Pearson and Reynolds

Norfolk Islanders Sue Pearson and Pauline Reynolds, artists and cultural practitioners, are invested in telling the stories of their homeland and encouraging the regeneration of the practice of making ’ahu (tapa), which in turn honours their tupuna wahine.

Dr Pauline Reynolds (Norfolk Island - Pitcairn, Tahiti, Huahine, European heritage) is a Pacific historian, writer and tapa artist. Her life’s work has been to uncover the stories of her tupuna vahine from Tahiti and Huahine. She is known for her collaborations with museums around the world, her replications of Tahitian and Pitcairn tapa clothing from the 1700s-1800s, and her revivalist academic and artistic practice. She is an Adjunct Fellow with the Department of Critical Indigenous Studies at Macquarie University and a founding member of the ‘Ahu Sistas collective.

Sue Pearson is a Norfolk Islander of Pitcairn descent. Sue grew up on Norfolk Island and has lived and worked in other islands of the Pacific including 20 years in Aotearoa. Sue now resides on Norfolk Island where she works from her home studio.

Sue has a BA Visual Arts, Newcastle University, 1988 majoring in printmaking. Her work is housed in permanent museum and private collections throughout the Pacific, USA, & Great Britain.

Pearson’s work enquires into and interprets her Norfolk ancestral heritage, narratives and ideas with a focus on upholding her tupuna wahine and expressing identity, culture and sociopolitical issues.

Sue is a member of the ‘Ahu Sistas’, a group of four women formed in 2006 around the preservation and revival of the tapa (barkcloth) making practices of their tupuna wahine of Hitiaurevareva (Pitcairn Island). Sue is also a founding member of Tapa Moana Nui, an Aotearoa-based intergenerational collective dedicated to the celebration and continuation of tapa making. While tapa has become a prominent medium and focus of her work, Sue enjoys the bringing together of ancient and contemporary technologies, interdisciplinary practice and collaboration.