Multi-media artist Jeffery Poimamao Kalauta (pictured) is shedding light on death and mourning in the Pacific, with his most current work, destined for this year’s 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture (FestPAC) in Hawai’i.
New Zealand-born, and of Niuen and Cook Island descent, Jeffery specialises in creating on multi-media platforms, and dropping hip-hop beats and digital artworks to Instagram and Spotify under the pseudonym J3PK.
He is one of 85 Pacific and Māori artists and performers from Aotearoa, selected to attend FestPAC, in Honolulu, from 6-16 June, 2024.
New Zealand is one of 28 Pacific nations participating at FestPAC - the world’s largest celebration of indigenous Pacific peoples, launched in 1972 to halt the erosion of traditional practices through ongoing cultural exchange.
This year’s theme, Ho‘oulu Lāhui: Regenerating Oceania, honours the traditions FestPAC perpetuates, with an eye toward the future.
Jeffery has chosen to provide an audio experience and revisualisation of a Tahitian mourning costume.
“The work plays on the loss of cultural heritage many people of the Moana experience, especially younger members,” Jeffery says.
“Pacific cultures are changing rapidly, and it is hoped this work will aid in creating a dialogue on rituals and ceremonies that have value and meaning.”
“This work intends to create a pause, a moment to reflect on the call of our ancestors, the desire to know what their voices are telling us juxtaposed against our feelings of loss, not knowing, and a desire to hear them and to ask where to from here,” he adds.
The project is in collaboration and inspired by Cook Islands-Tahitian Amy Henry’s PhD thesis on the tradition of grieving, mourning and care practices of Cook Islands Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand.
“This work intends to engage in and open a critical dialogue on the role of traditional rituals and ceremonies today and is a testament to our commitment to co-create, collaborate, and connect with other artists, art forms, research and opportunities, ensuring our cultural heritage remains a vibrant part of our current cultural landscape and future,” Jeffery says.
What makes the project even more poignant, is Jeffery’s son Lukasi Tangiia - the next generation - is helping him create it by polishing shells among other things.
“FestPAC will be a time of learning, walking backwards and forwards into the past, viewing rituals, art and dance from multiple time periods at once enabling us to jump backwards and forwards in time to experience everything all together all at once.”
In 2022, Jeffery was a recipient of a Tautai Pacific Arts Trust’s Fale-ship Residency, and he used the opportunity to critically engage with Epeli’s Hau’ofa’s essay, Our Sea of Islands.
Subsequently Jeffery created A’A, the non-binary tupuna, who transcends temporal rules across time.
“A’A warns us to respect the cultural knowledge of our tupuna, to be weary of the dominant hegemony of belief systems, and not diminish the significance of Moana wisdom, which is vast, reaching out both physically and digitally across the Moana,” he explains.
While blessed with so many opportunities already, Jeffery says he anticipates FestPAC to be a lifechanging experience.
“The festival will be grounding, where we can showcase our work and connect our journeys, our akapapa and learn from our kopu tangata from across the moana.”
Looking ahead, Jeffery’s projects and interests will explore historical accounts of death, dying, and mourning from across the Pacific with a particular focus on ceremony and ritual, expressed through music, a publication, and a recreation of traditional ceremonial attire.
Visit the FestPAC website for more information.