Noa'ia!
On this page you'll find content from previous Rotuma Language Weeks.
Rocky Ralifo is the only Rotuman club carver in Aotearoa, and likely one of very few in the world. Former Collection Manager, Pacific Ruby Satele explores Rocky’s work within the traditional art form and his aspirations for its greater recognition and resurgence.
For Rotuman Language Week 2020, Fesaitu Solomone hosted two Zoom talanoa, the first of which highlighted one Rotuman cultural treasure in the Museum's collection, Tales of a Lonely Island. This book is a gateway for learners of the Rotuman language, and one that became incredible scarce until it was republished in 1995. You can read more about the book and its many community connections in this blog by Associate Curator, Heritage Publications Paula Legel and Associate Curator, Documentary Heritage (Pacific Collections), Leone Samu.
The Ngā Kākano series is an invitation for our communities to come in and learn from respected Māori and Pacific leaders and experts, who share insights and expertise across Te Ao Māori and Te Moana Nui a Kiwa. For the inaugural Rotuman Language Week in 2020 we took our Ngā Kākano Wānanga into the digital realm. A special two-part Ngā Kākano Series focusing on Rotuma brings members of the Rotuman community together with Museum kaitiaki to showcase and celebrate Rotuman treasures from our collection.
On the eve of Rotuman Language Week, Associate Curator Pacific Andrea Low met with artist Sofia Tekela-Smith to look at some of Sofia’s artworks. Tekela-Smith's life as well as her art practice was shaped by her journey as an infant back to Rotuma, where she was raised by her grandmother, Mue Tekela. Unlike many Aotearoa-born Rotuman people of her generation, Sofia grew up speaking Rotuman as her first language.
Here, Tekela-Smith holds Sofia, a sculptural self-portrait that plays on the outdated notion of Pacific women as ‘dusky maidens’. Echoing 50s-era chalkware heads, these were once common retro depictions of Pacific people, a reference that Tekela-Smith has reclaimed in her work.
The sculpture Sofia wears a tēfui, referencing the Rotuman ceremonial garlands that have star-like motifs or ‘fui’ and are made from fragrant flowers, fruit, and leaves. The number of fui depends on the wearer and the occasion but there can be up to seven in a garland. Tekela-Smith's single fui is made from a layered cluster of mother-of-pearl pieces that is then threaded onto woven waxed thread with a glimmer of gold wire.
Tekela-Smith's jewellery practice reflects the notion that art is a part of life, present in every day. Though they have adorned many gallery walls over the years, breastplates like the one Tekela-Smith wears here are made to be worn by people as they would have been by her ancestors.
Carrying the materials and forms from her forebears through to here and now, Tekela-Smith's pieces carry many small, intimate trademarks, like the four-pointed shape she uses as fasteners. Collaborations with artist John Pule or her children have seen poetry and drawings engraved into pieces that can be worn, hidden, against the wearer's skin.
When Tekela-Smith returned to Aotearoa New Zealand at the age of fourteen, she brought with her the language of her maternal homeland, her lived experience in Rotuma and the stories of the communities that surrounded her there. All of these things are distilled in every piece of jewellery she makes, so a small piece of Rotuma, made by her, is carried off and worn in all corners of the globe.