SA/MOA

By Lila Meleisea

SA/MOA by Lila Meleisea is the culmination and first expression of a 3-year project exploring Samoan indigenous knowledge systems, environmental care and creative practices, produced by Performing Lines Tasmania.

During Ten Days on the Island, Moonah Arts Centre will have the honour of housing SA/MOA, welcoming traditional makers, knowledge holders, musicians and contemporary artists travelling from around Samoa and Australia.

They will converge and take over the spaces of Moonah Arts Centre to share a multi-faceted program of cultural artforms and practices – among each other and the public – including conversations and workshops that embrace and encourage inter-cultural exchange, community-building and learning.

Plus, a unique multi-dimensional work by Suga (Grace Vanilau, Natalia Mann, Folole Tupuola and Lila Meleisea) who express through music, dance, spoken word, video and the practice of ‘Resonance’ which lies at the heart of SA/MOA.

SA/MOA presents an exhibition of siapo, Samoan bark cloth, including ancestral siapo held by the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery alongside contemporary siapo created using the same traditional process by Lila Meleisea, Tusolo Aumale, Regina Meredith and Su’a Uilisone Fitiao.

SA/MOA Project Collaborators

• Galumalemana Steven Percival (Samoan heritage artist, writer and documentarian)
• Regina Meredith Fitiao (Samoan siapo maker of Leone lineage)
• Su’a Uilisone Fitiao (Tufuga ta Tatau – Samoan tattoo master, wood carver and siapo maker)
• Tusolo Aumale (Samoan siapo maker of Siutu lineage)
• Grace Vanilau (Aotearoa-born Samoan poet, singer/songwriter)
• Natalia Mann (Australian Samoan resonance artist and musician)
• Folole Tupuola (Samoan diaspora performer and activist)
• Palawa and Pasifika Communities connected to this place