Much-lauded Pacific writer and poet Albert Wendt will read from his award-winning novel in verse, The Adventures of Vela, at the Going West Books & Writers festival at Waitakere City’s Titirangi War Memorial Hall on Sunday 12 September 2010 (10.30-11.15 am). The novel chronicles Samoa’s immortal song maker Vela and other divine figures, and was awarded the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for the South East Asia and the Pacific earlier this year. The reading will include a conversation with Nga Puhi poet and librarian, Robert Sullivan, in which Albert will reflect on his latest book – and a lifetime of telling and tales.
Manukau’s much-anticipated new arts facility, Mangere Arts Centre – Ngā Tohu o Uenuku, will officially open on Friday 3 September 2010. The opening will be followed by a full weekend of celebrations, with more than 40 performances featuring over 300 performers. The centre’s theatre and courtyard will be packed with activity including dance, music, comedy and poetry by acts including Kila Kokonut Krew, Tony T Band, Grace Ikenasio, Moana Ete, MBrace Pacific Dance, Anonymouz, Manukau City Concert Band and many more. The inaugural exhibition in the gallery Manu Toi: Artists and Messengers (curated by Nigel Borell) will also be open for viewing. The exhibition features an impressive line-up artists with a connection to the Mangere area, working in a range of disciplines including photography, installation art, moving image and more. For a full schedule of the opening weekend, go to www.manukau.govt.nz/mangereartscentre.
Opening celebration weekend:
When: Saturday 4 September, 10 am – 11 pm
Sunday 5 September, 12 pm – 4 pm
Where: Mangere Arts Centre – Nga Tohu o Uenuku, Corner Bader Drive and Orly Avenue
Mangere
Cost: Free
Creative New Zealand’s third review of its Recurrently Funded Organisations (RFOs) is recommending that two feasibility studies be undertaken in the next year. The first is to look into a management company for dance and theatre companies, including Maori and Pasifika dance and theatre, to provide shared, cost-effective management and audience development services for smaller independent companies. The second study will look at a Pasifika arts development organisation to coordinate and provide capability building for Pasifika artists across a range of arts practice and to develop new audiences for Pasifika arts and artists. The review recommends that work on the feasibility of these initiatives be carried out in 2010–11 so that options can be considered by 2012, when the new multi-year investment programmes have been implemented.
Playwright and documentary director, Makerita Urale, has been awarded the 2010 Fullbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writer’s Residency at the University of Hawai’i. She joins Sima Urale (2004), Tusiata Avia (2005), Victor Rodger (2006), Sarona Aiono-Iosefa(2007), David Young (2008), and Toa Fraser (2009) as recipients of the award. Makerita says she will use the three-month residency to complete the first draft of her new work for theatre, The Heathen’s Way. She is the author of Frangipani Perfume (1988), the first Pacific play written by a woman for an all female cast. The play was listed as pone of New Zealand’s top ten plays of the decade by The Listener. Makerita will also use her time in Honolulu to work on two documentaries, Fa’afafine of Polynesia and The Art of Polynesian Engineering. She already has a number of films to her credit including Mob Daughters, Children of the Revolution, and Waiata Whawhai Songs of Protest. (Story and image adapted from Spasifik Magazine.)
Auckland poet Selina Tusitala Marsh has won the First Book of Poetry prize at the National Poetry Awards. Fast-talking PI is a collection of poems put together over a long period of time and launched last year at the University of Auckland’s Fale Pasifika. Selina is the first Pacific Islander to graduate with a PhD in English at the University of Auckland. The book reflects her own focus on issues affecting Pacific communities in New Zealand. “I was getting frustrated with all this negative coverage of Pacific Islanders and wanted to show that we’re not all dole-bludging and underachieving,” she says. “Our community is so much more than that.” Selina has spent the last year encouraging young PIs to get involved with poetry. As the Million Poems for Matariki poet, she has been working with five Otahuhu schools, helping the kids to unleash their own creativity by writing and performing their own poems. The Million Poems for Matariki project culminated in a mass reading by young poets at the Auckland Central Library on National Poetry Day, 30 July 2010. (Story and image adapted from Spasifik Magazine.)
