I’ve been aware over the past few months of Auckland’s need for better waste management attitudes. Auckland Council is introducing new fees for rubbish removal and residents, particularly in South Auckland, have to start recycling, composting and re-using to accommodate for the changes or face significant financial pressure. I’ve been thinking about creative ways to engage communities, particularly in Ōtāhuhu, with projects and activities that involve re-using, re-purposing and re-thinking what we throw out.
Leading up to Christmas and with some down-time between projects, I started making a series of wreaths from out-of-date Fresh Gallery Otara brochures. Cutting them into strips and weaving them together has had me thinking about when this brochure was first developed; Fresh Gallery Otara had been in operation for two years but this was the first real marketing collateral produced for the Gallery. It was important because in 2008, I went on two trips; first to the 10th Festival of Pacific Arts in Pago Pago, American Samoa, and second, to Bandung, Indonesia on an amazing fact finding mission with the British Council. This brochure was an essential part of Fresh’s international exposure; it showcased the Gallery’s community of artists and its curatorial culture.
I was exceedingly proud to distribute it everywhere I went; graphic designer, Edgar Melitao did an exceptional job and has always made my projects and work feel international, very cool and quietly sophisticated. As I weave different sized pieces together, I’ve reflected on Edgar’s amazing attention to detail. In the feel of the paper, I think about his consideration of paper stock and quality. I love that his graphic triangle theme is unintentionally continued in this brochure’s new life.
These wreaths will be for sale exclusively at Fresh Art Market, Saturday 14 December, at Fresh Gallery Otara. They cost $20 each and measure approximately 46cm across!
A new pilot event at Fresh Gallery Otara aims to showcase the potential of creative entrepreneurship in South Auckland.
Fresh Art Market is a lively pop-up market day presenting a diverse range of creative products and services including fashion design, nail artistry, event and project management, homeware and photography alongside the more traditional paintings and prints.
Event organiser, Ema Tavola says, “Fresh Art Market is a microcosm of South Auckland’s creative ecology – our artists are not just exhibiting in galleries but earning a living in a range of ways from photographing and designing events, painting murals, facilitating workshops and creating works of art in hair and nails.”
The event is in part influenced from Tavola’s involvement with a colleague from the Indonesian city of Bandung, well regarded for its innovative creative economy. Dian Gesuri has been in New Zealand completing a Master of Arts Management degree at AUT University; the two have spent six weeks sharing ideas about creative entrepreneurship and sector development in an informal residency at Tavola’s home in South Auckland.
Gesuri will deliver a presentation at Fresh Art Market from 9 – 10am on what South Auckland can gain from harnessing creativity and community, collaboration and commerce. Her talk will introduce some inspiring models of creative entrepreneurship that have contributed to social change in Bandung.
Gesuri says, “The driving force of Bandung’s creative economy is people and community, something South Auckland is rich in; the potential for creative economic growth here is significant.”
Stallholders will be offering specials and discounts across all products and services from manicure and pedicure gift vouchers to couture garments, t-shirts, portrait photography, artworks and hand-made accessories.
Tavola says, “This is a perfect time to support local creative entrepreneurs – their products and services are priced to sell and locally designed and produced gifts and treats are an investment in our local creative economy. This will be a truly inspiring day!”
Artists / Creative Entreprenuers involved: Leah Espie Photography, FAF SWAG, Tui and Sulieti Gillies, Tepora Malo, Nesian Nails, The Roots Creative Entreprenuers, Czarina Wilson Design.
Event details When: Saturday 14 December, 9am – 2pm
Where: Fresh Gallery Otara, 5/46 Fairmall, Otara Town Centre, South Auckland
Instigated by Samoan writer, teacher and community activist, Leilani Salesa, The Rise of the Morning Star was a performance undertaken on Auckland’s Queen Street on Sunday 1 December 2013 as part of a network of global events to create awareness and activate support for the struggle towards independence in West Papua.
It was an honour and privilege to be part of this collective of Maori and Pacific women standing in solidarity, activating our own awareness, moving with love and intention, silence, respect, sadness and hope. Leilani designed this performance because, “our freedom as indigenous Maori and Pacific women in Aotearoa/New Zealand is inextricably bound up with that of our indigenous West Papua brothers and sisters. We call on all New Zealanders to take notice, that at this very moment in the Pacific, there is a genocide taking place”. Read more here.
The performance included an ordered procession down Queen Street stopping at three major intersections. When the pedestrian light turned green, the performers assembled in a circle around Salesa in the middle of the intersection. Facing outward, the women raised their right fists to the sky as a gesture of solidarity. Throughout the performance, the Morning Star flag representing the West Papua independence movement, was symbolically raised 15 times, a reference to the 15 year jail sentence handed to Papuan independence activist, Filep Karma in 2004 for raising the flag at ceremony in Jayapura, Indonesia.
