28 Aug 2024
The 2024 Paralympics start today in Paris, with New Zealand represented by a 25-strong team of paralympians. We’re also represented by two artists in Art Para, Shine Together, an exhibition that celebrates artists with disabilities.
Ululau Ama from West Auckland is the only Pasifika artist in the exhibition. He and one other New Zealand artist, Matthew Allerby, have works on display.
Ululau has been recognised for his artistic ability with sales, commissions and awards. In 2022 he received the Toa Award for Pacific Arts from Creative New Zealand. The Toa award recognises the contribution of a Pasifika artist with the lived experience of disability to Pacific arts nationally or globally.
Art is how Ululau communicates. His works are sometimes figurative, and sometimes textural and expressionistic. The colours reference what is going on around him, the colour of a shirt, the sea, the people, constantly changing.
Where words are needed, his mum Nunu helps out.
“When Ululau was told that he is the only artist in the exhibition to represent our Pasifika people, he was curious, excited and very happy. Ululau loves to see his artwork exhibited and on show. Ululau takes great pleasure in others’ appreciation of his artworks,” Nunu says.
“Ululau loves to meet people and talk about his artworks, loving to see people take his paintings away. To him it is not the money from the sales that makes him happy, but the joy it brings to both the viewer and him.”
Ululau has sold and gifted many paintings. While normally camera shy, he loves to have a photo taken with the recipients.
“Meeting people, creating new works, and sharing them is what lights up his beautiful smile. Interest in his artwork inspires him to create more. He is a visual storyteller, narrating Samoan stories,” Nunu says.
A health condition means Ululau can’t travel to Paris to see his works on display, but the interest in his artwork inspires him to create more.
Ululau is always working. He’s a member of the Tōfā Mamao Collective and connects to his Samoan community in West Auckland.
New Zealand’s involvement in Art Para Shine Together is coordinated by Māpura Studios, one of New Zealand’s foremost disability arts organisations. Mãpura Studios director, Diana McPherson, will be representing the Oceania region and has been asked to present a paper to a world disability arts leaders forum on the current status and direction of disability arts in New Zealand.
CATEGORIES: Arts accessibility Latest news and blog
Share this
