Lecturers contribute treasures from their homeland to landmark Pacific exhibition
In Brief:
- Lecturers Ioane Aleke Fa‘avae and Tavakefai‘ana Potauaine were chosen to represent Tonga and Niue in the landmark Our Ocean of Islands exhibition currently running at the New Zealand Maritime Museum in Auckland.
- The exhibition celebrates Indigenous knowledge, cultural identity and the enduring connections between Pacific peoples, lands, seas and skies.
Two of our Pacific kaimahi ‘staff’ are sharing stories of their ancestral homelands with audience through artifacts which they have contributed to a landmark exhibition celebrating Indigenous knowledge from across Oceania.
Our Ocean of Islands, currently showing at New Zealand Maritime Museum in Auckland, brings together Indigenous knowledge systems, cultural practices and creative works from twenty-four Moana Oceania island nations, including Tangata Whenua and all seventeen Pacific nations with diaspora communities in this country.
Senior Lecturer and Niue tufuga (knowledge holder) Ioane Aleke Fa‘avae, representing Niue, and School of Architecture lecturer and internationally recognised Tongan artist Tavakefai‘ana Sēmisi Fetokai Kulīha‘apai Moahehengiovava‘ulahi Potauaine, are among the contributors to the exhibition.
Being invited to contribute was an opportunity for Ioane to represent his family, village and the wider Niuean community.
Senior Lecturer Ioane Aleke Fa’avae stands next to Tāoga Uho Ha Niue – Treasured Icon of Niue – his contribution to Our Ocean of Islands exhibition.
“I was approached to be part of the exhibition when a collaboration with a Niuean tufuga on a tāoga didn’t work out. So I decided to create my own tāoga – a katoua, or cleaving weapon – which holds significant cultural importance in Niue,” Ioane says.
His Tāoga Uho Ha Niue – Treasured Icon of Niue is a 2026 katoua crafted from kwila wood, coconut-fibre sennit, cowrie shells, hibiscus bark and bird feathers.
The katoua embodies Niuean authority, unity and peace. Traditionally associated with people of status, it was used by warriors as a cleaving weapon and continues to feature in fono, welcoming ceremonies, chants and cultural performances.
For Ioane, who has dedicated his career to the preservation and revitalisation of Vagahau Niue (Niuean language), culture and traditional knowledge, the work represents an important connection between generations.
“The katoua is unique to Niue. For many tagata Niue, it has become an icon of their identity and culture.”
Tavakefai‘ana’s contribution uses contemporary art to explore traditional Tongan understandings of the origins of the universe.
His collaborative work, Kupesi Talatupu‘a ‘o Tongā – Cosmogram of Tonga 2026, depicts a Tongan perspective on cosmic beginnings through a series of concentric circles representing the fonua, or realms from which Tonga originated.
The work brings together Vahanoa, Pulotu, Langi, Maama, Lalofonua, Moana and ‘Uta – the ocean, ancestral and after-world realms, celestial sky, earth, underworld, sea and inland forests that form an interconnected cosmology.
Created in collaboration with Professor Maui-TāVā-He-Ako Dr Tēvita O. Ka‘ili and Professor Hūfanga-He-Ako-Moe-Lotu Dr ‘Ōkusitino Māhina, the work demonstrates Tavakefai‘ana’s practice of taking traditional Tongan knowledge and re-articulating it through contemporary artistic forms.
“This exhibition opportunity has opened up a deeper understanding of how the ocean connects our islands,” says Tavakefai‘ana.
Tavakefai‘ana’s collaborative work, Kupesi Talatupu‘a ‘o Tongā – Cosmogram of Tonga 2026, depicts a Tongan perspective on cosmic beginnings.
That connection is at the heart of Our Ocean of Islands, which has been more than three years in development.
Devised and led by Lagi-Maama Academy & Consultancy in partnership with Hui Te Ananui a Tangaroa New Zealand Maritime Museum, the exhibition has been shaped through relationships with knowledge holders from each of the twenty-four participating island nations.
Rather than being curator-led, the exhibition is contributor-led, giving the representative of each nation the opportunity to determine what knowledge, stories, cultural practices and creative expressions they want to share.
The result is an exhibition that moves beyond simply displaying Pacific culture to foregrounding the people and Indigenous knowledge systems behind it – exploring the enduring relationships between peoples, lands, seas and skies.
By bringing together cultural knowledge, education, research and creative practice, Ioane and Tavakefai‘ana are demonstrating how Pacific ways of knowing can inform contemporary learning, artistic expression and professional practice.
Our Ocean of Islands opened on 15 August 2026 and will run for eighteen months at the Edmiston Gallery, Level 2, New Zealand Maritime Museum, Auckland. The exhibition is open daily from 10am–5pm, with free entry for Auckland residents.
Find out more about Our Ocean of Islands
