16 Oct 2024
The recipients of Creative New Zealand’s annual Arts Pasifika Awards 2024 were celebrated at a ceremony this evening at the Beehive in Wellington.
Hon Paul Goldsmith, Minister for Arts, Culture & Heritage hosted the awards in association with Creative New Zealand’s governing Arts Council and Chair Kent Gardner.
The awards celebrate excellence in Pacific Arts across multiple arts disciplines and genres and have been offered since 1996 via public nominations.
The seven award categories speak to the range of artistic and creative disciplines in which Pasifika peoples contribute and excel, from poetry to photography, contemporary to classical music, and heritage to multi-media arts.
Hon Goldsmith announced the Arts Council’s creation of an eighth award category from 2025, which will focus on business and creative enterprise.
Chair Kent Gardner says the sustainability of artists and growing the creative economy with global opportunities is a big focus of the Arts Council’s Pacific Arts Strategy 2023 – 2028.
“The annual awards are a fantastic celebration of innovative and talented Pacific artists, and it was wonderful to have our Minister host our celebrations at Parliament this year, together with our creative community leaders, partners and co-investors, family and friends,’’ Kent says.
Recipient of the Emerging Pacific Artists Award, Sione Tuívailala Monū is an artist working at the junctions of identity and artforms. They explore Pasifika queer experience across multiple disciplines.
Edith Amituana’i MNZM is the recipient of the Pacific Contemporary Artist Award. She uses photography and film to tell stories of Pacific people around the world.
The Pacific Heritage Arts Award went to Signature Choir that promotes Pacific language and culture with its lush choral harmonies and fresh arrangements.
Opera singer Emmanuel Fonoti-Fuimaono was awarded the Iosefa Enari Memorial Award in recognition of his growing reputation as a tenor.
Visual artist Falefatu Carreras-Enari is the son of the late Iosefa Enari and was one of two recipients of the Pacific Toa Award. The other Pacific Toa Award winner this year is Max Stowers for his life-long contribution to Pacific music in New Zealand and globally. The award recognises the contribution of a Pasifika artist with the lived experience of disability.
The Special Recognition Award went to Leafa Wilson aka Olga Hedwig Krause. Her career as an artist, writer, curator, and performance artist spans 40 years.
Writer, poet, and performer Tusiata Avia MNZM received the Senior Pacific Artist award, continuing a run of awards and accolades for her work.
Toi Aotearoa member Jannita Pilisi is one of two Pasifika members on the Arts Council and presented the Senior Pacific Artist award.
“The awards are so special because Toi Aotearoa is recognising established and emerging talent in our Pacific communities. The Arts Council champions artistic and creative excellence and ‘ki a monuina’ to all the winners for their achievements,” Jannita says.
Read more about each of the 2024 recipients below.
- Senior Pacific Artist ($25,000) - Tusiata Avia MNZM
- Pacific Heritage Arts Award ($10,000) – Signature Choir
- Pacific Toa Award ($10,000, two awards in 2024) – Max Stowers and
- Falefatu Carreras-Enari
- Pacific Contemporary Artist Award ($10,000) – Edith Amituana’i MNZM
- Special Recognition Award ($10,000) – Leafa Wilson
- Iosefa Enari Memorial Award ($7,500) – Emmanuel Fonoti-Fuimaono
- Emerging Pacific Artist Award ($7,500) – Sione Monū
Senior Pacific Artist Award | Tusiata Avia MNZM
Tusiata Avia is a writer, poet and a performer who has won acclaim nationally and internationally for her bold, fearless, and often funny work. She was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to poetry and the arts in the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours.
Tusiata draws on her personal life and her Samoan (Matautu, Lefaga) and New Zealand European heritage to tell stories that others can’t or won’t. In the space of just five books, she has developed a reputation as one of Aotearoa's most acclaimed poets.
Her firsts as a female Pasifika poet include winning the 2021 Ockham Book Award for Poetry with The Savage Coloniser Book and receiving the 2023 Prime Minister's Award for Literature (Poetry).
