The Island Race in Aotearoa

Today the art of the Pacific Islanders is still trapped within its category. The display cases of the institutions have not been shattered. Yet the very act of exhibiting demonstrates that the making and the appreciation of art is a dynamic process. Institutions are caught by a need to both legitimise themselves and acknowledge (and perhaps attempt to control) the art of the migrant communities.

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Art and Ritual: Aina Asi A Mavaru Kavamu

The artist writes of the issues facing her as a citizen of Papua New Guinea, a descendant of the Motu Koita people, being female and an artist/textile designer. Her traditional grass skirts were included in the Asia-Pacific Triennial.

Wendy Choulai

Collaboration - Zhou Xiaoping and Jimmy Pike

Chinese Australian artist Zhou Xiaoping and Aboriginal artist Jimmy Pike exhibit collaborative works in China later in 1996. The author discusses Zhou's new work and his collaboration with Jimmy Pike.

Fotis Kapetopoulos

Resilient Modernism

Exhibition review Miriam Stannage and Tom Gibbons Goddard de Fiddes Contemporary Art Perth, Western Australia 2- 22 June 1996

Robert Cook

Dancing the Society: Performing Arts in the Solomon Islands

Performing arts in the Solomon Islands Since the common determining facts in whether to keep, add changes, or reject aspects of the performing arts are based on the dollar, Solomon Islanders will continue to adopt new styles of dances, music, songs and forms of acting in the same way as some Church groups have done.

Lawrence Foanaota

Pacific Wave: A Festival of Pacific Arts

Brief article outlining Pacific Wave, a celebration and investigation of contemporary trends in art and cultural life of the Pacific taking place across Sydney November 2-17 1996.

Stephanie Britton

Polynesian Tattoo: A Shift in Meaning

Tattoo played a significant role as a marker of status, wealth, and pride in Polynesian societies. A more fluid, creative tattoo tradition is being practised today.

Karen Stevenson

Taki Rua: Bi-cultural Theatre in Aotearoa

Taki Rua Theatre has been at the cutting edge of indigenous theatre since its inception in 1983. It has now produced a season of Maori plays in te reo Maori (Maori language).

Mere Boynton

An Alternative to the Art Market

The market must acknowledge its role in the commidification of indigenous cultures through cultural objects....What the market must acknowledge is the relationship of interdependency which exists between itself and the artists that it promotes and as such, the market must ensure that its actions do not prove detrimental to the artist and the community in the long run.

Tom Byra Mixie Mosby

Vaka - Only the Brave

Looks at the contemporary art and the cultural and economic pressures faced by the people of the Cook Islands.

Mereana Hutchinson

Acting Out the Culture: The Making of Culturally Relevant Theatre, Papua New Guinea

Culturally relevant theatre in education in Papua New Guinea challenges, questions, asserts, transgresses, subverts, opposes, resists and negotiates with the demands of political and cultural relations. It offers new forms of representation and contributes to the process of destabilising and decentering the domination of Western processes of teaching, learning and performance.

Michael A. Mel

Darwin Festival - A Glimpse

Overview of the Festival of Darwin with its temporary visual art installations 'art head land' by 18 artists. For the summer of 1996.

Stephanie Britton

The Silence which Howls

Exhibition review Second Look: Prospect Textile Biennial Prospect Gallery 14 April - 5 May 1996

Brenda Goggs

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