Young artists aged between 15 and 18 years old are urged to participate in Word Up! a free youth event, aiming to support up and coming talent with a focus on hip hop, song writing, poetry, dance and other performing genres. Maori and Pasifika youth are especially encouraged to take part. Event coordinator and award-winning poet, Courtney Meredith, says Word Up! Is a unique opportunity for young artists to perform in front of an audience of peers. Musicians King Kapisi and Teremoana Rapley will be critiquing the performances. “They will be there to give helpful advice,” says Courtney. Would-be performers who are not so confident on stage can attend free songwriting, hip hop, street art, and poetry workshops at Henderson’s Corban Estate on August 14 and 21. The Word Up! contest itself will take place at the estate on 3 September 2010. For more information, call (Auckland) 838-4455 or email wordup@ceac.org.nz. (Image of Courtney Meredith from the Corban Estate Arts Centre website)
Creative New Zealand in association with Pasifika Festival presents ARTSpeak Pasifika – a two-day national fono for the Pacific arts industry. Open to Pasifika artists working in visual arts, performing arts, film and television, music, literature, music and heritage arts, the fono is an opportunity to share ideas and participate in panel discussions designed to provide inspiration and practical advice on making a successful career in the arts. Creative New Zealand’s Anton Carter says “it’s the first time in over 10 years a multi art form fono like this has been organized”. The fono takes place on Friday 25th June and Saturday 26th June 2010 at the Reception Lounge (Level 2) of the Auckland Town Hall, Queen Street, Auckland. Numbers are limited to 150 people and the cost is a flat rate of $30 which includes refreshments on both days. A limited number of travel subsidies are available to assist participants from outside the Auckland region to attend. For more details and registration, see http://www.creativenz.govt.nz/artspeak.
Several useful resources about Pasifika art are now available from the New Zealand Film Archive, Ngā Kaitiaki O Ngā Taonga Whitiāhua. These resources look at Pacific Island people participating in a broad range of New Zealand arts including Fine Art, Music, Dance, Theatre, Film and Literature. Fatu Feu’u discusses the motifs and traditions that inspire his painting; Ani O’Neill tries to teach Nick Ward to crotchet; King Kapisi shows us his home in Piha, while his sisters show us theirs in Lyall Bay; Jonathan Lemalu discusses his rise to fame in the competitive world of opera; and Tusiata Avia talks to Finlay MacDonald about growing up Samoan in Christchurch. To access these materials from the Film Archive website, click here.
Christchurch-based actress, musician, song-writer, playwright and manager of Pacific Underground, Tanya Muagututi’a, is the 2010 Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies and Creative New Zealand Pacific Artist in residence. During her residency Tanya will be researching and writing a first draft for a play called ‘Scholars’. Her preparations for the play will involve research about scholarships that were made available for Samoan students from the 1950s-1980. As part of her residency, Tanya will be conducting interviews and running workshops at the Macmillan Brown Centre at the University of Canterbury.
A new purpose-built Mangere Arts Centre is being built in South Auckland and is expected to be completed by September 2010. Once completed the centre will provide Mangere with a world-class performance and arts venue including a 300-seat flexiform performance area, state of the art acoustic design, suitable for a range of music from fine music to rock, 240m² gallery, 56m² studio, foyers, offices, change rooms, a café, and a large outdoor courtyard. Ema Tavola, the current Pacific Arts Coordinator for Manukau City Council, will take up the position of Visual Arts Manager at the new Mangere Arts Centre. Speaking of her time at Fresh Gallery Otara, Ema said that the gallery was the public platform for her work supporting the development of an already robust Pacific arts sector in Manukau City. We have hosted exhibitions, talanoa / dialogue, workshops, poetry and music. We have had so much interaction, engaged so many hearts and minds, inspired and created a fertile ground for meetings, interactions, ideas.” Her current position as Manukau City Council Pacific Arts Coordinator is to be advertised in the coming month.
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