Out of Context is a project born from the need to document a generation of Aotearoa Pacific Islanders born to the waves of immigrants from last century and also a chance to share our stories with our cousins, the children of Urban Maori.
It was conceived after a project I had worked on with my mother and sister that aimed to contrast the differences between two generations of dancers. Both dancers had obvious differences within the context of their performances but the connections were also very apparent in how they carried themselves and in the grace and love felt through their artform. Seeing this contrast and knowing one does not exist without the other I had to ask the question - who are we as the children born with the love of our parents for their culture and yet raised as a generation of changers with a split in cultural inheritance direct from two or more cultures?
Out Of Context is my ongoing attempt to answer this with the voices of a generation unique to Aotearoa, a generation that I call changers - the first to be born of that Pacific wave, melding with our Maori family in Aotearoa who had already been touched by the changes brought by migration from ancestral lands to cities. This was also a chance to leave a legacy of identity captured in a moment and as honest as possible to the sitters, a process that would make me realise that a duty of care was demanded with tis project as it was no longer my project but something that belonged to all of us.
Much respect and love to all that have gifted me with their time and stories.