Pacific Arts: The Journal of the Pacific Arts Association

Pacific Arts Vol. 25 No. 1 (2025) Cover, Journal Information, and Table of Contents

Special Issue: ʻAmui ʻi Muʻa/Ancient Futures

A short introduction to the ʻAmui ʻi Muʻa/Ancient Futures project, presented in both English and Tongan, by the Honorable Lord Vaea, ‘Alipate Tuʻivanuavou Vaea of Houma.

This essay introduces the two issues of Pacific Arts dedicated to the New Zealand-based, Marsden Fund (Royal Society of New Zealand)-financed research project ‘Amui ‘i Mu‘a/Ancient Futures: Late Eighteenth- and Early Nineteenth-Century Tongan Arts and Their Legacies and its affiliated traveling exhibition. The project’s participants included Phyllis Herda (anthropologist and Pacific historian), Billie Lythberg (art historian, anthropologist, and now lecturer in organizational studies), Melenaite Taumoefolau (Pacific linguist and researcher in Pacific studies), Hilary Scothorn (art historian and Pacific textile specialist), and Tongan artists Sopolemalama Filipe Tohi and Dagmar Vaikalafi Dyck. These academics and artists worked collaboratively to locate, examine, and interpret late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Tongan artifacts in more than thirty collections throughout Europe, the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, and Australasia, as well as to investigate the legacies of Tongan–European encounters in this era.

This article introduces, in English and Tongan, the volume of Pacific Arts devoted to the project titled ‘Amui ‘i Mu‘a/Ancient Futures,which included a 2021 exhibition of the same name featuring artworks by Sopolemalama Filipe Tohi and Dagmar Vaikalafi Dyck. It also includes biographical sketches of Tohi and Dyck.

The ʻAmui ʻi Muʻa/Ancient Futures project afforded me, as one of its investigator-artists, a rare opportunity to authentically engage with ancestral objects held in museum collections across the globe. This article provides a brief history of my art practice, as well as insights into my critical sense-making process and subsequent creative outputs. My reflections highlight the importance of nurturing relationships with Indigenous communities, and underscore the critical roles of museum practitioners in caring for and sharing our Indigenous treasures. Despite challenges including intergenerational knowledge loss and institutional barriers, the project advocates for decolonizing and re-Indigenizing museum practices. The ʻAmui 'i Mu‘a/Ancient Futures project exemplifies the power of authentic collaboration in preserving, honoring, and celebrating ancestral intelligence.

Tongan artist Sopolemalama Filipe Tohi presents a pictorial essay of his work included in the ‘Amui ‘i Mu‘a/Ancient Futures exhibition, part of the larger project of the same name. Works include formative ones from early in his career, along with those created during the research for the project.

This article explores the intertwined worldviews of Queen Sālote Tupou III and Tongan scholar Epeli Hauʻofa on identity, kinship, and self-determination in the context of Tonga’s cultural preservation and artistic legacy. Through the lens of contemporary Tongan artists Dagmar Vaikalafi Dyck and Sopolemalama Filipe Tohi, the ʻAmui ʻi Muʻa/Ancient Futures project demonstrates how their artistic practices reclaim Tongan cultural narratives from colonial collections. This article examines their shared commitment to reconnecting with ancestral knowledge, navigating diasporic identities, and challenging institutional barriers to reclaim the koloa (treasures) and histories embedded in their art and practice.

This bilingual greeting from Tiffany Babington, then New Zealand High Commissioner to Tonga (to 2022), acknowledges the weeklong symposium ‘Amui ‘i Mu‘a/Ancient Futures held in Nuku‘alofa, October 7–12, 2019.

The inaugural ‘Amui ‘i Mu‘a/Ancient Futures conference held at the Tanoa International Dateline Hotel in Tonga (October 7­–12, 2019) brought together artists, academics, and traditional knowledge-holders from Tonga, Aotearoa New Zealand, Germany, and the United Kingdom to consider how the future of Tongan arts can best be guided by knowledge of their past. This article details the program and associated events.

