It rained non-stop in Auckland yesterday, but the winter months have felt generally mild, generally manageable. I’ve been walking at Puke Ariki (Point View) Reserve in recent weeks, a 39 hectare pocket of native bush and grasslands in East Auckland, not far from Vunilagi Vou. The paths have been littered with beautiful pink flowers from Puriri trees. This walk has become my favourite way to decompress and clear the mind.
Earlier this month was the launch of Oceans Between Us: Pacific Peoples & Racism in Aotearoa at Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland. The commissioned artwork for the front cover of this book finally left Vunilagi Vou on its one-way journey. Having it at the launch was a special way to see it meet audiences, and especially lovely to have artist peers, Marc Conaco and Leilani Kake come through to celebrate!
It was a privilege to sit on a panel discussion at the book launch with some of the book’s contributors, and especially lovely to see Vunilagi Vou salusalu adorning the authors and speakers. Vinaka vakalevu to Dr Sereana Naepi and team for a very special evening!
At the same time on the other side of the world, critically-acclaimed queer collective FAFSWAG were presenting an impressive body of new work at Manchester International Festival. The approach to embody ceremony as a mode of presenting stories and representations of Indigenous people was gently echoed in the presentation of Vunilagi Vou salusalu to mark the project’s opening. It was such an honour to make a small contribution to FAFSWAG’s impressive and groundbreaking work.
At home in Tāmaki Makaurau, Tongan textile artist and designer Czarina Wilson announced her involvement in next month’s New Zealand Fashion Week, showing with the Kāhui Collective. Czarina’s practice honours her cultural heritage through intentional design and craft processes, using fabric, weaving and cultural insignia as a form of visual storytelling. Part streetwear, part costume and couture, her first New Zealand Fashion Week collection explores legacy through Tongan quilting traditions and bold urban silhouettes.
As in the case with so many creatives trying to realise awesome projects at the moment, Czarina is inviting donations to support her New Zealand Fashion Week collection and campaign. If you’re interested to learn more and make a contribution, read more here.
For creatives on tight budgets, a way to support is through creative skills and services, so it was a lovely to be able to work with my niece Tiana Carling and artist, Pati Solomona Tyrell to make a few beautiful images of Czarina’s work at the FAFSWAG studio this week.
Vunilagi Vou was part of the Filemu Makers Market a few weeks ago too, a sweet initiative of Taualofa Totua and Iosua Ah-Hao, the makers of Filemu Zine. I was super keen to be part of this event because the venue, Ūkaipō Creative Space, is such an inspiring, maternal and fluid space run by mother-daughter duo, Cat Ruka and Lucia Davison. It was lovely to meet the other stallholders and reconnect with old friends, Luisa Lefao-Setoga of the iconic Popohardwear and Vaimaila Urale (of Moana Fresh), who was supporting her two daughters on their own entrepreneurial journey selling hand-made phone charms and phone cases! Such a lovely day!
After a few banner and bunting sales this month, I was inspired to make a few more mini banners now available under ‘Artwork’ in the Vunilagi Vou shop. This one is a textile altar for a matakau, a carved Fijian female ancestor figure featuring tattooed hips, loins and mouth. This particular matakau is from central Viti Levu, and is the “property” of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. As an altar, it’s an offering of reverence for a symbol of Indigenous female worlds; visualising matakau in my practice is a form of spiritual repatriation and remembrance.
This work incorporates silhouettes of the leaves and fruit of the Tavola tree (terminalia catappa), after which my father was named. The African wax print is a textile collected from our family’s time in Belgium. It is used here in the shape of a ‘lapita’ pot.
Gratitude for those who have been supporting Vunilagi Vou through sales of the VV:Ono tea towel, hand-made bits and pieces, prints, patches and accessories. It has really helped keep the rent paid and lights on this winter – vinaka vakalevu.
I’m excited to also now be stocking Vunilagi Vou goodies at Moana Fresh in West Auckland! This beautiful boutique is located at 64 Rosebank Road, Avondale, a proudly Indigenous women-owned and operated small business – an excellent spot to shop, support and amplify!
Shifting Vunilagi Vou from an exhibitions gallery to a working creative studio has been a wild ride, fuelled by faith, audacity and the support of folx who subscribe, donate, buy and amplify the work of this small enterprise. It is the most gratifying part of this work to see Vunilagi Vou’s creative output out in the world, in homes and offices, on walls and on bodies, in Aotearoa and beyond. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
August and September is crunch time for my Master of Applied Indigenous Knowledge studies; I’m loving the process so much, but the pressure is ON. I’m trying to balance the need to keep making and driving sales with the importance of this rangahau (research) journey, so wish me luck! I can’t wait to share what I’ve been working on…
