MAKING SPACE: FAFSWAG

FAFSWAG seeks to decolonise their minds and lived experiences through creativity, expression, and the ownership of their own narratives.

FAFSWAG is a Queer Pacific Arts Collective based out of SOUTH Auckland. They celebrate queer brown bodies, contemporary Pacific arts and cultural restoration. Their online platform documents in an artistic manner the cultural connectivity of queer Pacific people of colour navigating their unique identities within NZ’s urban landscapes.  

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The Artists

  • Akashi Fisiinaua
    Akashi Fisiinaua
    Tāmaki Makaurau

    AKASHI is an Indigenous Trans Political Artist of Tongan origin whose background is acting and dance – that uses the forms of vogue movements and chanting in her practice to empower indigenous queer/trans brown bodies into upholding themselves physically, financially and spiritually strong. Her medium is the B O D Y to communicate these ideas of self-sovereignty and not needing anyone to fill up your glass. Her work is always oozing in body politics, and the importance of CONTROL of your life.

  • Jermaine Dean
    Jermaine Dean
    Tāmaki Makaurau

    Jermaine Dean is a contemporary digital artist whose practice consists of photography and moving image. Ideas around gender identity, body politics, colour and surreal fantasy influences his visualconcepts which are all conveyed through pixel manipulation. Jermaine has been a member of FAFSWAG since 2012, and has exhibited work in Fresh Gallery Otara, ArtSpace and Auckland Pride Festival. He has collaborated with many indigenous artists within NZ and abroad.

  • Manu Vaea
    Manu Vaea
    Tāmaki Makaurau

    Manu Vaea is an interdisciplinary artist currently completing a Bachelor of Visual Arts at AUT TeWananga Aronui o Tamaki Makau Rau. His practice revolves around the exploration of Polynesian mysticism, and the mundanity/complexity of existing as a queer Tongan living in South Auckland through poetry and illustration. Manu has been involved in many collaborative projects, one being 'Statuesque Anarchy' in Enjoy Public Art Gallery alongside collective WITCH BITCH and poetry devised theatre shows 'Loud and Queer' directed by Sarah Jansen and 'Mouth:Teeth:Tongue' directed by Grace Taylor. Vaea is also an active member of arts collective FAFSWAG and has been since 2016.

  • Moe Laga
    Moe Laga
    Tāmaki Makaurau

    Moe Laga-Fa’aofo is a Performance Artist from South Auckland, Whose practice includes movement and activation. Her works include a large number of stage and screen productions, as well as collaborative visual arts work that have been shown in Australia as well as the Pingyao International Photography Festival in China. Moe has a diploma from the Pacific institute of Performing Arts and recently completed her Bachelors in Creative Arts from the Manukau Institute of Technology.

  • Pati Solomona Tyrell
    Pati Solomona Tyrell
    Tāmaki Makaurau

    Pati Solomona Tyrell is an interdisciplinary visual artist with a strong focus on performance. Utilizing lens-based media he creates visual outcomes that are centered around ideas of urban Pacific queer identity. He has shown work at Fresh Gallery Otara, PAH Homestead, Museum of Contemporary Arts Australia and most recently at the Pingyao International Photography Festival. Tyrell is a co-founder of the arts collective FAFSWAG. He is a recent graduate of the Bachelor of Creative Arts programme at the Manukau Institute of Technology, Otara. Pati is originally from Kirikiriroa, Waikato but is now based in Maungarei, Tāmaki Makaurau.

  • Sione Monu
    Sione Monu
    Tāmaki Makaurau

    Sione Monu often uses Instagram (visit @sione93) as an art tool, constantly creating artworks that utilise the platform as a way of re-indigenising space as well as create accessibility for his community to engage with the works. His series of self portraits #BlanketCouture (2016) came to life due to a day of play but with only having access to the materials in his home. Although playful the use of blankets are on the artists’ body are striking and intimate is the artist challenges notions of representation and gender.

  • Tanu Gago
    Tanu Gago
    Tāmaki Makaurau

    Tanu Gago is a visual artist and award winning photographer of Samoan heritage. Born in Samoa and raised in Mangere. Gago works as a new media artist with a portfolio of work that includes, staged portraiture, moving image and film. His practice is collaborative and imbedded within contemporary context that relates to cultural framing, decolonization, social politics, queer activism and gender and sexually diverse narratives.

    Gago is the cofounder and creative director of Pacific LGBT Arts Collective entitled FAFSWAG. Under Gago’s direction FAFSWAG have carved out credible cultural space within the contemporary arts scene within Auckland. The work achieved by this collective of artist spans over 5 years of producing art, activation, activism and visibility for a community traditionally marginalised socially and institutionally.

  • WITCH BITCH
    WITCH BITCH
    Tāmaki Makaurau

    WITCH BITCH came about through the constant talanoa had between the artist's regarding Polynesian spirituality and how they sit within it. This is further explored and manifested through the trio's activations. As such, WB’s pieces speak to their reclamation of space within the Vā. The contextual and metaphysical space that exist between all things. Their activations in turn serve as a vessel for the re-writing and imagining of queer Polynesian spiritual experiences. The trio's familiarity in regards to living in diaspora also works in tandem with this exploration of spirituality as a drive towards a cultural discovery of self.