The performance symbolically began and ended at Selwyn Muru’s public sculpture, Waharoa, a stylised Maori gateway in Auckland’s Aotea Square. The performance inspired emotion amongst all its participants; in its silence, its visibility and in the stark juxtaposition of consumerism and commerce with the quiet reflection and gratitude for the freedom of expression, speech and for independence.
Whilst the issues are large, and there is much to know and understand, small gestures of awareness and opportunities to reflect on our positions as indigenous Pacific women are inspiring and commendable. Well done, Leilani Salesa and sincere thanks to the women who took time out to support, to be aware and be visible.
Artistic Intervention to Support Human Rights in West Papua
10:30am, Sunday 1 December
Wellesley & Queen Street Intersection, Central Auckland
On West Papuan Independence day—1 December—a group of indigenous Maori and Pacific women performers will stage an artistic intervention in Queen Street, central Auckland, to raise awareness of human rights abuses in West Papua.
Despite risking long jail sentences West Papuans continue to mobilise and raise the banned Morning Star flag on 1 December.
The performance will begin at 10:30am and travel from Selwyn Muru’s Waharoa at the entrance of Aotea Square, down Queen Street.
With support from West Papua Action Auckland (WPAA) the Morning Star flag—the flag of West Papua—will be raised in an act of solidarity.
Leilani Salesa, a member of WPAA and coordinator of the performance, said: “We are staging this artistic intervention because our freedom as indigenous Maori and Pacific women in Aotearoa/New Zealand is inextricably bound up with that of our indigenous West Papua brothers and sisters. We call on all New Zealanders to take notice, that at this very moment in the Pacific, there is a genocide taking place”.
The performers will join a day of mass action worldwide, with demonstrations planned in Melbourne, Brisbane, Port Moresby, London, The Hague, and many other places.
1 December is the anniversary of the 1961 West Papuan Declaration of Independence from Dutch colonial rule. In 1963 Indonesia took military and territorial control of the administration of West Papua against the will of the indigenous population. Human rights groups estimate that some 100,000 West Papuan people have died in the ongoing conflict.
West Papuan people are constantly terrorised by the Indonesian military, paramilitary police and intelligence agencies, while movements of journalists and humanitarian workers are excluded or tightly restricted. Despite risking long jail sentences West Papuans continue to mobilise and raise the banned Morning Star flag on 1 December.
Media enquiries:
For information about the 1 December event or for photos of the performance please contact Leilani Salesa on 021 743 647 or postcolonialtheory@gmail.com
For general information about WPAA please contact Marni Gilbert on marnilisa@gmail.com
Notes:
Globally there is a growing movement of solidarity for West Papua and recognition of the need for urgent action.
In September 2013 Prime Minister of Vanuatu Moana Kalosil Carcasses called on the United Nations to urgently appoint a special representative to investigate allegations of current and historic human rights abuses in West Papua as well as West Papua’s political status. Kalosil said West Papuans had been consistently denied any sort of recognition by the world body.
A 2013 report in the Griffith Journal of Law and Human Dignity by Dr Jim Elmslie and Dr Camellia Webb-Gannon shows the Indonesian Government is responsible for genocide in West Papua. The authors found that accumulated evidence over the past 50 years is now of such strength that it meets the criteria for genocide set out in the 1948 Genocide Convention.
An online campaign Papuans Behind Bars launched in 2013 documents the growing numbers of political prisoners in West Papua, many of whom have suffered arbitrary arrest, violence, abuse, torture, unfair trials, intimidation and neglect. The current Police Chief Tito Karnavian trained in New Zealand in 1998 at our Defence College. He is believed to be responsible for the current repressive policing practice. In 2013, the New Zealand Government announced plans to restart its Papuan Community Policing programme in West Papua.
Canadian human rights activist Jeremy Bally visited New Zealand in October as part of his 12,000km international cycling and performance tour Pedalling for Papua. The Free West Papua Campaign, co-launched by West Papuan Independence leader Benny Wenda (who visited NZ in 2012) now has permanent offices in Oxford, The Hague and Port Moresby. Likewise the International Lawyers for West Papua and International Parliamentarians for West Papua are growing in numbers. Also driving this global movement are numerous largely volunteer run organisations and campaigns coordinated by solidarity activists and West Papuans living in exile (see Rize of the Morning Star).
West Papua Action Auckland (WPAA) is an informal and independent group of volunteers that share a commitment to support and promote human rights in West Papua and maintain a watching brief on NZ Government policy. As a solidarity organisation, WPAA believes that specific campaigns should be influenced by the kinds of campaigns and priorities taken by West Papuans.
