Touch Compass show Aiga brings disabled artist Lusi Faiva’s story to the stage

Lusi Faiva, who has cerebral palsy, explores identity, desire and family in her new show Aiga.

For Samoan multi-media artist Lusi Faiva, actions speak louder than words. She talks to Joanna Wane about her new show, Aiga.

Lusi Faiva’s hands, permanently clenched into fists from living with severe cerebral palsy, are her only way of communicating with people who aren’t used to being around her. Jabbing at a screen with one knuckle, she painstakingly types out sentences that are then synthesised into audio via a text-to-speech program on her tablet.

Spend more time with her, though, and Faiva’s body language and limited speech become easier to interpret. She can talk with a flick of the eyebrows, and it doesn’t take a mind-reader to know exactly what she’s thinking when I ask if it’s frustrating to be constantly underestimated by those who can’t see past her physical disability. “I do swear in my head every day!” she says, her eyes sparkling with laughter as she presses the “play” function on her device. “I’m just proud that I’m doing this because it is my dream.”

Faiva’s internal world reaches far beyond the confines of her motorised wheelchair. A multi-media performance artist, she’s spent the past three years developing Aiga, a devised ensemble work for the disability-led arts company Touch Compass that opens at the Auckland Arts Festival next month. Combining dance, poetry and theatre, Aiga tells stories that draw from the abuse and neglect Faiva suffered as a child in an institution for people with intellectual disabilities, her fierce determination to build an independent life, and the joy of reconnecting with her Samoan identity.

A fellow performer has described the show as Faiva’s diary, opened to the world. But don’t come expecting a pity fest, says producer Jordan Walker. In Warrior Poem, Favia talks about her dark sexual desires. “This isn’t sad disability porn,” says Walker. “It’s a strong, passionate, intentional work that challenges the narrative of how people with disabilities are viewed.”

"The most important thing is it is me being me, living my life as an artist.”

This isn’t the first time Faiva has made herself heard. Since the late 90s, she’s performed in numerous theatre shows, touring New Zealand and Australia with Touch Company and featuring in the web documentary series Being Me on Attitude Live. In 2022, she appeared before the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care, presenting a searing witness statement that called out the state system as dehumanising for disabled people — a systemic failure that persists today.

Faiva’s parents, who migrated to New Zealand from Samoa, were persuaded it would be in their daughter’s best interests for her to be institutionalised after she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at the age of 2 (the result of her brain being deprived of oxygen at birth). She credits a couple who worked at Levin’s Kimberley Centre with recognising her potential, teaching her how to read, write and express herself.

In her late 20s, she joined Touch Compass and discovered a freedom of movement through dance she had never experienced before, winning a Creative New Zealand Pacific Toa arts award in 2020. “Aiga” means family in Samoan, and Faiva says the show is about making sense of her Pasifika heritage and being able to tell her story in a realistic way. “It’s mentally draining and physically exhausting, but it helps me feel determined to keep going. The most important thing is it is me being me, living my life as an artist.”

From its inception, Aiga was designed with accessibility in mind, from seating arrangements that accommodate wheelchairs more generously to working with sign language interpreters and audio descriptions for audience members with low vision. Three weeks were spent on the show’s technical residency last month. Usually that would only take a couple of days.

For the cast and crew, it’s meant learning how to work in “crip time and crip space” — concepts Walker would encourage the non-disabled community to take on board. “It’s about slowing down to find a rhythm that suits everyone and still delivers on time; it’s almost like you have permission to be quiet.”

Walker, who’s takatāpui, says the performers on stage with Faiva have diverse backgrounds, from culture to gender identity, and their own experiences have added extra layers to the work. “A huge part of Aiga is this beautiful intersectionality and a shared understanding to uplift Lusi in her story.”

• Directed by Moana Ete, Aiga is on at Te Pou Theatre from March 20 to 24 as part of the Auckland Arts Festival programme.

Joanna Wane is an award-winning senior feature writer in the New Zealand Herald’s Lifestyle Premium team, with a special focus on social issues and the arts.