Akashi Fisiinaua
Tāmaki Makaurau

AKASHI is an Indigenous Trans Political Artist of Tongan origin whose background is acting and dance – that uses the forms of vogue movements and chanting in her practice to empower indigenous queer/trans brown bodies into upholding themselves physically, financially and spiritually strong. Her medium is the B O D Y to communicate these ideas of self-sovereignty and not needing anyone to fill up your glass. Her work is always oozing in body politics, and the importance of CONTROL of your life.

View artwork
Jermaine Dean
Tāmaki Makaurau

Jermaine Dean is a contemporary digital artist whose practice consists of photography and moving image. Ideas around gender identity, body politics, colour and surreal fantasy influences his visualconcepts which are all conveyed through pixel manipulation. Jermaine has been a member of FAFSWAG since 2012, and has exhibited work in Fresh Gallery Otara, ArtSpace and Auckland Pride Festival. He has collaborated with many indigenous artists within NZ and abroad.

View artwork
Manu Vaea
Tāmaki Makaurau

Manu Vaea is an interdisciplinary artist currently completing a Bachelor of Visual Arts at AUT TeWananga Aronui o Tamaki Makau Rau. His practice revolves around the exploration of Polynesian mysticism, and the mundanity/complexity of existing as a queer Tongan living in South Auckland through poetry and illustration. Manu has been involved in many collaborative projects, one being 'Statuesque Anarchy' in Enjoy Public Art Gallery alongside collective WITCH BITCH and poetry devised theatre shows 'Loud and Queer' directed by Sarah Jansen and 'Mouth:Teeth:Tongue' directed by Grace Taylor. Vaea is also an active member of arts collective FAFSWAG and has been since 2016.

View artwork
Moe Laga
Tāmaki Makaurau

Moe Laga-Fa’aofo is a Performance Artist from South Auckland, Whose practice includes movement and activation. Her works include a large number of stage and screen productions, as well as collaborative visual arts work that have been shown in Australia as well as the Pingyao International Photography Festival in China. Moe has a diploma from the Pacific institute of Performing Arts and recently completed her Bachelors in Creative Arts from the Manukau Institute of Technology.

View artwork
Pati Solomona Tyrell
Tāmaki Makaurau

Pati Solomona Tyrell is an interdisciplinary visual artist with a strong focus on performance. Utilizing lens-based media he creates visual outcomes that are centered around ideas of urban Pacific queer identity. He has shown work at Fresh Gallery Otara, PAH Homestead, Museum of Contemporary Arts Australia and most recently at the Pingyao International Photography Festival. Tyrell is a co-founder of the arts collective FAFSWAG. He is a recent graduate of the Bachelor of Creative Arts programme at the Manukau Institute of Technology, Otara. Pati is originally from Kirikiriroa, Waikato but is now based in Maungarei, Tāmaki Makaurau.

View artwork
Sione Monu
Tāmaki Makaurau

Sione Monu often uses Instagram (visit @sione93) as an art tool, constantly creating artworks that utilise the platform as a way of re-indigenising space as well as create accessibility for his community to engage with the works. His series of self portraits #BlanketCouture (2016) came to life due to a day of play but with only having access to the materials in his home. Although playful the use of blankets are on the artists’ body are striking and intimate is the artist challenges notions of representation and gender.

View artwork
Tanu Gago
Tāmaki Makaurau

Tanu Gago is a visual artist and award winning photographer of Samoan heritage. Born in Samoa and raised in Mangere. Gago works as a new media artist with a portfolio of work that includes, staged portraiture, moving image and film. His practice is collaborative and imbedded within contemporary context that relates to cultural framing, decolonization, social politics, queer activism and gender and sexually diverse narratives.

Gago is the cofounder and creative director of Pacific LGBT Arts Collective entitled FAFSWAG. Under Gago’s direction FAFSWAG have carved out credible cultural space within the contemporary arts scene within Auckland. The work achieved by this collective of artist spans over 5 years of producing art, activation, activism and visibility for a community traditionally marginalised socially and institutionally.

View artwork
WITCH BITCH
Tāmaki Makaurau

WITCH BITCH came about through the constant talanoa had between the artist's regarding Polynesian spirituality and how they sit within it. This is further explored and manifested through the trio's activations. As such, WB’s pieces speak to their reclamation of space within the Vā. The contextual and metaphysical space that exist between all things. Their activations in turn serve as a vessel for the re-writing and imagining of queer Polynesian spiritual experiences. The trio's familiarity in regards to living in diaspora also works in tandem with this exploration of spirituality as a drive towards a cultural discovery of self.

View artwork
Avanoa O Tama, 2012, Tanu Gago
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FEMSLICK, 2017, Jermaine Dean
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Among the taro leaves, 2017, Sione Monu
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Goddess, 2017, Manu Vaea
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Feau 'O Fafine, 2014, Moe Laga
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Matua, 2015, Pati Solomona Tyrell
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Aitu FAFSWAG, 2016, Pati Solomona Tyrell
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Kafu Couture, 2016, Sione Monu
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Hue Are You?, 2017, Jermaine Dean
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B14CK 2HAK71, 2017, Akashi Fisiinaua
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Statuesque Anarchy, 2017, WITCH BITCH
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