Latai Taumoepeau is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice fuses ancient and everyday temporal practice using mediums like performance, dance, installation and social engagement. 

Her faivā (body-centred practice) is grounded in the traditions of her homelands, the Island Kingdom of Tonga and her birthplace Sydney, land of the Gadigal people. 

Latai joins us to discuss her work over the past decade exploring the impact of climate change in the Pacific and the threat of dispossession that many island communities face.

Latai was a leading artist on Arts House Melbourne’s five-year project, Refuge, an exploration of community preparedness in emergency management. She shares her insights on that process and how her collaboration with the SES on that project has continued to evolve.

Latai was recently awarded Creative Australia’s 2023 Award for Emerging and Experimental Arts and reflects on the meaning of that acknowledgement and some of the questions contemporary artists face surrounding the relevance and sustainability of their work. 

Links

ABC Arts Week - Latai Taumoepeau: Creative Australia Award for Emerging and Experimental Arts 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKfKmtcergA 

Artist Profile / Repatriate at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13K2Gr-Od8w&t=9s 

Mass Movement, Refuge, Arts House Melbourne

https://www.artshouse.com.au/events/mass-movement/ 

Mass Movement, Documentary Short Film, Refuge 2021, Arts House 

https://www.artshouse.com.au/events/mass-movement-documentary-short-film/ 

The Last Resort: Biennale of Sydney

https://www.biennaleofsydney.art/participants/latai-taumoepeau/ 

Follow Latai on instagram

https://www.instagram.com/latai101/?hl=en 

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Kerry Jones is the Director of Systems Initiatives for the Australian Centre for Social Innovation (TACSI). We spoke with Kerry in Meanjin / Brisbane, during the Australian Disaster Resilience Conference where she presented a program of work that is enabling communities to lead their own disaster response systems through a model of engagement called “Now-Future-How”.

This work, led by TACSI through the Fire to Flourish initiative, is built around the philosophy that when it comes to building resilient communities, the answers lie within the communities themselves. Kerry shares how the model is designed to deepen resilience capability to set communities up for success in approaching collective decision making and leading their own change.

Links:

Case study: Now Future How 

TACSI

Fire to Flourish

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When Cyclone Yasi hit the coast of North Queensland in 2011, the Girringun Aboriginal Corporation and its active community of rangers and artists took a position of leadership in the recovery process and galvanised a devastated community.

In this episode, Girringun’s Founder and Executive Officer Phil Rist shares the story of their Traditional-Owner led organisation; we take a tour around the renowned Girringun Arts Centre with manager Joann Russo; and we also hear from Girringun Ranger Michael George and Communications Officer Seraeah Wyles about the interconnectedness of arts, culture and country.

This episode is a re-release, originally aired in October 2019. We decided to share this episode this month in response to the outcome of the recent referendum as a way to continue using this platform to amplify Indigenous perspectives in disaster management.

The Creative Recovery Network expresses our solidarity with First Nations people and our ongoing staunch commitment to walk hand in hand to find new pathways for change. 

If you would like to support the work of the Girringun Aboriginal Corporation, you can donate here:

Some perspectives on the outcome of the referendum we have been reading / listening to:

Bhiamie Williamson in The Conversation

Claire G Coleman in The Saturday Paper

The Full Story: How to continue the fight for Indigenous rights

The movement that follows the Voice, Thomas Mayo

Other resources related to this episode:

Girringun Aboriginal Corporation

Girringun Resilience: Portraits of Yasi

Girringun Resilience (video), Creative Recovery Pilot Project

National Indigenous Arts & Cultural Authority 

Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction

UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Girringun: the trailblazing Indigenous corporation caring for 1.2m hectares of north Queensland

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