The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre
An innovative multi-arts hub in the heart of Blacktown City.
Join us for the Australian premiere of new video works by Edith Amituanai and Sione Tuívailala Monū, with the artists in conversation.
In 2023, Tāmaki Makaurau-based artists Sione Tuívailala Monū (Aotearoa, Australia, Tonga) and Edith Amituanai (Aotearoa, Samoa) travelled to Samoa to celebrate a friend’s participation in the Miss Samoa Fa’afafine Pageant and visit Edith’s family. Sione was interested in exploring historical and familial connections between Tonga and Samoa, and both were thinking about what it means to return to an ancestral homeland, for themselves and others.
For the Pacific diaspora, how is identity and culture maintained through migration to other countries, such as Aotearoa, Australia, or the United States? The title Toloa Tales is a play on the proverb ‘e lele le toloa ae ma’au lava ile vai’, meaning the Pacific duck or Toloa flies far, but will always return to water; that no matter how far one journeys, there is always a desire to come home. In these new video works Edith and Sione share personal stories and exchanges, exploring their relationship to the ‘motherland’ as they capture tender moments of everyday life.
The screening will be followed by an in conversation with the artists and curator Talia Smith, coordinator programming at Blacktown Arts.
Presented in partnership with Art Gallery of New South Wales. These works were originally commissioned by Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, with generous support from Creative New Zealand.
Bios
Edith Amituanai is a New Zealand-born Sāmoan photographer working from Tāmaki Makaurau(Auckland). From interiors, to driveways, to communities, Amituanai’s practice is concerned with the environments that shape who we are. Domestic interiors as transitional sites of migration feature heavily in the artist’s early work. Her ongoing study of the Sāmoan transnational community and their homes has taken her to Sāmoa, New Zealand, France, Canada, and the United States, each location and subsequent generation revealing new and dynamic ways that culture does and does not travel with people as they move around the globe. In 2005 she was the youngest artist to feature in the survey publication, Contemporary New Zealand Photographers. Two years later, she was inaugural recipient of the Marti Friedlander Photography Award, and the following year she was the first Walters Prize nominee of Pacific descent. In 2019 she became a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to photography and community.
Sione Tuívailala Monū, born in 1993 in Auckland, New Zealand, is an interdisciplinary artist of Tongan descent. They divide their time between Canberra, Australia, and Auckland, NewZealand, working across various mediums including photography, moving-image, fashion and adornment, performance, and drawing. Their work delves into themes of identity, family, and the Pasifika queer experience in the diaspora. A significant aspect of Monū’s practice involves the Tongan fine art of flower design, known asnimamea’a tuikakala. Traditionally, this art form utilises fresh tropical flowers, but due to theirscarcity in Aotearoa (New Zealand), Monū adapts by using vibrant plastic flowers sourced from local shops. This approach not only honours cultural traditions but also reflects the adaptability inherent in diasporic life. Monū’s work has been showcased in numerous exhibitions across New Zealand and Australia. Notable solo exhibitions include Stories, City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi, 2023;QueerEncounters, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Warrane Sydney, 2023;Kindred: A Leitī Chronicle(w/ Manu Vaeatangitau), Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, 2022;’Ao Kakala Ōtautahi, SCAPE Public Art Season 2021, Ōtautahi Christchurch, 2021, and Leitī, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, 2021. In recognition of their contributions to the arts, Monū received the 2024 Emerging Pacific Artist Award from Creative New Zealand.
