SA/MOA
Lila Meleisea
Premiering in March 2025, Moonah Art Gallery, Ten Days on the Island
A truly hybrid project, SA/MOA tells of Oceanic resilience and relationship as Tasmanian Samoan, Lila Meleisea, expands her music and community-based practice to roles as visual artist, artistic director and curator.
SA/MOA takes two simultaneous forms; a performance/exhibition space and a space for knowledge-sharing and community.
Make it stand out
SA/MOA brings Suga (Sunga) together with dancer Florence Folole Tupuola to create resonance performance with the ancient Samoan siapo bark cloths held in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) collection. Photographed by Mali Davis.
SA/MOA by Lila Meleisea is the culmination and first expression of a 3-year project that supports the realisation of a major multi-arts installation and Samoan cultural takeover of Moonah Arts Centre for Ten Days on the Island (Ten Days) 2025, produced by Performing Lines Tasmania.
This project is a collaboration with traditional Samoan makers, knowledge sharers, musicians and contemporary artists from Samoa and Samoan artists in Australia. SA/MOA holds many threads that connect with and share Lila’s cultural learnings and community (both through her travel to Samoa, and through connecting with the Pasifika diaspora in her home of lutruwita / Tasmania). SA/MOA culminates in the presentation of a work (re)connecting traditional barkcloth, siapo, held at TMAG with contemporary cloth created in the village of Siutu, Samoa and displayed in lutruwita for Ten Days on the Island.
SA/MOA is formed of interwoven components taking place simultaneously as part of Ten Days in lutruwita (Tasmania):
An exhibition space featuring display of traditional siapo on loan from the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) collection alongside contemporary siapo made in collaboration with Samoan makers;
The exhibition component of this project includes projection mapped images of Samoan siapo patterns and native flora and fauna of Samoa created by Lila in collaboration with Keith Deverell and Natalia Mann.
Live durational performance: Natalia Mann, Grace Vanilau, Folole Tupuola and Lila Meleisea musically respond to the themes of SA/MOA, interpreting a large-scale circular resonance map created by Lila Meleisea. This practice of ‘Resonance’ connects with Samoan traditional practices and is a way of finding purposeful harmony.
A welcome community space that shares food, storying, knowledges, craft and resonance workshops that embrace and encourage inter-cultural exchange and learning.
Alongside Lila, this project is led by a strong team of Samoan and Samoan Australian artists including:
Traditional Samoan makers Tusolo Aumale, Regina Meredith, Su’a Uilisone Fitiua;
Samoan stone-adze maker, writer and researcher Galumalemana Steven Percival;
Samoan diaspora resonance artist and harpist, Natalia Mann;
Aotearoa-born Samoan poet, singer, cultural consultant, Grace Vanilau;
Samoan diaspora performer and activist Folole Tupuola.
SA/MOA will be realised with support from Performing Lines Tasmania as producers, lighting designer and audio-visual artist Keith Deverell, Moonah Arts Centre, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) and the Samoan Cultural Collective Tasmania (SCCT).
Credits
Lead Artist
Lila Meleisea
Traditional Samoan makers
Tusolo Aumale, Regina Meredith, Su’a Uilisone Fitiua
Samoan stone-adze maker, writer and researcher
Galumalemana Steven Percival
Samoan diaspora resonance artist and harpist
Natalia Mann
Aotearoa-born Samoan poet, singer, cultural consultant
Grace Vanilau
Samoan diaspora performer and activist
Folole Tupuola
Produced by
Performing Lines TAS
Producer
Sinsa Mansell
sinsa@performinglinestas.org.au