Altona resident Jade Hadfield and the Pacific Sisters from New Zealand have collaborated for an exhibition titled FROCK A WHANAUNGATANGA.
Ms Hadfield, Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngāti Whātua ki Kaipara, is a conservator and curator with more than 12 years’ experience at leading cultural organisations, including Te Papa, ICCROM, The Koorie Heritage Trust, and State Library Victoria, and is currently Curator, Moana Wan-Solwara Collection at Museums Victoria. She is committed to Indigenous museum practices and elevating the art of the Moana.
Pacific Sisters is a Tāgata Moana art collective that emerged from the fringes of mainstream arts and culture in Aotearoa New Zealand in 1991. They are now celebrated for their multi-disciplinary practice that blends Moana heritage art and contemporary forms to create fashion activism. Through ceremony, art, adornment and performance, they embrace and assert their urban Māori, Pacific, and Queer identities, unique to Aotearoa New Zealand.
This exhbition, at Bunjil Place in Narre Warren, marks the Pacific Sisters’ first Australian solo exhibition and showcases their vibrant legacy through fashion, performance, film, and music, exploring ancestral connections and kinship, bringing to life the artistic traditions of the Moana.
“It celebrates our deep connection across the Moana, bridging time and space. This exhibition offers Pasifika communities in Victoria the opportunity to see themselves reflected and honoured on the exhibition and workshop series,“ Jade said.
“By inviting audiences to engage with these themes through interactive elements and evocative displays, the exhibition fosters a shared sense of connection and celebrates the enduring importance of kinship in sustaining cultural identity.“
As visitors move through the exhibition, they will encounter niu aitu (new ancestors) avatars adorned in the Sisters’ intricate handmade garments alongside ancestral taonga and measina (treasured cultural items) drawn from the collections of Museums Victoria and National Gallery of Victoria, and new works from the Sisters.
The exhibition also offers visitors a dynamic Pasifika lounge to engage with archival footage and imagery from the Pacific Sisters’ 30 years of pioneering work.
Alongside the exhibition, visitors will also be able to immerse themselves in making practices of the Moana with a series of adornment-making workshops, exploring textile techniques and chatting with the Pacific Sisters about Moana making practices, kinship, ritual and activism through art and adornment.
The exhibition is on until 9 March.