This article focuses on two sorts of artifacts from Tonga that Georg Forster—a German naturalist and explorer of the late eighteenth century—translocated from Oceania to Europe. Forster traveled aboard Captain Cook’s ship Resolution on Cook’s second voyage (1772–75). During the voyage, Forster and his father, Johann Reinhold Forster, collected Pacific art objects, many of which made their way to Wörlitz, Germany. This collection was featured in a permanent exhibition (Georg Forster South Sea Exhibition) at the UNESCO World Heritage site at Wörlitz. A parallel installation celebrating Tongan art and material culture was established in Nukuʻalofa, Tonga. This article follows the migration of Tongan objects to Europe and the cooperation which arose between the artists, curators, and academics involved in the ‘Amui ‘i Mu‘a/Ancient Futures project and their counterparts in Germany. The resulting relationship was instrumental in the formation of the two exhibitions.

This visual essay situates the Amuʻi ʻi Muʻa/Ancient Futures exhibition at Pah Homestead in Auckland/Tāmaki Makaurau with photographs of works by Tongan artists Sopolemalama Filipe Tohi and Dagmar Vaikalafi Dyck, alongside loans from Canterbury Museum and Auckland Museum. Curator and collections manager Nicholas Butler presents an exhibition dedication and welcome in English and lea faka-Tonga to the homestead. Interpretative labels prepared by Billie Lythberg and Auckland War Memorial Museum for the loaned artifacts are included in this essay.

This article, written as a personal response, follows two ngatu (Tongan barkcloths) from Canterbury Museum to Auckland’s Pah Homestead for the ‘Amui ‘i Mu‘a/Ancient Futures exhibition, which showcased the interconnectedness of Tongan material culture, identity, and visual language. The exhibition, part of a five-year collaborative project, featured works by senior Tongan artists Sopolemalama Filipe Tohi and Dagmar Vaikalafi Dyck alongside museum artifacts. This personal response highlights how Tongan artists are reclaiming cultural heritage and reasserting Indigenous knowledge in museum spaces, forging new pathways for understanding and representation.

This article explores the exhibition ‘Amui ‘i Mu‘a/Ancient Futures, showcasing the work of Tongan artists Dagmar Vaikalafi Dyck and Sopolemalama Filipe Tohi from the 1990s to the 2020s. New texts in English and te reo Māori were developed for the exhibition at Hastings City Art Gallery–Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga; this article reproduces them alongside photographs of the installation. The exhibition was part of a research project examining the legacies of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Tongan art practices. Dyck’s multimedia work reflects Tongan feminine textile traditions, while Tohi’s sculptures explore the ancient lashing technique of lalava. The overall project highlights how these artists, in collaboration with international scholars and communities, reclaim and repatriate Tongan knowledge systems encoded in woven, layered, and carved objects, bridging the past and future through art.

This article reproduces a gallery talk introducing the cultural and historical significance of three ngatu (Tongan barkcloths) from the Hawkes Bay Museums Trust Collection, which were central to the 2023 exhibition ‘Amui ‘i Mu‘a/Ancient Futures at Hastings City Art Gallery Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga. Ngatu, made from the inner bark of the paper mulberry tree, are integral to Tongan culture, functioning as both practical and ceremonial objects. They are used to mark important life events, including weddings, funerals, and royal ceremonies, and represent a material link between past and present. The article explores how ngatu embody Tongan time, where the present is a dynamic intersection of past and future. It also highlights how ngatu symbolized the deep connection and mutual respect between Queen Sālote Tupou III of Tonga and Queen Elizabeth II. During Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Tonga in 1953, lengths of ngatu were laid out for her, both in her honor and to contain her mana (spiritual power). One of these cloths later accompanied Queen Sālote’s coffin when she was returned to Tonga after her death in Auckland in 1965.

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