‘I saw it as the artwork of my whole country. It wasn’t just mine. It was the art of...Pacific people.’ – Fatu Feu’u

This quote is a reminder that when representing a group, it is bigger than the individual and that when one of us succeeds, we all do.

Throughout my degree journey, I have investigated my cultural identity, which heavily relied on my own personal experiences of Pacific culture. This year, I’ve been investigating the Pasifika community in Aotearoa and how I can visually represent it. My involvement in my Pacific community is essential for my project, where I’m able to weave my strands of experience into the broader Pacific narrative in New Zealand.

I wanted to take this narrative to the street, to show my work to a larger audience. The mural illustrates a migratory story using my ‘aiga (family) as actors. My work with woodblock print during my degree is referenced in the stylised patterns of siapo ‘elei (Samoan tapa cloth).

As a second-generation New Zealand-born Polynesian, I’m constantly learning about my culture everyday through the community groups I have joined and the people I surround myself with. Everyone is at different stages of their cultural journey, some confident, most learning and many disconnected. Through these interactions, I want to be able to share a collective voice that speaks to our experiences as a whole and as individuals.