Board of Trustees
Governance
Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust operates under a Charitable Trust Deed and its amendments which have been lodged with the Registrar of Incorporated Societies in New Zealand. A Certificate of Incorporation was issued for Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust under the Charitable Trusts Act 1957 on 23rd June 1995. The trust deed provides for the appointment and election of trustees who comprise a Board with responsibility for the governance of Tautai.
The Board of trustees bring a wide range of attributes and skills to their role of governance of Tautai. The trustees meet as a Board generally two monthly and under the trust rules the Chairperson and Treasurer and Secretary have been appointed.
The trustees of the Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust are:
Co - Chairperson:
Janet Lilo of Maori (Nga Puhi), Samoa and Niue descent lives and works in Auckland. She gained a Masters of Art and Design from The Auckland University of Technology (AUT) in 2007 and her solo exhibitions include 'Shot!', WK104 Lorne Street, Auckland (2006) ‘Top16’ St Paul St Gallery 3, Symonds St, Auckland (2007) & Fresh Gallery, Otara, Auckland (2008). Her art practice focuses on popular culture in New Zealand, through Video and Installation formats in both Gallery and non- Gallery spaces with a particular interest in experimental documentary and music video making.
Siliga Setoga a New Zealand born Samoan lives and works in Auckland, Setoga’s provocative work questions identity, politics, religion and social issues. His work literally hit the streets in 2000 through Popohardwear, a line of t-shirts that provided a creative yet affordable means of expression: wearable art. From Otara’s markets, Popohardwear exploded, visible not only on the streets of Auckland but in New Zealand’s most prestigious museums, Te Papa Tongarewa and Auckland War Memorial Museum, as well the British Museum’s Pacific Collection. Siliga is currently completing his Masters at Whitecliffe College of Arts & Design.
Trustees:
Ron Brownson has been a trustee since 2001 and is Senior Curator New Zealand and Pacific Art at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki. He holds a Master of Arts (Honours) and is on the advisory Boards of Auckland University of Technology Faculty of Art and Design and Manukau Institute of Technology School of Art and Design. Ron has edited numerous art publications and has a special interest in NZ and Pacific photography. Among his many exhibition projects have been John Ioane: Falesa and John Pule: People get ready, and with Fuli Pereira he curated for Tautai the major exhibition of contemporary pacific art Le Folauga at Auckland Museum in 2007.
Jeremy Leatinu'u is of Maori, Samoan, Chinese and German descent currently working and residing in Auckland. He holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Arts from the University of Auckland (2009) and is also a recipient of the Iris Fisher Scholarship. Jeremy’s art practice integrates both video and performance to reflect our relationship with public spaces as symbolic sites, and how we negotiate these spaces with each other. His art works have been exhibited at Artspace, St Paul Street Gallery and Auckland Art Gallery. Jeremy is presently the education co-ordinator at the Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts.
Chris Merrick of Maori (Ngati Wai), Tongan, and NZ European descent is a criminal and civil litigation lawyer working in Auckland. He graduated BA (History)/LLB from the University of Auckland in 2007. He has recently established his own law firm, Moala Merrick Ltd having spent the last 4.5 years as a Crown Prosecutor and Civil Litigator in Auckland. He has an interest in Pacific history and art forms, having focussed on the Pacific as part of his History major, and is excited about joining the Board of Trustees in 2013. Chris is on the executive of the Pacific Lawyers Association and also sits as a Judicial Officer on the Judicial Committee of the Auckland Rugby Football Union. He is also a lover of music.
Stephen Roberts is of Samoan descent and lives in South Auckland. Stephen is a Treasury Accountant for a NZ icon company in downtown Auckland. Stephen has an interest in governance issues which is reflected in the governance roles he has held as Chairman and Trustee of a large Credit Union as well as for various Primary and Secondary Schools over the past 20 years.
Nina Tonga is an art historian and teaches at the Centre for Pacific Studies at the University of Auckland. She holds a Master of Arts and is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Art History. Her doctoral research explores the use of web 2.0 applications as mediums of contemporary art. Nina is also the coordinator of the University of Auckland Pacific Heritage Artist in Residence Programme. Nina has been involved in a number of writing and curatorial projects with Pacific artists from New Zealand and the wider Pacific. Her curatorial projects include Koloa et Al at Fresh Gallery Otara followed by the annual Tautai tertiary exhibition Make/Shift at St Paul Street Gallery in 2010. In 2012 she was an associate curator for the exhibition Home AKL, the first major group exhibition of contemporary Pacific art developed by Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki.
Treasurer/Secretary:
Colin Jeffery joined the board in 1999 and was appointed the Secretary/Treasurer. Colin is no longer a Trustee but continues in the role of Secretary/Treasurer. Colin is professionally qualified as a Chartered Accountant and holds a senior management and financial accounting role with a major corporate. He is a member of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants and of the Chartered Secretaries New Zealand Incorporated. Colin has a long-standing interest in the art of contemporary pacific artists and through those contacts has been a supporter of Tautai since its inception.