Language People

Vaimala Urale, Tattoo Session 3, Video still image, 2008

Curated by Janet Lilo

Artists include: Johnny Angel, Leilani Burgoyne, Lily Laita, Siliga David Setoga, Mua Strickson-Pua, Tuafale Tanoai (aka Linda T), Nooroa Tapuni, Nooroa Te Hira, Vaimaila Urale, Albert Wendt

4 to 18 March
Opening: 5 to 7pm, Tuesday 3 March 2009
Spoken word event: 5.30pm to 7pm Tuesday 10 March 2009

Language People is a curated exhibition that explores the nature of verbal and visual language. Across painting, video installation and cartooning the artists engage with language.

Along side established painter Lily Laita, pacific writer Albert Wendt, will showcase new paintings, while emerging artists Linda Tanoai, Vaimaila Urale and Nooroa Tapuni narrate and document with video Installations. Fellow artists and cartoonists, Johnny Angel and Nooroa Te Hira both tell pacific stories through cartooning.

Mua Strickson-Pua is a poet, artist and community educator who will host the exhibition’s spoken word event. This free event will run from 5.30pm to 7pm on Tuesday 10 March.

This exhibition is proudly supported by Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust and is in conjunction with the Pacifica Festival.

Address:		1 Ponsonby Rd, Newton, Auckland
Phone:		(09) 376 3221
Fax:		(09) 307 7645
Email:		artstation@aucklandcity.govt.nz

Nuclear Fallout – Fiji – On YouTube

Still from SBS / Dateline article

Hundreds of Fijian servicemen may have been deliberately exposed to radiation by the British government to test the potency of their nuclear weapons. Paul Ah Poy was just 19 when he was sent to Christmas Island in the Pacific and ordered to help monitor nuclear tests. He bitterly regrets his service to the British crown. After the tests, he began to suffer chronic health problems. His hair and fingernails fell out, 59 tumours were removed from his body and his only child failed to develop properly and died suddenly when she was three. Other servicemen from the Island have also been plagued by potentially fatal health problems. They are angry that they were not warned of the dangers. “They used us,” complains fellow veteran Pita Rokorata. The British government has always denied this, but secret documents reveal the truth.

Watch on YouTube

Produced by SBS / Dateline
Distributed by Journeyman Pictures