Pacific Heritage Arts Award | Signature Choir
Co-directed by Fepuleai Helen Tupai and Jadrah Tupai, Signature Choir was founded in 2018 to display and highlight the beauty and vibrancy of Pacific languages and cultures.
The choir promotes Pacific language and culture through performing Pacific music in unexpected ways, merging traditional Pacific songs with classical instruments.
Signature Choir developed and performed the ‘Mana Moana’ showcase of traditional Pacific song with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. The choir was awarded the ‘Best Gospel Artist’ award at the 20th Pacific Music Awards in August 2024.
Pacific Toa Award | Falefatu Carreras Enari
Falefatu’s artworks are often a narration of his lived experience of being a Pasifika person with disabilities. Modern and traditional Pasifika motifs are woven through his work to depict his identity and experiences.
Starting at Mapura Art Studio in 2010 was a turning point for Falefatu. The studio nurtured his artistic abilities, and he began creating bold and vibrant paintings.
Falefatu is the son of the late opera singer Iosefa Enari. Creative New Zealand presents the Iosefa Enari Memorial Award as part of the Arts Pasifika Awards, recognising excellence in classical music.
Pacific Toa Award | Max Stowers
Max is a Pasifika musician and composer who has contributed to the music industry in New Zealand and globally for over 45 years.
Max has contributed to his Pacific community by mentoring and tutoring young Pasifika musicians and is a role model for emerging talent.
He was one of the first composers in NZ to release a Pacific jazz album, Malaga. The album is entirely his own original music and infuses Pacific instruments such as log drums and ukelele to create his unique sound.
Max’s latest project is orchestral arrangements of 1950s and 1960s music with the popular Pacific music that interweaves his own fanau's historical musical journey.
Pacific Contemporary Artist Award | Edith Amituana’i MNZM
Edith uses photography and film to tell the stories of Pacific people around the world. In 2007, she was the inaugural recipient of the Marti Friedlander Photography Award, and the following year she was the first Walters Prize nominee of Pacific descent for her exhibition, Dejeuner.
In 2019, Edith became a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to photography and community. Her first major survey exhibition, Edith Amituanai: Double Take, opened at the Adam Art Gallery in Wellington the same year.
Edith is now using film as another way to tell interesting, compassionate and powerful stories about Pacific experiences.
Special Recognition Award | Leafa Wilson
Leafa Wilson aka Olga Hedwig Krause has an artistic career spanning 40 years. She is an accomplished artist, art curator and writer, as well as being revered for her experimental performance and installation art. She is a New Zealand-born Samoan (Vaimoso/Sinamoga/Fasito’otai) and her Pacific heritage is central to her practice.
Alongside her career-building work, Leafa has contributed to the ongoing vitality of Pacific arts through her involvement in community groups, workshops, and projects.
Leafa’s paintings have been included in numerous group and solo exhibitions nationally and internationally.
Iosefa Enari Memorial Award | Emmanuel Fonoti-Fuimaono
Emmanuel is a New Zealand-born Samoan opera singer who is having great success early in his career as an operatic tenor.
Emmanuel was introduced to opera in 2013 through the Project Prima Volta Youth Initiative.
By 2022, he was a finalist in the Lexus Song Quest, winning the Dame Kiri Te Kanawa Prize for Potential. A few months later, he won the Lockwood New Zealand Aria Competition. Last year he won Australia’s premiere singing competition, the Sydney Eisteddfod Opera Award, competing against singers with decades more experience.
Emmanuel has worked with most opera companies in New Zealand with roles in La Boheme, Madama Butterfly, La Traviata, Lucia di Lammermoor, and Macbeth.
Emerging Pacific Artist Award | Sione Tuívailala Monū
Sione Tuívailala Monū (they/them) is an artist of the Tongan diaspora whose practice explores identity, family and Pasifika queer experience in the diaspora.
Sione lives between Canberra and Auckland and works across the mediums of photography, moving-image, fashion and adornment, and performance.
They layer narratives to reflect on philosophy, social media and daily life, creating unique works that connect with audiences in a real and immediate way.
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