In this session, the Central City Library are honored to host a talanoa with two of the publication writers: Jonjon Tolovae and Benjamin Work who will be discussing their own experiences and ideas of home.
Jonjon Tolovae is a fa‘afafine writer and artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau whose work interrogates the intersections of gender, cultural identity and diasporic memory within contemporary Pacific arts praxis. Grounded in the intellectual and aesthetic traditions of Moana storytelling, her practice engages critically with the politics of representation, the instability of normative gender frameworks and the ongoing negotiation of selfhood in postcolonial contexts.
Benjamin Work is a Tāmaki Makaurau–based artist of Tongan and Orcadian/Shetlander lineage, holding an MFA from Elam School of Fine Arts. His practice integrates contemporary and traditional influences, reflecting the layered complexities of Moana Oceania identity, and centres on what he terms tu‘u vaha‘a “occupying the in-between”, a space through which he navigates the stories of his maternal lineage and his lived experience in Aotearoa. In 2024, he was awarded an artist residency at Parehuia, McCahon House, and became the inaugural winner of the Fatu Feu‘u Pacific Arts Prize.
Tāmaki untold: conversations celebrating the taonga, stories and creativity of Auckland. A curated monthly talk series held in the Whare Wānanga hosted by Research and Heritage Services, Auckland Libraries.
Ticketholders are kindly asked to extend the courtesy of cancelling tickets if they are no longer able to attend, so tickets can be released to others.
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