Kaiviti 1, Kaiviti Series (2023) Print

In this digital collage, the central image is a re-assembled pot from the ‘Lapita’ period, Oceania’s first inhabitants. In the re-assembling of ceramic shards, found across the region, patterns and motifs are revealed, like the DNA of the visual vocabulary we use today in Moana Oceania / Pacific creative and cultural production. Three repeated Fijian male forms are the iconic image entitled, “Mountain Chief” originally drawn by R. Atkinson in 1888. Kaiviti is someone from Fiji, Viti being Fiji in Fijian.

This print series was produced for, and inspired by, the Melanesian Festival Aotearoa and the profound visibility it has created for Auckland’s Melanesian community.

Kaiviti and Vanua are terms in Fijian language related to the ways we connect, identify and ground ourselves as Fijians. Kaiviti refers to someone from Fiji, and Vanua is defined as “interconnectedness inclusive of culture, chiefs, knowledge systems, relationships, values, land and spiritualities” (Fijian Vanue Research Framework).

This print series uses digital collage to create compositions that draw on popular imagery of Fijian identity, beliefs and spirituality, totems and cultural value systems. Sourced from the artist’s own photographic archives and the Internet, they stand as exuberant declarations and ownership of the complex world of Fiji and Fijians.

Vasemaca (Ema) Tavola (b.1982) is a Fijian-Pākehā visual artist currently based in South Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. Having established her painting practice in Suva, Fiji at the Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies at the University of the South Pacific, Tavola went on to study Sculpture at Manukau School of Visual Arts and later Arts Management at AUT University.

In 2019, she established an independent gallery and consultancy called Vunilagi Vou which continues to shapeshift in the post-pandemic climate. Whilst curating is an external, social practice for Tavola, artmaking and painting particularly is Tavola’s internal process of intellectual enquiry and creative meditation.

Tavola’s work is in private and public collections including Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki and Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand.

In late 2023, Tavola began using her Fijian name, Vasemaca.