MAKING SPACE: FIKA Writers

FIKA are a collective of Pasifika writers based in Ōtautahi, who have been meeting together regularly to write since 2004.  

The fika, or imagined Pasifika body, is not one image, not one place or story; but many. Held together by ocean and land, South of the South Pacific locale, closer to snowy mountains than tropical palm trees - there are many ways to fika (figure) being Pasifika. Fika is as varied as its writers, but always remains grounded in the Pacific.   

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“...where inner and outer meet,
face to face, island to island,
home to home"
(from After swimming for a long time, you finally...O’Halloran, 2008).

Founded in 2004 following a CNZ workshop for emerging Pasifika writers, FIKA grew out of the need to keep on writing. Members of the collective meet to give energy to the practice of storytelling through writing, poetry, prose and performance. Through collaboration and exchange, FIKA maintain a sense of oral tradition and work to strengthen the voices of Pasifika peoples within Ōtautahi.

FIKA writers occupy the west north void gallery and surrounds, transforming these spaces into an active writing studio, wallpapered with large-scale photographic images of FIKA members' home interiors. These domestic portraits 'spaces not faces’ show where FIKA meet, write, email, connect, dream. FIKA writers intend this space making to be open-ended - a 'Welcome Home' kind of engagement, where private worlds of local PasiFIKA writers meet public worlds and intersect with other collectives’ lived art practises. FIKA will occupy the Gallery space, setting up a writers’ studio/ space in which to write and display text alongside mixed media artworks, audio visual material and sound recordings.

FIKA writers aim to use the space at CoCA to ignite local Pasifika creatives to revisit central space again, a homage in many ways to the space that Pacific Undergound held at the Christchurch Arts Centre for more than 10 years pre-quakes. FIKA looks forward to developing connections with other artists and their communities and also to encouraging more of their Pasifika community into the city and CoCA itself.

Leading local Pasifika creatives, such as Tusiata Avia and new emerging youth theatre collective Y | NOT are invited to lead workshops in the space.

Pacific people recognise space as relational and sacred. FIKA’s writing over the duration will focus on our experiences, thoughts and responses to the conflicting cultural concepts of space, its politics and negotiations, its convergence with time and our own sense of alterity within. Working alongside the other collectives, we anticipate new conversations and perspectives around an experience, lived daily.

FIKA Writers at CoCA project has been led by FIKA members - Stephanie Oberg, Danielle O’Halloran, Ana Mulipola, and long time supporter Tusiata Avia, with contributing FIKA creatives Edmund Whiteside,Jess Marama, Sarah Maindonald, Lupe Asi, Laione Masefau Asi, and Susitina Petelo. More than twenty other creatives still support and remain a part of the FIKA family. You can find FIKA writers on soundcloud or @FIKA writers on facebook.

Photography by Janneth Gil. 

 

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The Artists

  • Ana Mulipola
    Ana Mulipola
    Ōtautahi

    "You are the duster in my hand, in yours
    Wiping the murk from the sky
    We are darkness, sparkling"
    From Stills of Summer by Ana Mulipola

    Ana Mulipola is a mother of two, mental health promoter, community broadcaster, proponent of gagana Samoa and creative. Ana's latest project is Te Tōnga o Te Rā, a three part web series she directed and executive produced. Ana also produces Hamo at Heart, a bilingual access radio show for and about Samoan Cantabrians. Ana's first love, however, is writing poetry. She has written since she was young and co-founded Fika Writers. Ana descends from the Samoa villages of Manono, Mauga, Safotu and Lalomanu. She is Christchurch born and bred.

  • Danielle O'Halloran
    Danielle O'Halloran
    Ōtautahi

    Danielle O’Halloran is an Ōtautahi based performance poet who anchors to Aotearoa, Samoa and an Irish sea of Pākehā homelands. Winner of the Hagley Writers National Poetry Day Competition 2016 and co-founder of FIKA Writers in 2004, Danielle compiled their first collection Fika - a fictional body of new writing in 2008. Danielle rep’d for her home town at the NZ Poetry slam finals in 2011, performing works from 'Song cycle for Sina' for which she was co-recipient of the Macmillan Brown Prize for Creative Writing in 2010. Danielle has been fortunate to perform with some legendary local creatives such as Pacific Underground, Tusiata Avia, Catalyst, Lady Poets and Militant Angels, but these days, when she’s not mentoring young poets from the Rising Voices Youth Poetry Movement, you can find her singing poems in her kitchen, @ FIKA Writers on soundcloud, sinarosaclouds on tumblr, or email her at some.call.me.sina@gmail.com

     

  • Stephanie Oberg
    Stephanie Oberg
    Ōtautahi

    Stephanie Oberg (MA) is an independent curator and writer of Cook Island heritage, based in Christchurch. She has a particular interest in Pacific arts (traditional and contemporary) and in fostering a more active Pacific art scene in Christchurch. Stephanie is a founder member of FIKA writers, Daughters of the Pacific and Tivavae Revival. Stephanie served for many years on the Creative NZ Pacific Arts Advisory committee and now sits on the board for the Physics Room in Christchurch. Much of Stephanie's contribution in curatorial and creative writing has reflected on the work of other Pacific artists - listen to her poem Blackbird for friend Lonnie Hutchinson and read her Perspective on pacific art in Christchurch.

  • Tusiata Avia
    Tusiata Avia
    Ōtautahi

    Tusiata Avia is a Samoan-New Zealand poet, performer and writer. She has had a long association with Christchurch’s FIKA collective, editing their self-titled publication and remains a proud supporter. She is also a huge fan of the other collectives involved in MAKING SPACE, particularly the fantastically fabulous Fafswag and the subversive sexy SaVage K'lub.

