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Scoop
a day ago
- Scoop
Drawing From Memory: Auckland-Based Tongan Artist Brings Pacific Nostalgia To Life
Coco Lance, RNZ Pacific digital journalist Auckland-based artist and animator Luca Tu'avao Walton is an emerging voice in the Pacific creative landscape, with a distinctive style rooted in memory, identity, and the 'nostalgia' of island life. In fact, his work resonated so strongly that one woman messaged him directly, saying his portrayal of Pacific women inspired her to cancel a plastic surgery appointment she had made to change her "wide-set nose". Now, Walton's work is making its way to the big screen as part of an upcoming, yet anonymous New Zealand-Pacific feature film. From Tonga to Aotearoa Born in Lautoka in Fiji to a Tongan mother and a palagi father, Walton spent his early years in Mata'ika, a lagoon-side village in Tonga where his imagination bloomed. "We used to live right on a lagoon, which was just the best upbringing, among my cousins and family, swimming and kayaking all the time." It was there that Walton began to dream up the wondrous worlds that now define his art. "I would sit lagoon-side and just imagine all the mermaids that lived there, so I would draw mermaids a lot growing up. "My drawings bring to life a lot of what I imagined as a kid, growing up in Tonga, and a lot of my work is born from this idea of, what did I want to see as a kid? Then filling that gap." At age 10, Walton moved to Aotearoa for school. "Moving there was definitely a switch-up in my pace of life," he said. "I went from island life, which is slow and thoughtful, to being in the city and taking 40-minute buses each way to school." Despite the change in pace and lifestyle, Walton stuck with what he had always been good at - creating. His trajectory began early, nurtured by a supportive whānau. "My family likes to pretend I sprung up out of nowhere, because I draw and illustrate. But all my Tongan family are creative, they're singers, dancers. They make traditional toi (art). I'm the black sheep in that I am the only working creative, but they've all nurtured and rooted for me." Walton's memory is central to the creative process. Drawing on nostalgia, he said, is central to the Pacific island experience. "A lot of my work is about memory…belonging, nostalgia, feminism, recontextualising the past and imagining a new future. When I go into making a piece, I trawl through my memories. I don't try to be relatable, and yet I think when I tap into my realities, our people engage in that art." Family, especially the wāhine in his life, have inspired much of Walton's style. "My mum never put any expectation to be anything other than an I'm just drawing what I know at the end of the day. I think that's what a lot of artists do. "If I were to draw cool race cars, it would be a falsehood, because I was raised with my mum in front of the mirror, doing her makeup, her bangles clunking together, her GHD straightener sizzling her hair." "I was raised in a very feminine environment, I'm a feminine person myself, so my art is an expression of that femininity for me, which happens to be through a Pacific lens." Walton wasn't prepared for the response to his work, but it has been motivating nonethless. "It's always beautiful when you have kids, aunties, other creatives coming and saying, your work reminds me of home, makes me think of my Nana, or 'this looks like my mum back in the day. "Our people are such yearners, such sentimental people, and we're all family orientated. I feel there is a real hunger for work that feels familiar and is made with alofa and 'ofa. People can tell when it's made from within the culture, not just about it. People are craving more than just tokenism as well; we want the depth, the humour, the mamae, a bit of the sadness that comes with, you know, balancing our identities." Now, Walton's vision has led to his involvement in an upcoming film. The project is being spearheaded by Sāmoan-Māori creative Jessica "Coco" Hansell in collaboration with local animation Studio Ki'i'Pili (a Pacific take on Studio Ghibli), and is based out of Ōnehunga's creative hub, Wheke Fortress. Although it is still in its final stages and many details are yet to be revealed, Walton said it involves a collective of talented Pacific creatives, with the kaupapa being a Pacific-centric animated short film. "It has been a dream kaupapa, not just in what we are making, but how we are making it. It's an active experiment in the decolonisation process, working at a pace that honours the people involved. "I've been able to fully lean into my strengths without leaving anyone behind, a communal way of creating," Walton said. Looking forward, Walton emphasised animation as an accessible and important tool for equity in storytelling. "The government's putting big funding into animation right now. Pacific people need to take a big slice. "Individualism isn't natural to our people…being able to make myself useful to something bigger…turned my practice into a life path."

RNZ News
a day ago
- RNZ News
K?rero and Kai - sharing stories and flavours on the marae
rural farming 15 minutes ago Producer Justine Murray flexes her tastebuds on traditional kai cooked up at Otawhiwhi Marae where food and stories came together as part of this year's Flavours of Plenty Festival. It's the first time a marae has taken part in the Bay of Plenty's annual foodie event.

RNZ News
a day ago
- RNZ News
Wellington Airport unveils new centerpiece sculpture
For over a decade, a pair of huge eagles ridden by Gandalf the wizard greeted people as they arrived in the city famous for the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. But no longer. Today, Wellington Airport unveiled its brand new centerpiece created by Weta Workshop and it's already proving a hit with locals and visitors. Massey University journalism student Kajal Nair reports. Tags: To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.