Sinead Overbye reviews "Toloa Tales" at Pātaka

Toloa Tales at Pātaka Art + Museum is an exhibition that brings together the film works of two Pacific artists whose work depicts community connection, creative growth and identity.

Edith Amituanai (Aotearoa, Sāmoa) and Sione Tuívailala Monū (Aotearoa, Australia, Tonga) travelled to Sāmoa to celebrate a friend participating in the Miss Sāmoa Fa’afafine Pageant. While there, both artists created the films that are currently showing at Pātaka in Porirua.

Amituanai’s film Vaimoe follows her Aunt Vaimoe, who had recently returned to Sāmoa after several decades of living in the United States. Amituanai follows her aunt, capturing tender moments from daily life – crafting, eating with her family, rowing out on the ocean. Although Vaimoe was born in Sāmoa, she lived most of her life in the United States. The film captures these moments from her current life, showing how she refamiliarises herself with her homeland and reintegrates back into her community.

Aunt Vaimoe narrates her life – talking about her time away from Sāmoa, and the tragedies and joys that have shaped her. This gentle and rich documentary has enabled Vaimoe to tell part of her life story. Towards the end of the film she reflects on how happy she is to have returned to Sāmoa.

She tells Amituanai: “You know, all this time I’ve been thinking about my life and I want to write a book, cause I have a good and a bad life. I didn’t have a perfect life, you know. But I’m glad I finally – even though I didn’t write a book – but I got a story.”

This highlights the power of filmmaking – to capture stories from everyday people, and show the extraordinariness in ordinary stories.

Lanu Moana is the Warmest Colour by Sione Tuívailala Monū is the second film in this exhibition. It is described as a “queer coming-of-age film that captures everyday slice of life moments and observations of the artist’s leitī and fa’afafine friends”. Monū is well known for their bright bead and flower works that are often used as adornment. They also create film works that explore themes of community, identity and gender expression.

At the beginning of the film, Monū introduces the idea of fakaleitī possessing the ability to open portals. They assert that in the modern day, a portal opens up once in a lifetime for every leitī (Tongan male at birth who has a feminine gender expression). Monū’s own portal opened up at the age of 25, and took them to Sāmoa. The entire film transports us into that portal, and into the leitī / fa’afafine community that Monū exists in.

Lanu Moana is the Warmest Colour follows Monū as they spend time with their community as they create costumes for the Miss Sāmoa Fa’fafine Pageant, share a drink and talk together, and explore their homelands in Sāmoa. Monū documents candid moments that create a sense of community. Monū’s filmmaking has an ease to it – a lightness and dreamy quality that allows us to see the world as they see it.

There are moments in Monū’s film where they are shown interacting with Amituanai – drinking vailima and reflecting on their creative process. These moments between the two filmmakers break the fourth wall. They talk about their filmmaking experiences in Samoa and what they have learnt. At one point, Amituanai then turns to the cameraman and asks “Do you want to capture that silhouette?”, pointing to the horizon, giving suggestions for the film as it’s being made. This process of collaboration enriches the fabric of the film, and highlights how important it is to create in community.

Monū creates a loving portrait of their own community of creatives. The leitī in their films are carefree – they create, love, laugh and have fun. Monū reflects that this depiction in film is part fantasy – that they create these stories in order to emancipate their community from the realities of the world.

“See, this is a different world, and they’re making just because they can,” Monū reflects at the end of the film. “But in reality, I’m making for projects so I can get paid. So I can live.”

Both Amituanai and Monū pay homage to their communities, and to the lives of those who have migrated from, and returned to, their homelands. The title of the exhibition, Toloa Tales refers to a Sāmoan proverb “e lele le toloa ae ma’au lava i le vai’, which refers to how the toloa or duck will always return to water.

This is the larger theme of the entire exhibition. Like the toloa, these artists have been drawn home – whether to their ancestral home or to the home they have created in community. No matter how far they have flown, they will always return to the waters that nourish them.

Toloa Tales is currently showing Pātaka Art + Museum until July 6.