As part of Our Ocean of Islands, each participating island nation are hosting community days where the knowledge holders of the exhibition share their cultural practices. Join us this month as we celebrate Papua New Guinea alongside knowledge holder Julia Mage’au Gray, with an opportunity to learn more about Mekeo culture through performance, conversation and a live skin marking demonstration.
10am – 11am
Witness Pākina, a performance installation sharing the intergenerational stories of knowledge holder Mali Gray (née Auki), Julia Mage’au Gray and Salevasa (Vasa) Etoli’una Gray. Join them as they retrace the Mekeo calendar amid a display of Mekeo (Kairuku) adornment.
12pm - 1pm
In conversation, cultural practitioners Julia Mage'au Gray (Mekeo) and Mokonui-a-rangi Smith (Māori) discuss their skin-marking practices and the challenges of balancing indigenous knowledge in today's world.
1pm – 5pm (last entry at 4pm)
Witness a Mekeo skin marking demonstration. Julia and Vasa mark their family members to reflect a practice they, along with their family, have been reclaiming over the previous decade. There will be opportunities throughout the day to informally speak with Mali and Julia about the Mekeo contribution to the exhibition. As well as watching the Tep Tok documentaries that capture their skin-marking reclamation journey.
Exhibition on now | Free
Our Ocean of Islands is a landmark exhibition bringing together the Indigenous knowledge systems and cultural practices of 24 Moana Oceania island nations. Developed with key knowledge holders from each island nation, the exhibition celebrates diverse Indigenous perspectives and explores the interconnections between peoples, lands, seas, and skies.
Julia Mage’au Gray is of Mekeo and Australian heritage and has been marking skin since 2013, transitioning into this cultural practice after many years as a dance practitioner, choreographer, and director of Sunameke Productions. It was her role in making the Tep Tok Documentaries, as part of the journey to raise awareness of the dying art form, that led her to become a skin-marking practitioner.
She uses the 'Hand Poke' and ‘Hand Tap’ methods of marking skin, guided by a number of Pasifika Tattoo Artists and taught by Laoma Oini, Tihoti Mataura, Croc Tatau and Pat Morrow. She is a doctoral candidate and is also a Professional Teaching Fellow at the School of Māori Studies and Pacific Studies | Te Wānanga o Waipapa, Waipapa Taumata Rau | The University of Auckland.
Mokonui-a-rangi Smith, is of Māori descent, hailing from Te Arawa, Tainui, Takitimu and Horouta waka, along with his European heritage. Training under his two teachers Croc Coulter and Inia Taylor, along with many who have guided him along the way, he works to keep furthering the art form to flourish and to be handed down to future generations.