Samoan artist awarded artist-in-residence

Transcript

Samoan visual artist Siliga Setoga has been awarded Creative New Zealand's 2015 artist-in-residence at the National University of Samoa.

He will spend three months in Apia this August to October working on projects that explore cultural identity.

Auckland-born Siliga says he views the residency as an opportunity to return to the source of his identity which will help him further understand his culture.

He told Moera Tuilaepa-Taylor he will also explore the MAU movement, the Samoan independence movement as part of his residency.

SILIGA SETOGA: The aspect of the MAU, when I go over the entangled islands exhibition that was at the Auckland war memorial museum and will be opening at the museum of Samoa I think it is the 3rd of August. So I will be up there for the opening night. My work in that exhibition deals with handing down our historical knowledge in out traditional spaces especially here in New Zealand and so for me it was about going back and investigating which would probably be now three to four generations from those leaders. I really wanted to take an approach where I wasn't just looking at books but talking to the families of those leaders, how much of the stories of their great grandparents where handed down to them. It is quite a full on project I don't know how far I will get with it and I will probably start with the pupils and staff at the national university as a starting point.

MOERA TUILAEPA TAYLOR: And once you've done as much of the work as you will carry out during the residency what do you want people to get out of it?

SS: So the piece that I want to get out of it  especially with the MAU is a portrait piece which connects [the] grandchild with their grandparents I mean great grandparents or you know those figures who were quite important in the MAU at the time. And for me I am trying to target the children of those leaders. Not only as a reminder of the heritage that they come from but then whatever work comes from that collaboration to sort of act as a starting point to question what the MAU is? I also find there is a huge contradiction of what it means to be Samoan in Aotearoa. Yet we don't hand that history down. Especially within our traditional spaces like our churches as much as we can learn about the bible I think that we also need to hand down the struggle of our people within those spaces so that the Samoan youth in Aotearoa or you know all the different cultures learn about how far their people have come to be at this point. You know just for me its a sense of value.