‘Itake - About

Growing Up

Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest of Canada, I have Rotuman, British & Icelandic ancestry.  

I live, work, and create primarily on the unceded, ancestral lands stewarded and shared by the Semiahmoo, Kwantlen, & Katzie First Nations. ​

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My art is part of my language-learning process, a way to explore Fäeag Rotuam Ta (The Rotuman Language). I started painting with acrylics as a child, hanging out with my Ö'fa(father) as he expressed his Rotumaneity here in Canada through wood carving, stained glass & paint (Culturally Inspired Rotuma Art). I am fortunate to have grown up with a Rotuman diaspora community called Hugag'esea (Of One Mind & Heart) where we practice traditional Rotuman taumaka & contemporary Pacific dance. I loved fashion, dance, and painting since childhood.

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Today

I really enjoy block printing, fashion, and animated short stories.
I love the combination of rubber & ink. I like to combine
the different stamps into stories on tapa (mulberry sheets)
or also clothing, bringing my symbols to life on my body.
I animate the different stamps into audiovisual stories
exploring a word or concept in Rotuman and English.  My latest work was inspired by my ancestral relationships to 'i'oro (shark) & he'e (octopus), the tefui (Rotuman garland symbol), the tupu'a (Rotuman mark of women,  a compass), & the vā (relationships).

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My goal is to promote holistic wellbeing through art and education, welcoming diasporic Rotumans (or anyone) to reconnect and treasure their indigenous ways of knowing and being. Education is a fundamental aspect of my art and practice, mixing facilitation, art, and expression in shared community spaces. This looks like facilitating regular Rotuma club events, such as language circles, community BBQs, tautoga, or cultural camps.

On the side

I also enjoy recycled and organic materials in my mixed-media paintings and sea sculptures.

These aspects ground the whimsical dreamscapes in my local relationships with

people, plants, and animals. Using prayer and protocol to forage sustainably,

I collect small pieces of organic material for art, medicine, and ceremony.  
Recycle bits and bobs I collect on my journeys, often gifted/found/thrown away,
trying to make use of some of the plastic waste we are drowning in.
I consider how Pasifika peoples voyaged to far lands, and as humans do,
we migrate and develop relationships with our new environment.
I don’t have access to the same medicines and plants back in Rotuma,
but what about my local environment & people?

At the same time, through recycling, I reconcile Pacific peoples being

on the front lines of suffocation from plastic trash & rising warm waters.

I think of what our temamfua (ancestors) do?
They make use of everything, save every plastic bag, and use every carton.
Recycling in my art is just a sliver in that direction.