Joana Monolagi
Joana Monolagi is a Fijian artist and masi weaver, whose work is in the collection of Auckland Art Gallery. She was awarded the Creative NZ Pacific Heritage Art Award in 2015, recognising her work in supporting art and culture, her role as Fijian coordinator for the Pasifika Festival, and her own unique artistic practice. Biography. Monolagi was born in Ba, Serua Province. She moved to New Zealand in the mid to late 1970s. In 1990 she began to learn how to weave and print masi (barkcloth), teaching herself from memories she had of watching women in Fiji make  the cloth when she was younger. Her artistic practice she combines traditional materials, such as masi and magimagi, alongside modern ones, such as Iron-on fabrics. Her works are described as both contemporary art and traditional art – the tension between those definitions is discussed by Kolokesa Uafā Māhina-Tuai with reference to Monolagi's work. Her practice also includes creating Fijian traditional costumes and storytelling. In 2012 her work "Pacific Circle" was acquired by Auckland Art Gallery. She also contributed a chapter on Fijian wedding traditions to the volume "Crafting Aotearoa: A Cultural History of Making in New Zealand and  the Wider Moana Oceania," edited by Kolokesa Māhina-Tuai, Karl Chitham and Damian Skinner. Since 2001 she has been the coordinator of the Fijian Village at the Pasifika Arts Festival in Auckland. This includes planning and managing the exhibitors who showcase the culture of Fiji, from craft and dance to food and drink. Her co-ordination tries to ensure that contemporary Fijian performers are included, to attract younger audiences. In 2015 she joined a collective of Fijian artists and curators called The Veiqia Project, a collective of Fijian artists and researchers based in Aotearoa New Zealand, Hawai’i and Australia. The  collective explores veiqia through workshops and the examination of museum collections. Other members of the collective included: curators Tarisi Vunidilo and Ema Tavola; artists, Dulcie Stewart, Donita Hulme, Margaret Aull, and Luisa Tora. The group's works were exhibited at the St Paul Street Art Gallery in 2016. Initially envisaged as a nine-month long project, the collective continued its investigations, which included travel to Fiji to interview women who remembered the veiqia of their grandmothers, as well as a multimedia exhibition in 2021 entitled "iLakolako ni weniqia: a Veiqia Project Exhibition." Veiqia was banned under British colonial rule and  the last records of women receiving it date to the 1920s and 1930s. The collective all have been marked with veiqia by artist Julia Mage’au Gray, including Monolagi, who produced work based on her markings for the 2019 exhibition "Names Held in Our Mouths" at Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary Gallery. The Veiqia Project including Monolagi opened a multimedia show "iLakolako ni weniqia: a Veiqia Project Exhibition" at The Physics Room, Christchurch in September 2021. Awards. In 2015 she was recognised with the Creative NZ Pacific Heritage Art Award.