The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT10) Catalogue

The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art 32 Projects Orientation day for the ACAPA Community Engagement Project team, GOMA / Photograph: Chloë Callistemon QAGOMA curators for Pacific Art meet with representatives of the Brisbane Tongan Community for the ACAPA Pasifika Community Engagement Project, GOMA / Photograph: Joe Ruckli • How can we more effectively understand, incorporate, uphold, convey and celebrate Pacific values in the way that we engage with artists, communities and audiences? • What role can Pasifika diaspora communities play in translating Pasifika values and knowledge frameworks for wider audiences? ACE aspires to embody the values of reciprocity and collaboration — not only in the outcomes of its endeavours, but also embedded in the way they are carried out. As such, the development, implementation and reporting of the ACE project involves a core group of nine local Pasifika young people with enthusiasm for and rich experience in the area of community engagement. Members of the core group are each based in south-east Queensland, including individuals actively contributing to — and extending the boundaries of — thought and practice across various fields, such as business, law, journalism, arts education, creative production, health and wellbeing, music, photography, illustration and design, poetry and creative writing, environmental advocacy and women’s development in both professional and grassroots settings. This diverse group identify, individually, as Chinese– Samoan, Chinese–Solomon Islander, Chuukese, Fijian, First Nations (Yidinji and Munanjali), Māori (Te-Aupōuri, Ngāti Maniapoto and Ngāti Toa Rangitira), Papua New Guinean, Samoan and South Sea Islander (descending from the Pentecost and Ambrym islands in Vanuatu). Each member contributes to the project in a way that draws on and highlights their unique strengths, experience and cultural perspectives; they act as co-designers, catalysts, writers and social media content creators with the unified purpose of guiding and advancing the learning process at the heart of the project. As a pilot project, ACE remains focused on six distinct community engagement activations within APT10 that extend the Gallery’s experience into the application of new approaches and deeper collaboration. The initiatives are being co-designed and implemented by project partners who were identified based on their work with communities with particular relevance to the artists and artworks featured in APT10. The first activation is led by Aotearoa New Zealand–based artist Alex Monteith and Kauhaukai Art Collective. Their dynamic and extensive collaboration with local Indigenous Elders as well as representatives of the Brisbane-based Ngāti Tahu community will bring to life the potency of their APT10 project, Kā Paroro o Haumumu, to support the reengagement of people with Indigenous foods and ancient food-production practices through textured and sensory community interactions. The second activation has fostered a unique partnership between the Brisbane Tongan Community (BTC) and Tonga-based collective, the Seleka International Art Society Initiative, through the design and delivery of an intergenerational learning space. This space extends the spirit of communal art-making at the core of the artists’ practice and resulted in the realisation of several elements of their installation, Hifo ki ‘Olunga 2021, including its woven exterior. A third activation engages with Sydney-based artist Salote Tawale, who considers creative ways to draw from and celebrate personal connections to the Fijian diaspora. In this way she honours the links that her installation, No Location 2021, has to indigenous stories and methods of making. Brian Fuata’s direct engagement with Brisbane-based Conscious Mic — towards the realisation of his Open Studio project, Errantucation (mist opportunities) 2021 — signifies a fourth ACE activation. Conscious Mic is a collective of Pasifika, First Nations and culturally and linguistically diverse artists and creatives. Their engagement in both the development and activation of Fuata’s work responds to the artist’s research and improvised performances; and foregrounds principles of relationship-building, physical audience interaction with objects and space, and ceremony and ritual. The ACE project has also supported two community-led activations. The first involves Mary Harm, in connection to her extensive work with the Pacific Climate Warriors Brisbane and the Pacific Islands Council for Queensland’s Climate Network. It provides the opportunity for distinct community groups to engage in conversation and creative responses to artworks from both Asia and the Pacific that speak to issues of climate change and environmental sustainability. The second, led by the Pasifika Women’s Alliance, focuses on generating insights on how engagement with art and indigenous languages from the Pacific can foster intergenerational learning within families as a primary, but challenged, space for effective transmission of cultural knowledge. Beyond this, ACE is also learning how to work with the Pasifika community to provide artwork labels in the language/s of the artists. For APT10, labels in 13 Pacific languages will be included across ten artist projects. The inclusion of labels in language plays a critical role in shaping the way that Pasifika audiences can engage with and value work on display while, at the same time, enriching wider audiences’ appreciation and understanding of the cultural context surrounding specific works. The ACE pilot project endeavours to result in recommendations that clarify the possibilities and potency for strengthening co-designed community engagement at QAGOMA. Even so, perhaps the most valuable outcomes are the relationships developed, the experience gained and the Gallery’s growing ability and willingness to actively learn from and with the community — outcomes that can have a positive impact on institutional culture. ACE’s focus on fostering interdepartmental collaboration within QAGOMA enables its members and systems to more effectively engage numerous and diverse stakeholders in an ongoing process of consultation, action and reflection. This provides the conditions for audiences and communities to discover and develop their own skills and strengths related to meaningful community engagement. Significantly, QAGOMA demonstrates agility and adaptability in applying newfound insights to transform the way we continue to involve and nurture communities through our exhibitions of Pacific art. Ruha Fifita Endnotes 1 As of 2011, Australia’s Pacific population was recognised as a group of 23 Pacific ancestries from across the Melanesian, Polynesian and Micronesian groupings of Pacific Island states and territories (including those of Māori descent). See Jioji Ravulo, ‘Pacific Communities in Australia’, School of Social Sciences and Psychology, University of Western Sydney, March 2019, <researchgate.net/ profile/Jioji-Ravulo/publication/331671922_Pacific_Communities_ in_Australia/links/5c872b86a6fdcc88c39c024e/Pacific-Communities- in-Australia.pdf>, viewed June 2021. 2 The Queensland region has a higher number and concentration of resident Pacific Islanders than any other state in Australia, with exponential growth projected to take place within the decade. See Ravulo. 3 Osanna Fa’ata’ape, interview with the author, 20 May 2021.