Celebration of Pacific creativity

By ANGELA GREGORY

A writer, a sculptor, a singer and a multi-media artist have been celebrated as powerhouses of Pacific creativity.

At the Art Pasifika Awards in Auckland last night top honours went to Professor Albert Wendt, Filipe Tohi, Shigeyuki Kihara and Daphne Collins.

Writer Professor Albert Wendt received the $6000 senior Pacific Islands artist award.

The pioneer of Pacific writing in New Zealand, Wendt is a distinguished novelist, poet, short story writer, playwright and educator. Born in Apia, Samoa, in 1939, he first came to New Zealand to study at 13 on a Government scholarship.

Wendt's first novel, Sons for the Return Home, was published in 1973. Since then, he has written six novels, three collections of short stories, four collections of poetry and a play, and has edited numerous literary and poetry anthologies.

His new play, The Songmaker's Chair, premiered at the AK03 festival in Auckland.

Filipe Tohi, of New Plymouth, was awarded the $5000 Pacific Innovation and Excellence Award.

Tohi was born in Tonga and came to New Zealand in 1978 at 19.

A sculptor of wood, stone and steel, his work has been exhibited and is in public parks throughout the country and in the United States, Japan, Australia and France.

For the past decade, the New Plymouth-based artist has been involved in exploring the patterns and history of tufunga lalava, the traditional Tongan binding system used to lash together houses and canoes.

He has been in residency at Niigata University in Japan.

Shigeyuki Kihara, of Grey Lynn, Auckland, was awarded the $3000 Emerging Pacific Islands Artist Award. Kihara's work fuses performance, photography, language, art and fashion to explore issues of identity and culture.

Kihara came to New Zealand from Samoa in 1989 at 16 and graduated from Wellington Polytechnic with an advanced diploma in fashion design and technology in 1996. Kihara is also a freelance fashion stylist.

Daphne Collins, of Queensland, was awarded the $6500 Iosefa Enari Memorial Award for her opera singing.

Collins' potential was recognised at secondary school in Auckland. Since then, the Samoan soprano has achieved significant success and performed to critical acclaim in operas and musicals.

TOMORROW Shigeyuki Kihara: living life as an enigma, in tomorrow's Arts on Wednesday.