11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

Some 2397 kilometres — as the crow flies — to the north- east of Brisbane in the Pacific Ocean, there is a narrow, stingray-shaped island surrounded by reef. Lying in warm blue waters, this seemingly idyllic tropical island has a swampy centre that is home to crocodiles and malaria- carrying mosquitos. Despite these dangers, along the lagoon-facing edge of the island, Solomon Islanders have built a marine park settlement, where six men from three different communities live, on rotations of three months at a time, to monitor and protect the nesting sites of one of the world’s most critically endangered turtle species — the hawksbill sea turtle ( Eretmochelys imbricata ). The island, and the surrounding isles and waters, are known as the Arnarvon Islands, which are situated in the northernmost Solomon Archipelago, midway between the island provinces of Choiseul and Saint Isabel. Arnarvon was once the hunting ground of the Roviana headhunters from New Georgia Island, who, during the nineteenth century, caught thousands of hawksbill sea turtles each year, trading them for iron with whaling ship crews, who would, in turn, sell the shells in London. The beautiful brown shells of these creatures — who swim thousands of kilometres to our own shores in north Queensland as part of their annual migration — were highly valued for making hair combs and snuff boxes, fashionable accessories for the aristocratic class at the time. The Roviana men, meanwhile, used the iron to create axes and other weapons for their violent raids on surrounding islands. 1 Quite apart from this bloody history, I first heard of the island and the community-run marine park from Robyn James, a former director of The Nature Conservancy Melanesian Conservation program. James had been working with some 50 women from the three communities of Katupika, Wagina and Kia for a number of years, supporting them to connect with the work that their men were doing on Arnarvon. 2 With QAGOMA curatorial staff having previously worked with four artists from Choiseul Island on the Women’s Wealth project for ‘The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ in 2018, Arnarvon thus became a newly sustained focus of the Gallery’s research in the Pacific for this Triennial. 3 Called KAWAKI, this women’s collective is named by using the first two letters of their communities — Katupika, Wagina and Kia. KAWAKI’s commitment to the three C’s — community, conservation and culture — was evident, and their dedication became even more apparent when we attended the inaugural Arnarvon intercultural festival in 2022. The festival provided an important opportunity for the women from Katupika women knotting kuza fibres, Katupika 2023 / Photograph: Peter Gardner KAWAKI ESTABLISHED 2016, ARNARVON ISLANDS, SOLOMON ISLANDS LAVINIAPUPURUDENSON (LEAD ARTIST FORWOMEN OF KATUPIKA), B.1977, SOLOMON ISLANDS TRACYAGNES LAMANA (LEAD ARTIST FORWOMEN OF KIA), B.1986, SOLOMON ISLANDS DILLYNADARIKOMAEZAMA (LEAD ARTIST FORWOMEN OF KIA), B.1983, SOLOMON ISLANDS INDYOREBAMEREKI (LEAD ARTIST FORWOMEN OFWAGINA ISLAND), B.1988, SOLOMON ISLANDS MONE RIMONPATRICK (LEAD ARTIST FORWOMEN OFWAGINA ISLAND), B.1974, SOLOMON ISLANDS MARGERYABUOFAZESAPA (LEAD ARTIST FORWOMEN OF KATUPIKA), B.1993, SOLOMON ISLANDS LIVE +WORK IN KATUPIKA, WAGINA + KIA VILLAGES DREAMCAST THEATRE ESTABLISHED 2006, HONIARA, SOLOMON ISLANDS ZHAYJAY JNRCAMPION , B.1996, HONIARA KRISMANA , B.1997, HONIARA NEILNUIA , B.1988, HONIARA GILLIANOTI , B.1986, HONIARA IVANUTAHENUA , B.1990, HONIARA WILLARDWEST , B.2002, HONIARA LIVE +WORK IN HONIARA KAWAKI AND DREAMCAST THEATRE each community to learn and, by extension, appreciate more about each other’s distinctive culture. One of KAWAKI’s goals for the festival was to provide opportunities for intergenerational learning, which involved women, aged from their twenties to their seventies, dancing, cooking, weaving, singing, swimming and eating together, and, of course, sharing their stories. Consequently, over the five days of the festival, there was much laughter and bonding, as well as important opportunities for learning. Highlights of the festivities involved the haunting songs and a cappella singing of the Kia women; however, not all the stories the women shared were positive, with rates of domestic violence and poverty high in each community. 4 The festival provided an invaluable, safe environment for the women to build networks of understanding and support as they talked and sang, cooked and wove — as hands move in unison, the hardest truths are faced. In shaping the curatorial premise for KAWAKI’s involvement in this Triennial, we began with the women’s stories, songs and weavings, together with the natural beauty and vulnerability of the Arnavon Islands and its endangered turtles. These threads felt like the beginning of an important component of the Triennial — but how to bring these strands together? The answer came in reconnecting with the extraordinary Lepping twins, filmmaker Regina and artist Georgianna, in Honiara, while en route to the Arnarvon Islands — Regina and ARTISTS+PROJECTS ASIAPACIFICTRIENNIAL 120 — 121