up in Napier, Hawkes Bay speaking te reo as his first language at Te Kura Kaupapa o Te Ara Hou and brings a wealth of knowledge from his Māori heritage to all his projects.

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The Way Ahead

Andrew — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 02:07:15 +0000

The Way Ahead

2022

Konai Helu Thaman is one of the giants of Pasifika poetry. ‘The Way Ahead’ imbues the interconnectedness of our past with our present and future. The poem is brought to life through the voice of Mia Kami a Tongan activist, musician, artist and storyteller.

Credits

Poetry written by
Konai Helu Thaman

Poetry performed by
Mia Kami

Art Work by
Tui Emma Gillies

Animation by
Mike Bridgman

Music and Sound Design by
Laughton Kora

Full credits at the end of the video

Artist Bio

Konai Helu Thaman

Konai Helu Thaman is from Nukuʻalofa, Tonga. She is the author of five published collections of poetry: You, the Choice of My Parents (1974); Langakali (1981); Hingano (1987); Kakala (1993); and Songs of Love: New and Selected Poems (1999). Her work is studied by school children throughout the Pacific and beyond; many of her poems have been translated into several languages. She earned a BA in Geography from the University of Auckland; an MA in International Education from the University of California, Santa Barbara; and a PhD in Education from the University of the South Pacific (USP) in Fiji, where she was one of the longest serving staff until her retirement in 2020. She has researched and published widely in the areas of curriculum, teacher education, indigenous education and more recently Pacific research frameworks and education for sustainable development. Thaman is a fellow of the Asia-Pacific Programme of Educational Innovation for Development and has served as the UNESCO chairperson in Teacher Education and Culture.

Tui Emma Gillies

Tui Emma Gillies is a Tongan New Zealand artist who preserves her family’s ancestral DNA through the sacred ritual of tapa making. Her work mixes contemporary with traditional and can be challenging, confronting and controversial, but always with respect to the roots of the medium and the ancestors who practised it before her. Tui’s work can be found in significant museum and gallery collections around the globe including, USA, Germany, Melbourne, Auckland, and also in many private collections. In 2018 she received the Creative New Zealand Pacific Heritage Art Award and also helped revive hiapo growing and the art of bark cloth making alongside her mother in Falevai, Vava’u where it had vanished decades earlier.

Mia Kami

Mia Kami is a Tongan singer/songwriter and is currently teaching at Tupou College Toloa in Tonga. Mia is passionate about indigenous sovereignty, climate change, ocean conservation and the Pacific region. She attended the University of the South Pacific where she majored in Law and Politics. Mia channels her passions into songwriting & uses her music to tell her stories as a young Pacific woman. She believes that art is the strongest form of storytelling that connects Pacific and indigenous people to their ancestors & their descendants. Just this week, Mia was awarded the United Nations Foundation SDG Vanguard Award that recognises leaders whose work and impact reflects the urgency of the Sustainable Development Goals agenda and the imperative to leave no one behind.

Mike Bridgman

Mike Bridgman (Tonga, Ngāti Pākeha) is a multi-interdisciplinary digital artist and has been working within the digital realm for over 20 years across many different industries including film, theatre, television, print, web, video games, music videos, public installations.

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100 Love Poems

Andrew — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 02:05:29 +0000

100 Love Poems

2022

John Puhiatau Pule is one of the foremost leading contemporary artists and poets of Niue and Aotearoa. ‘100 Love Poems’ reflects the relationship of his visual artwork and poetry of Pacific migration, our relationship with the environment and the symbols we hold within us to maintain our resilience, our memories of ‘home’ and our aspirations of hope and love.

Credits

Poetry written & performed by
John Puhiatau Pule

Music and Sound Design by
Tiki Taane

Full credits at the end of the video

Artist Bio

John Puhiatau Pule

John Puhiatau Pule is one of the foremost leading contemporary artists and poets of Niue and Aotearoa. Born in the village of Liku, Niue, John Pule moved to New Zealand with his family in 1964. He has lived most of his adult life in Aotearoa NZ, and recently returned to Niue where he is now based.

Pule has published two novels, four books of poems, and co-wrote a study of a traditional Niuean artform, Hiapo. He began painting in 1987, participating in the first important exhibitions to showcase Pacific Island art, and numerous solo shows. He has participated at numerous international art biennales, artist residencies and writing fellowships.

He received an Arts Foundation Laureate Award in 2004 and in 2012 he was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services as an author, poet and painter.

Tiki Taane

Artist, Producer, Experimentalist.

One of the country’s most well-known and diverse artists and producers, Tiki Taane is considered to be an influential element in the pioneering of New Zealand’s bass culture, as well as the country’s most prolific and talented “genre-bending experimentalist”.

Tiki has produced multi-platinum singles and albums, not only for himself but for top NZ artists such as Salmonella Dub, Shapeshifter and Six60.

His production also includes projects with LAB, Kora, Katchafire, Sticky Fingers, Michael Franti, Shihad, Blindspott, Rob Ruha, Maisey Rika, Ria Hall, just to name a few. You can find out more about Tiki’s past, present and future by visiting his website – https://tikidub.com/

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To Island

Andrew — Sun, 16 Oct 2022 21:58:00 +0000

To Island

2022

‘To Island’ turns on its head power and perspective, placing at the centre the islands as the global leaders of how to live in harmony with the environment and each other. At the heart of the poem, the importance of a reciprocal relationship of respect of our environment, nature and each other, as a way of life. The voice of academic and performer Katerina Teaiwa brings another rich texture and layer of meaning to the poem of resilience and enduring love.

Credits

Poetry written by
Teresia Kieuea Teaiwa

Poetry performed by
Katerina Teaiwa

Visual Art by
Cora-Allan Lafaiki Twiss

Animation by
Moretekorohunga Lloyd

Music and Sound Design by
Laughton Kora

Taonga Pūoro by
Horomona Horo

Full credits at the end of the video

Artist Bio

Teresia Kieuea Teaiwa

Cora-Allan Lafaiki Twiss

Cora-Allan Lafaiki Twiss is a multidisciplinary artist of Māori and Niue descent, originally from Waitakere. In recent years her practice has focused on her efforts to revive the art form of Hiapo, prior to this she completed her Masters in Visual Art and Design in Performance from AUT (2013), also receiving a AUT Postgraduate Deans award for her research.

She has exhibited her work throughout Aotearoa and internationally including Australia, Niue, England and Canada. Her work is a part of major collections including The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Auckland War Memorial Museum and the Wallace Arts Trust. Cora-Allan was recently awarded a McCahon House Residency (2021) the Creative New Zealand Pacific Heritage Artist award (2020) and received Annual Arts Grant funding to focus full time on her Hiapo practice in 2021. She works from her home studio in Swanson, West Auckland, is a founding member of BC COLLECTIVE and is a maker of Hiapo (Niuean Barkcloth).

Moretekorohunga Lloyd

Gallery

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