Lealaivaega (2024)

Lealaivaega is an exploration of place, a recreation, reclamation and remembering of the artist’s late grandmother’s Māngere East home and garden. Imbued with alofa and nostalgia, it also acknowledges the significance of domestic spaces for immigrants in the diaspora.

The work uses old family videos and photos, anecdotes, flowers, as well as items from the home to illustrate vignettes of memory, which are presented in an almost dreamlike sequence. The choral soundtrack from 1974 features my grandmother and three other family members. Locating this work back in the CBD acknowledges the rich Pasifika history that the inner city of Aukilani has, of which the artist’s grandmother and aiga were part of. Lealaivaega is the Sāmoan name that the artist and her grandmother share.

In loving memory, alofa tele.