FRESH ART MARKET is a lively pop-up market day presenting a diverse range of creative practice and free public programme events at South Auckland’s notorious Fresh Gallery Otara!
The event draws together a diverse range of creative practitioners from fine artists to activists, object makers and writers to fashion designers. With everything priced to sell, FRESH ART MARKET is an ideal one stop shop for conscious, hand-made, locally designed gifts and treats!
Throughout the day, a series of public programme events will take place alongside the Market:
From 9-10am, join visiting arts manager, Dian Ika Gesuri for an inspiring discussion on what Auckland can learn from harnessing creativity, community, collaboration, innovation and commerce, introducing some amazing models of creative entrepreneurship that contribute to social change in the city of Bandung, Indonesia.
At 11am, check out a series of short films including Luisa Tora’s “Home Videos” (2013) and join the film makers for a Q&A.
From 1-2pm, exhibiting artists Sam Afu and ‘Ahota’e’iloa Toetu’u are delivering a free painting workshop inspired by their current exhibition, Ua gau le sila, tuku ki Manono on at Fresh Gallery Otara until 21 December.
Keep an eye on the Facebook event page for updates and specials or send us an enquiry here:
Since September I’ve been coordinating OTARAfest, a new annual event programme produced by Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT) Faculty of Creative Arts; it ran from 18 October – 2 November and the inaugural programme included 11 stand-alone events delivered in and around the Otara Town Centre.
With a focus on revitalising the Otara Town Centre and creating opportunities for artists and the wider community to meet, share and reflect on contemporary art, talent and creative energy emanating from the local environment, OTARAfest was a refreshing and hugely rewarding project to be part of.
The programme was officially launched at the opening of Fresh Out of School, an exhibition at Fresh Gallery Otara featuring six new graduates from the outgoing Bachelor of Visual Arts degree programme offered at MIT Faculty of Creative Arts. The opening was a celebration of achievement for the students involved; we wanted to emphasise their commitment and hard work, and their new beginnings as qualified visual artists. The Gallery was filled with family and friends, music was provided by DJ Al’Goodie, a well-respected local DJ and radio personality and slow-cooked pork sliders, raw fish and smoked salmon bilinis were served courtesy of Lissy’s Kitchen.
Desire2Inspire, a local arts collective performed at the OTARAfest launch. With all its members currently engaged in youth work and related training, the two skits they presented were informed by lived realities for young people in South Auckland; managing peer pressure, the influences of drugs, alcohol and suicide, and the healing potential of faith and fellowship. I was so moved by their performances, their involvement and interest in the OTARAfest programme; it brought the community back inside the walls / windows of Fresh Gallery Otara and served as a reminder of the consciousness a local community art gallery should reflect.
OTARAcube was a new exhibitions concept that unfortunately launched two weeks behind schedule, meaning a performance work due to take place in the first weekend of the programme was sadly cancelled. However, its better-late-than-never arrival enabled the launch of its inaugural exhibition featuring Tongan artist sisters, Vea and Emily Mafile’o. The opening of their multimedia installation coincided with a special gathering of the Tongan art collective, No’o Fakataha at Fresh Gallery Otara on Friday 1 November.
An initiative of MIT Faculty of Creative Arts with support from the Otara-Papatoetoe Local Board, the OTARAcube started life as a 20 foot shipping container; its design and customisation was undertaken by Nigel Burton (DVANZ). Now a permanent fixture in the Otara Town Centre, OTARAcube is located in the area between the Bus Depot and the taxi stand; site specific exhibitions and experimental art projects are planned to turnover on a roughly monthly basis.
OTARAfest provided a platform for a series of gathering and networking events, one of which heralded the beginning of the South Auckland Young Artists Network (SAYAN), a new movement based on the successful Youth Arts Committee at central Auckland community art centre, Artstation. SAYAN will meet fortnightly at Fresh Gallery Otara, contact Kirstin Whalen to go on the mailing list.
South Auckland Theatre Collective presented their first production, My Life, My Story, My South Auckland and got this sweet review, the wonderful P.O.T Productions delivered a beautiful re-worked and site-specific version of Pukepuke ‘O Tonga and OTARAwindow, a series of three outdoor window boxes on the exterior wall of Otara Family & Christian Health Centre, featured the work of Luisa Tora for the duration of OTARAfest.
I enjoyed so many facets of project managing this event programme, but one event in particular was an absolute career highlight. I had the privilege of working again with Tanu Gago, co-founder of FAF SWAG, a collective that advocates, promotes and endorses youth voices from South Auckland’s Pacific LGBTQI communities. Inspired by the American documentary film, Paris Is Burning, the first FAFSWAG Ball aimed to create a competitive platform centralising talent, performance prowess and safety in an accessibly priced, event experience unique to South Auckland.
