The Pacifica Mamas embrace both tradition and innovation

Since the early 1980s the arts collective Pacifica Mamas (and more recently Papas) has kept traditional Island arts and crafts skills not only alive but flourishing and in the public gaze. These hugely respected heritage artists and cultural leaders from around the Pacific believe in sharing the love they have for arts and crafts through their own work and through exhibitions, workshops, and their school Pacific education programme. Earlier this year they strung a giant ei or garland made of upcycled plastic around the Auckland Town Hall as a gift to the city. Now they're taking over a West Auckland gallery space that they're renaming, and filling with art works, crafts and laughter. It's called Moanaroa: Home of the Pacifica Mamas. Lynn Freeman talks to the curator of the Waitakere Contemporary Gallery, Ioana Gordon-Smith, who says the Pacifica Mamas and Papas embrace both tradition and innovation