Auckland audiences caught a glimpse of acclaimed choreographer and Starmap Champion Neil Ieremia’s latest work Gathering Clouds: Peace, poverty, dreams and the Pacific at the Manukau Festival of Arts last week. Gathering Clouds responds to controversial claims made by economist Greg Clydesdale that Pacific Islanders in New Zealand display “significant and enduring under achievement”, a problem he believes immigration is making worse. Commenting on Clydesdale’s disparaging remarks, Neil Ieremia says: “I have always believed in the spirit of the Long White Cloud that embraces everyone equally. But after reading these claims and reviewing passages of my personal journey, I realise the Long White Cloud has become dark in places and it feels like a storm is breaking.” Black Grace’s full-length performance will be premiered at the Auckland Festival, 5-22 March, 2009.
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In a side-splitting hour of entertainment, the Manurewa-based Kila Kokonut Krew brought the much anticipated “Once Were Samoans” show to an enthralled crowd at the Metro Theatre in Mangere East. The mayor of Manukau City, Len Brown, said about the Kila Kokonut Krew, “they bring the fantastic flavour of our wonderful city drawing on their ’southside’ roots to make us laugh until we cry”. The play is a parody of the famous novel “Once Were Warriors” by Alan Duff. It features the Samoan Tufifi family as it prepares for a family reunion. The play comes to a head when the family’s four unambitious sons and two obedient daughters find out that their Samoan matriarch has hidden some inconvenient truths from them. In the midst of the laughter, writer Vela Manusaute has skillfully woven several serious messages about being Polynesian in Aotearoa/New Zealand. The show was one of the highlights of the successful Manukau Festival of Arts which ran through October and November 2008. Internationally renowned Pacific novelist, poet, and intellectual, Albert Wendt, will open his first solo art exhibition at the McCarthy Art Gallery in Auckland on 1st December 2008. Wendt rekindled his passion for painting in 2000, after spending much of his life writing prose and poetry. The last four years, mostly spent at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, have generated an impressive body of work that mark a poetic transition from his literary voice into the visual realm of art. Speaking about the forthcoming exhibition with Spasifik Magazine, Albert Wendt quipped “I decided to keep my work simple and elegant, but it had to have depth … just like a good poem”. The exhibition is curated by Fono McCarthy and will run from 1-19 December 2008 at the McCarthy Art Gallery, Axis Building 1:9, on the corner of St Georges Bay Road and Cleveland Road, Parnell. Sima Urale’s latest short film Coffee & Allah has received three awards at international film festivals in the last two months. The film was entered in the 6th Vladivostok International Film Festival of Asian Pacific Countries where director Sima Urale received the special “Dior Style Evocation Award”. The New Zealand Film Commission funded film was also entered in the 28th Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival and received the Honolulu Magazine Award for Best Short Film. The film recently won a third award, also for Best Short Film, at the Minbar Muslim Film Festival, in Russia. Actor Joe Folau attended and received the award on behalf of Sima. This follows Coffee & Allah’s world premiere at the prestigious 64th Venice Film Festival in 2007 and screenings in competition which include the San Francisco and Valladolid Film Festivals. Pacific contributions to the New Zealand arts scene are unique and flourishing said Pele Walker, chair of Creative New Zealand’s Pacific Arts Committee, as she addressed the 2008 Arts Pasifika Awards held in Manukau City on Monday 17 November. The awards are an opportunity to encourage and celebrate excellence in Pacific arts in New Zealand. “Every year we are thrilled and delighted with not only the calibre of artists nominated but the range of artistic fields that they work in.” Among those who won awards were the Samoan composer/conductor Igelese Ete (Samoa) who was awarded the Senior Pacific Artist prize ($7000); the Auckland-based Enuamanu Atiu Nui Marurua Society Inc (Cook