A Fiji born South Aucklander is the first curator to have been awarded a Pacific Artist in Residence opportunity at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch.
The three month Macmillan Brown Centre residency is supported by Creative New Zealand and has been offered annually since 1996 for artists to develop their artistic practice and promote indigenous art.
Ema Tavola studied in Auckland and curated at Otara's Fresh Gallery for over six years.
She has now started her residency.
Tavola says she wanted to look at how curating was a mechanism for social inclusion and she plans to examine decolonisation and exhibition‑making as a form of activism.
She says that would take the opportunity to write, think and research around the practice that she have about a Pacific curator, who is very interested in curating Pacific art.
Last year's Pacific artist in residence, John Ioane, carved eleven miniature canoes from around the Pacific.
Source: Radio New Zealand
