The LAST event of the epic Between Wind and Water residency at Enjoy Gallery is tomorrow! Join five inspiring Pacific speakers discuss ideas about the future in the BWAW Futures Forum from 2pm, Saturday 24 January 2015.

This special event is part of the Between Wind and Water (BWAW) exhibition and residency project that has been timed to coincide with Wellington’s annual Positively Pasifika Festival. The exhibition features new and experimental works by three South Auckland-based Pacific artists working with themes ranging from systemic racism, stereotypes, migration histories and origin stories.

The BWAW Futures Forum is the last of six public dialogue events developed to deepen audience engagement with the themes, issues and dynamics of making and presenting contemporary Pacific art in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Focusing on the statistics of deprivation, health, wealth and educational achievement for Pacific people in Aotearoa can be depressing; this event is an opportunity to discuss ideas about the future in a more utopian and light-hearted fashion. Less strategy, more dream talk – what does our future look like in an ideal world?

Speakers

Teresia Teaiwa is an I-Kiribati / American poet and academic who was raised in Fiji. Described as, “a groundbreaking scholar in the research of the culture of the Pacific Islands”, Teaiwa obtained her PhD in History of Consciousness in 2001, on the topic “Militarism, Tourism and the Native: Articulations in Oceania”. Teresia works as a Senior Lecturer Pacific Studies at Victoria University

Herbert Bartley was born in Lower Hutt, raised in Naenae and currently lives in Newtown. He works at The Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa as part of the Audience Engagement team and as the Tokelauan Representative on the Wellington City Council Pacific Advisory Group.

Faith Wilson‘s writing explores ideas of what it is to be a twenty-something afakasi (half-caste) Samoan female in the twenty-first century and the tropes or expectations of that personhood. In 2014, she completed her Master of Arts folio, entitled Dolly Mix Tape, at the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victory University. She was awarded the 2014 Biggs Family Poetry Prize and has her poetry published in Turbine, Mayhem and in Enjoy art gallery’s journal.

Fuimaono Karl Pulotu-Endemann is a Samoan-born, New Zealand-based academic, medical professional and fa’afafine. Coming to New Zealand as a child, and trained initially as a psychiatric nurse, Pulotu-Endemann became a health consultant on Pacific Health issues. In the 2001 New Year Honours, Pulotu-Endemann was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Public Health. He has also been a sitting member of the Creative NZ Pacific Arts Committee.

Coco Solid is the musician, writer, zine-maker and artist Jessica Lee Hansell. Raised in South Auckland, and acclaimed on her home-turf and abroad, the outspoken Māori/Samoan/German Aucklander has proven herself as an enduring and shapeshifting artist in recent years.

When

BWAW Futures Forum
What does an ideal future look like for Pacific people in Aotearoa and Oceania? A series of quick-fire utopian dream talks from diverse Pacific perspectives, including Dr Teresia Teaiwa, Fuimaono Karl Pulotu-Endemann, Faith Wilson, Jessica ‘Coco Solid’ Hansell and Herbert Bartley!

The residency of Between Wind and Water artists will take place from 10-24 January 2015; the exhibition will be on show until 31 January.

Where

Enjoy Public Art Gallery is located on the First Floor, 147 Cuba Street, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand.

 Between Wind and Water has been produced with support from