Islands) in recognition of its Collection of Writings from Enuamanu and Beyond: E Autataangano Enuamanu e Ta Te Aukorero (2007); the critically acclaimed Auckland playwright, Dianna Fuemana (Samoa), who received the Pacific Innovation and Excellence Award ($5000); the 22 year-old opera singer James Ioelu (Samoa) who received the Iosefa Enari Memorial Award ($3000) to pursue study opportunities overseas; and emerging artists Linda Tuafale Tanoa’i (Samoa) and Leilani Kake (Cook Islands and Nga Puhi) who were each awarded $3000 for their cutting edge visual art. A man named by the reputable magazine North and South as one of 100 Kiwis who made a difference in New Zealand music, has just received Creative New Zealand’s Senior Pacific Artist Award ($7000) in acknowledgement of his outstanding contribution to the performance and promotion of Pacific music. Igelese Ete is currently teaching music at the University of the South Pacific (Fiji) where he has injected the same talent and energy that saw him achieve success as the choirmaster for the first Lord of the Rings movie. Ete has composed for and conducted more than forty choirs. He was the conductor for the America’s Cup opening ceremony in 2002 and conductor/composer for the South Pacific Games in Samoa last year. He has been the inspiration behind the Auckland Pacific Gospel Choir and the Malaga Singers (University of the South Pacific). The 2008 Creative New Zealand Arts Pasifika Awards were held in Manukau on Monday 17th November. Leilani Kake (Cook Islands and Nga Puhi) a moving image artist, and Linda Tuafale Tanoa’i (Samoa) a multi-media digital artist, were each awarded emerging Pacific artist awards at the annual Creative New Zealand Pasifika Awards on Monday 17th November 2008. Leilani was awarded the Salamander Gallery Award for Emerging Pacific Visual Artist ($3000) for her cutting edge digital art. Her work has received considerable praise for its creative exploration of traditional cultural histories through the lens of modern technologies. Linda T (as she is better known) was awarded Creative New Zealand’s Emerging Pacific Artists’ Award ($3000). She has recently won the AUT University’s Sculpture Award for Visual Arts. She is also one of the artists chosen to represent New Zealand in Pago Pago at the recent 10th Festival of Pacific Arts. She presented a multi-media installation that included moving images and stories from Aotearoa. Former students of the Maori artist, painter and educator Buck Nin are exhibiting their art and sculptures in his honour. Most of the work exhibited is by Maori and Pacific artists including Richard Shortland Cooper, Terry Klavenes, and Visesio Siasau. The exhibition is on show at the Mangere Arts Centre in Mangere, Auckland and runs until the 8th of November 2008. “Ladies First” is a new production to showcase some of Christchurch’s finest female singers. Inspired by the popular American Diva shows starring icons such as Mariah Carey, Aretha Franklin, and Whitney Houston, Ladies First will sing on Thursday 6th November 2008 (8 pm) at The Civic (194 Manchester Street). The evening will feature Lissell Stewart (NZ Idol, Christmas in the Park, Maorioke, Jiggy), Rebecca Thompson (Showstoppers, Soul Defined, M31) and Carla Flavell (Absolut, Soul Cage) with support from the Kharamelow and Pacific Underground bands. “Old School” guests Tanya Muagututi’a (Pacific Underground, Soul Defined, Kharamello), Flo Lafai (Soul Defined) and Melbourne’s Grace Vanilau (Sunga, Brown Roots Collective) will also inject their soulful voices into the show. Tickets are $15 (presale) or $20 (at the door). Film critics at Toronto’s International Film Festival have described Toa Fraser’s latest feature film Dean Spanley as “a rare pleasure”. Other critics around the world have added their rave reviews to this “wonderfully eccentric” comedy-drama. Set in Edwardian England with a cast of first rank (including Peter O’Toole and Sam Neill), the film is worlds apart from Fraser’s first feature, the widely acclaimed No. 2 (2006). This latest success contributes significantly to other recent Pacific achievements in film (such as Sima Urale’s Apron Strings) and will enhance his growing reputation as one of the Pacific’s young, exciting, and versatile film-makers. |
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