    Tusiata has published three books of poetry: Wild Dogs Under My Skirt, Bloodclot, Fale Aitu/Spirit House, a chapbook and two children’s books. Her one-woman theatre show (also called Wild Dogs Under My Skirt) toured internationally from 2002 to 2008 and was remounted as a show for six actresses in 2016.

    Tusiata has held a number of writers’ residencies and awards, including a Fulbright Pacific Artist Fellowship at the University of Hawai’i and the Janet Frame Literary Trust Award. This year she was shortlisted for the 2017 Ockham Best Book of Poetry. Currently she is working on a novel and living in Christchurch.

  • Y | NOT Collective
    Y | NOT Collective
    Ōtautahi

    The Y | NOT collective are a group of young Pasifika artists who just want to CREATE work, share some stories, and get in on some action.

    I mean... Why not?

    The Y | NOT crew includes Albany Peseta, Jake Arona, Talia-Rae Mavaenga, Susi Adoniah Afitu and Maxwell Siulangapo

Ana Mulipola
Ōtautahi

"You are the duster in my hand, in yours
Wiping the murk from the sky
We are darkness, sparkling"
From Stills of Summer by Ana Mulipola

Ana Mulipola is a mother of two, mental health promoter, community broadcaster, proponent of gagana Samoa and creative. Ana's latest project is Te Tōnga o Te Rā, a three part web series she directed and executive produced. Ana also produces Hamo at Heart, a bilingual access radio show for and about Samoan Cantabrians. Ana's first love, however, is writing poetry. She has written since she was young and co-founded Fika Writers. Ana descends from the Samoa villages of Manono, Mauga, Safotu and Lalomanu. She is Christchurch born and bred.

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Danielle O'Halloran
Ōtautahi

Danielle O’Halloran is an Ōtautahi based performance poet who anchors to Aotearoa, Samoa and an Irish sea of Pākehā homelands. Winner of the Hagley Writers National Poetry Day Competition 2016 and co-founder of FIKA Writers in 2004, Danielle compiled their first collection Fika - a fictional body of new writing in 2008. Danielle rep’d for her home town at the NZ Poetry slam finals in 2011, performing works from 'Song cycle for Sina' for which she was co-recipient of the Macmillan Brown Prize for Creative Writing in 2010. Danielle has been fortunate to perform with some legendary local creatives such as Pacific Underground, Tusiata Avia, Catalyst, Lady Poets and Militant Angels, but these days, when she’s not mentoring young poets from the Rising Voices Youth Poetry Movement, you can find her singing poems in her kitchen, @ FIKA Writers on soundcloud, sinarosaclouds on tumblr, or email her at some.call.me.sina@gmail.com

 

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Stephanie Oberg
Ōtautahi

Stephanie Oberg (MA) is an independent curator and writer of Cook Island heritage, based in Christchurch. She has a particular interest in Pacific arts (traditional and contemporary) and in fostering a more active Pacific art scene in Christchurch. Stephanie is a founder member of FIKA writers, Daughters of the Pacific and Tivavae Revival. Stephanie served for many years on the Creative NZ Pacific Arts Advisory committee and now sits on the board for the Physics Room in Christchurch. Much of Stephanie's contribution in curatorial and creative writing has reflected on the work of other Pacific artists - listen to her poem Blackbird for friend Lonnie Hutchinson and read her Perspective on pacific art in Christchurch.

View artwork
Tusiata Avia
Ōtautahi

Tusiata Avia is a Samoan-New Zealand poet, performer and writer. She has had a long association with Christchurch’s FIKA collective, editing their self-titled publication and remains a proud supporter. She is also a huge fan of the other collectives involved in MAKING SPACE, particularly the fantastically fabulous Fafswag and the subversive sexy SaVage K'lub.

Tusiata has published three books of poetry: Wild Dogs Under My Skirt, Bloodclot, Fale Aitu/Spirit House, a chapbook and two children’s books. Her one-woman theatre show (also called Wild Dogs Under My Skirt) toured internationally from 2002 to 2008 and was remounted as a show for six actresses in 2016.

Tusiata has held a number of writers’ residencies and awards, including a Fulbright Pacific Artist Fellowship at the University of Hawai’i and the Janet Frame Literary Trust Award. This year she was shortlisted for the 2017 Ockham Best Book of Poetry. Currently she is working on a novel and living in Christchurch.

View artwork
Y | NOT Collective
Ōtautahi

The Y | NOT collective are a group of young Pasifika artists who just want to CREATE work, share some stories, and get in on some action.

I mean... Why not?

The Y | NOT crew includes Albany Peseta, Jake Arona, Talia-Rae Mavaenga, Susi Adoniah Afitu and Maxwell Siulangapo

View artwork
Welcome Home Installation. 2017. Photo: Janneth Gil 

Welcome Home Installation. 2017. Photo: Janneth Gil 
Welcome Home, Tusiata Avia, Y | NOT Collective, Stephanie Oberg, Ana Mulipola, Danielle O'Halloran
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Photo: Janneth Gil


FIKA Writers studio for the duration of MAKING SPACE features the spaces where they connect, write and dream, personal furniture and facilities for writing. 
Writer In Residence: Tusiata Avia, Tusiata Avia
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Aclaimed writer Tusiata Avia will occupy the FIKA writers studio at CoCA during MAKING SPACE. She will use this time to work on her upcoming novel. Later in the programme she will be running a Creative Writing Workshop.