Fatu Feu'u: OLA

If artists and writers are, as Fatu Feu‘u says, keepers of history and custodians of old stories yearning to be told anew, then he is uniquely qualified for this responsibility. He is the celebrated ‘Father of contemporary Pacific arts’ in Aotearoa and the bearer of two Samoan matai titles: the ali‘i title of Lesa, given by his mother’s family, of Sa‘anapu, and the tulafale title of Si‘a, conferred by his father’s family, of Poutasi.

Ola is the driving force for life, an ethos of connection to ancestors who took only what they needed; to generations not yet born; to rainforests, rivers and oceans; to ourselves and to each other. Both a state and ethic of care and wellbeing, Feu‘u has mobilised ola in works made in the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquakes, towards protection of the Kermadec Islands, in his protests against driftnet fishing and nuclear testing, and in his personal recovery of self and self-esteem—inseparable from his family and home village—following the 2009 tsunami that devastated Samoa.

Painted in the time of Covid-19—an invisible, indiscriminatory foe—these reminders of division and connection have an added poignancy and urgency. Today’s acts of respect for one another are pulling a tighter focus on the local, slowing us down, keeping us in place and in pace with the lands and seas where we live, reminding us to tend to the space between and around us, to live and be well.