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ARTS
PASIFIKA AWARDS - DISTINCTIVE, FRESH & VIBRANT |
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By Undine Marshfield - Creative New Zealand |
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The Arts Pasifika Awards
2004 were presented to leading Pacific artists at a ceremony hosted by
Her Excellency the Honourable Dame Silvia Cartwright at Government
House in Wellington.
The annual Arts Pasifika Awards, presented by the Pacific Arts
Committee of Creative New Zealand, are the only awards in New Zealand
aimed at professional Pacific artists across all artforms. The
Associate Minister for Culture, Arts and Heritage Hon. Judith Tizard
presented the inaugural Heritage Arts Award and the Iosefa Enari
Memorial Award for Pacific opera singers.
This year’s recipients are Wellington actor and director Nathaniel Lees
- Senior Pacific Islands Artist Award; Auckland artistic director and
performer Lemi Ponifasio - Pacific Innovation and Excellence Award;
former Christchurch multi-media artist Lonnie Hutchinson - Emerging
Pacific Islands Artist Award; Wellington tenor Bonaventure Allan-Moetaua
- Iosefa Enari Memorial Award; and Auckland tufunga tàmaka Kepueli
Vaomotou - Heritage Arts Award.
Chair of the Pacific Arts Committee Marilyn Kohlhase said the Arts
Pasifika Awards celebrate Pacific artists and their contribution to New
Zealand’s “rich artistic landscape and its international profile as a
creative Pacific nation. The recipients of these Awards produce work
that is distinctive, fresh and vibrant, and are all committed to
pursuing excellence in their work.”
Nathaniel Lees: (Samoa) of Wellington was awarded the $6000
Senior Pacific Islands Artist Award. Nathaniel Lees is one of New
Zealand’s most respected actors and theatre directors. Over his 30-year
career, he has been a source of inspiration and a role model for many
young actors and performers. In 1993, he received the major award for
Pacific Island artists from the Council for Mäori and South Pacific
Arts (MASPAC) for services to theatre. In 1995, he won the Chapman
Tripp Theatre Award for Best Director for his work Think of a Garden.
He has also worked extensively in television and film. Recent film
credits include Captain Mifune in Matrix Reloaded and Matrix
Revolutions, Ugluk in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
Nathaniel’s directing credits include Fresh |
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The
Arts Pasifika Awards 2004 hosted by Her Excellency the
Honourable Dame Silvia Cartwright at Government House in
Wellington. |
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Multi-media artist Lonnie Hutchinson (Samoa / Mäori – Ngai Tahu)
is awarded the Emerging Pacific Islands Artist Award by Her
Excellency the Honourable Dame Silvia Cartwright. |
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Artistic director Lemi Ponifasio (Samoa) is awarded the Pacific
Innovation and Excellence Award by Her Excellency the Honourable
Dame Silvia Cartwright. |
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Off The Boat, A Frigate
Bird Sings, Think of a Garden, Awhi Tapu and Foh Sarn- Fire Mountain.
He also directed and acted in Albert Wendt’s play, The Songmaker’s
Chair, which played to sell-out houses at the AK03 festival in
Auckland, 2003 and at the 2004 New Zealand International Arts Festival
in Wellington.
Lemi Ponifasio: (Samoa) of Auckland was awarded the $5000
Pacific Innovation and Excellence Award. For the past 20 years, Lemi
Ponifasio has been creating challenging and stunning productions, both
as an independent artist and as the founder and artistic director of
international performance ensemble MAU. His works include Fish of the
Day, Illumina, Lo’omatua, Ava, Umu/Rise, Bone Flute, Haka and Paradise.
Regarded as being at the forefront of international avant garde
theatre, Lemi Ponifasio has performed at the Adelaide Festival, Venice
Biennale and Prague Quadrennial. In 2005, Paradise will begin a world
tour of international festivals.
Lonnie Hutchinson: (Samoa/Mäori – Ngai Tahu) of Auckland was
awarded the $3000 Emerging Pacific Islands Artist Award. Lonnie
Hutchinson moved from Auckland to Christchurch in 2000, and earlier
this year moved to Brisbane after a seven-week international artist
residency for indigenous artists at Canada’s Banff Art Centre.
Her work speaks strongly of her heritage and often confronts
socio-political issues. A multi-media artist, she works in painting,
sculpture, installation, moving image and performance. She has an
extensive and varied body of work that’s been exhibited and performed
nationally and internationally.
In 2000, Lonnie was the first female artist to be awarded the Pacific
Island Artist in Residency at the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific
Studies at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch. The
culmination of this was Coconut Dreams, an exhibition of “symbols” of
Pacific culture, which reworked the connotations of the lei and the
friendly Pacific smile.
She has lived in Christchurch since 2000 and has only recently moved to
Brisbane. Her installation, Sista Girl, features in the current Art &
Industry Urban Arts Biennial in Christchurch, SCAPE 2004.
Bonaventure Allan-Moetaua: (Cook Islands) of Auckland was
awarded the $6500 Iosefa Enari Memorial Award. Tenor Bonaventure Allan-Moetaua
was a member of the 2001-2002 New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir and
has also been a member of the award-winning TOWER New Zealand Youth
Choir for the past two years.
Born in Wellington he also went to school there before moving to
Auckland to study. Last year, he made his solo debut in Auckland and
because of his outstanding voice and musical potential won a
scholarship to study voice at the University of Auckland. He has since
been accepted into the Bachelor of Music Programme at the University of
Auckland majoring in voice.
Kepueli Vaomotou: (Tonga) of Auckland was awarded the inaugural
$3000 Heritage Arts Award. The late Kepueli Vaomotou was known for his
nimamea’a (magic hands). He worked as a tufunga tàmaka, an artist
working with stone. This traditional Tongan artform – also known as
tufunga tämaka – was used to construct royal tombs, royal house
foundations and aristocratic resting places. Kepueli Vaomotou used the
traditional knowledge and practice of the artform in original and
innovative ways.
For further information please contact Undine Marshfield, Senior Media
and Communications Adviser, Creative New Zealand.
Tel: 04-498 0725; Mobile: 0274 965 925; Email:
undinem@creativenz.govt.nz
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Copyright Event Polynesia Ltd.
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