The FAFSWAG Ball was affirming, electric, covered in glitter and tear-inducingly empowering!
As of 24 hours ago, I’ve also officially completed all the required outcomes for my Master of Arts Management degree at AUT University and I’m so relieved! I’m deeply thankful to my partner, my friends and family for helping me study and endure the financial hardship of committing to full-time postgraduate study, and especially to my mother, who has listened, advised and encouraged me to not give up, thanks Mum!
This weekend I’m showing two works in the annual King’s College Fine Art Sale and on Sunday I’ll be delivering a talk on Pacific art making and appreciation in South Auckland from 12.45pm, click here for more details.
Check out this track by Otara artist, Beelah – it is the soundtrack of Vea and Emily Mafile’o’s OTARAcube exhibition and was shot and recorded right here in Otara – love it!
As part of the exhibition, Fresh Out of School, MIT Faculty of Creative Arts alumni Nicole Lim and Ema Tavola are presenting a crash course in visual arts professional practice at Fresh Gallery Otara from 12.30-2pm on Saturday 26 October.
Graduating with degrees in Visual Arts, both Nicole and Ema have spent most of their professional lives working at Fresh Gallery Otara and within the context of local government community arts delivery in South Auckland. Combined, the two have over 10 years worth of knowledge and experience from working with emerging and established local, national and international artists from diverse backgrounds. They have both developed strong professional practices in the areas of project management, administration, collaboration and partnerships.
The Professional Practice 101 workshop will offer participants an overview of the process of exhibition making, advice on engineering a web presence, documenting and writing about art, promotion, criticism and networking…
I’m excited to have been part of Rebecca Ann Hobbs‘ dance portrait project. Her new solo exhibition, Body Rock opens this Friday a The Film Archive Auckland Office, 1st Floor, 300 Karangahape Road, Newtown, Central Auckland.
For the past month, I’ve been coordinating a public events programme called OTARAfest on behalf of the Faculty of Creative Arts at Manukau Institute of Technology here in South Auckland. It falls under the umbrella of Auckland Council’s Southside Arts Festival but as a point of difference, OTARAfest is positioned to benefit, speak to and engage Otara and South Auckland audiences first and foremost.
The newly refurbished Fresh Gallery Otara is the centre of the OTARAfest programme. The Gallery’s large open space will be used for gatherings, performances and a workshop on professional exhibition practice. Two new outdoor exhibition platforms will also be formally launched during OTARAfest; the OTARAcube – a 10×10 foot customised container located in the Otara Transport Precinct, and OTARAlights – a series of five light boxes installed in the vicinity of Fresh Gallery Otara.
“Open All Hours” series (2013) by Vinesh Kumaran
Pukepuke ‘O Tonga
Artwork by Bauhenia Muelu
FAFSWAG Ball // Thursday 31 October
Pulling together the programme for OTARAfest has been a nostalgic and heartwarming experience; so much of it reminds me of the South Auckland Pacific Arts Summit. Having worked, lived and studied in and around Otara for the past decade, it is familiar territory; there is an accountability that comes with connectedness.
OTARAfest is largely funded with the agenda of revitalising the Otara Town Centre; all but one of the events are free and many are purposefully integrated into everyday life, using outdoor and community spaces as well as the significant audience of the weekly Otara Flea Market.
I appreciate site-specificity and social, historical and political consciousness as key considerations in event delivery. I’m also excited about the new direction of MIT Faculty of Creative Arts and so pleased that its geographic and cultural context is informing and inspiring a new consideration of the value of arts education in South Auckland. Read more from Grant Thompson, Executive Dean – MIT Faculty of Creative Arts.
OTARAfest launches at Fresh Gallery Otara from 6pm on Thursday 17 October at the opening of Fresh Out of School, an exhibition featuring six new graduates from MIT Faculty of Creative Arts. All welcome!
Mereia was originally made for my 2009 solo exhibition, BLOOD+BONE
This work was always special to me as it’s a portrait of my older sister. This series of hi-viz vest portraits was made to represent the safety and protection of various women in my life during the period of time after I left my marriage. The series is about visibility and acknowledging those whose love and support was a guiding light through a period of intense darkness.
Mereia is currently being framed for the King’s College Fine Art Sale from 8-10 November. The annual event takes place at the school grounds on Golf Avenue, Ōtāhuhu, South Auckland. I’m part of the Ōtāhuhu Arts and Culture Sub-Committee of the Ōtāhuhu Steering Group; this year we’ve successfully advocated for the inclusion of a small group of local artists in this prestigious and high profile event. I’m exhibiting two works and also speaking on Sunday 10 November in the Speaker Series. Other artists representing Ōtāhuhu are Leilani Kake, Jeremy Leatinu’u and Molly Rangiwai McHale.
PIMPI KNOWS 