Exhibition

Tokelau: Then Now / Now Then

Tokelau: Then Now / Now Then I te taimi teia, I te taimi tenei / I te taimi tenei, I te taimi teia 21 February - 13 April 2014 in the Bottle Creek Gallery

Climate change and the resulting rise in sea levels plus increased intensity of weather events threaten our Pacific Islands. This exhibition focusses on Tokelau, predicted to be the first of the Pacific to be inundated from sea level rise.  Starting with the historical experience of being in Tokelau, including a series of photographs by Marti Freidlander taken during the 1970s, the exhibition then moves to the cultural ideas that continue both in Tokelau and with the Tokelauan community in New Zealand and ends with a question about the future. Visitors are invited to offer their advice, comments and impressions of how to capture place in a new location.

The exhibition also forms a part of an architecture research project at Victoria University of Wellington. The project explores how the essence of a Tokelauan village might be recreated in the design of a community facility in a suburban setting in New Zealand. Using participatory design practices as a method, the project involves working with the Tokelauan community to design a ‘village’ collaboratively. A Tokelauan community centre in Naenae will provide the testing grounds for this project.  The ideas, experiences and experiments from the exhibition and the research project will also be shared with the Tokelauan communities in Porirua to inform the design and development of their own community facilities.