Announcing recipients of the Fale-ship Residencies 2022

Tautai’s Fale-ship Residency Programme returns in 2022 to support 10 creatives to make and develop new work from home.

Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust is thrilled to announce the recipients of the Fale-ship Residency programme 2022. A Moana evolution of the word fellowship, the Tautai Fale-ship residencies centre on the everyday making and thinking of Pasifika creatives operating in their own creative centres.

The Fale-ship Residencies provide support for a two-week residency for ten Tagata Moana creatives living in Aotearoa. The Residencies are open to all Pacific practitioners from across the arts and are granted by a selection panel of industry leaders.

The 2022 Fale-ship Residency recipients are: Dru Douglas (fashion); Jonita Faletagoai (visual arts); Siah Fina’i (sculpture/visual arts); Jeffery Kalauta (music/sound art); Ooshcon (dance); Sheldon Rua (writer/poet); Keciano Tufuga (visual arts); Sefa Tunupopo (dance); Linda Va’aelua (visual arts);  and Eliza Vawdrey-Roy (visual arts).

Each artist receives a grant of NZD$2,000 to support the development of new or existing projects in their own creative centres, within their own homes or studios. Residencies take place in September 2022 and at the conclusion of their residency, each of the 2022 Fale-ship Residency recipients will be showcased across Tautai’s online platforms between October – December 2022, activating and nurturing the Vā throughout the community both digitally and physically.

Tautai is excited to be changing it up once again in offering a refreshed Fale-ship programme in 2022 with the addition of the Digital Moana Artist Exchange. Based on the Tongan concept of, fehokotaki vā - to connect, bring together and expand relationships - the Digital Moana Artist Exchange invites a panel of Moana creatives across the globe to reach out across the seas in collaborative practice and to engage with and respond to the work of this year's Fale-ship Residency artists. Our international panel of artists are: Tevita Tobeyaweni, dancer and choreographer from Fiji; Kaitlin Ngeremokt McManus, visual artist from Guam; Mia Kami, singer/songwriter from Tonga; Karlina Mitchell, Fijian multidisciplinary based in Australia; and Taualofa Totua, writer and collage maker based in Aotearoa, New Zealand. These exchanges will be shared on Tautai’s online platforms between October – December 2022.

This year Tautai has invited artists to create works inspired the words of Tongan and Fijian writer and anthropologist Epeli Hau’ofa in reaching out across ‘Our Sea of Islands’ and to respond to navigation, wayfinding and meeting across oceans both physical and digital.

Tautai’s Programme Manager Mile Fane says, “Tautai is so grateful to be working with another amazing group of artists from across the Moana for Fale-ship Residencies 2022. The diverse skills of these artists shine across a range of genres and mediums. We are also excited to introduce a new element to Tautai Fale-ships in 2022 with the Digital Moana Exchange. The beauty of these mini residencies is that they provide the flexibility for Tautai to respond to the needs of our communities and to offer Moana Artists support to explore their mahi in new and exciting ways.”

The Tautai Fale-ship Residencies are generously supported by Creative New Zealand and Foundation North.