Join a relaxed roundtable discussion guided by art historian and curator of contemporary art Nina Tonga, Senior Curator Pacific Histories and Cultures at Te Papa Sean Mallon and, art historian and curator Peter Brunt.

This exploratory group discussion will offer insights into concerns pertinent to Moana-Nui-a-Kiwa art research and practice. Open to all, this will be an opportunity for interested members of the public as well as emerging and established practitioners, teachers and researchers to engage in discussion and to ask questions in an informal, safe space facilitated by Tonga, Mallon and Brunt.

Dr Nina Tonga is a curator of contemporary art and Assistant-Professor of Pacific Art History in the Art and Art History Department at The University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. Nina has a long history as a curator and writer of Pacific art and visual culture. She curated the acclaimed exhibitions Pacific Sisters: Fashion Activists (2018–2019) and Mataaho Collective: Te Puni Aroaro (2022) at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, and To Make Wrong/ Right/ Now (2019), the second international Honolulu Biennial. Her curated solo exhibitions include projects by Lemi Ponifasio, Nike Savvas, Chiharu Shiota, and Dame Robin White.

Dr Sean Mallon is Senior Curator Pacific Histories and Cultures at Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa where he specialises in the social and cultural history of Pacific peoples in Aotearoa New Zealand. He is the author of the Ockham New Zealand Book Award winning Tatau: A History of Sāmoan Tattooing (2017) with Sébastien Galliot, and is currently researching issues relating to the agency and activism of Pacific peoples in museums.

Dr. Peter Brunt is Associate Professor of Art History at Te Herenga Waka–Victoria University of Wellington where he teaches on modern and contemporary art from Te Moana-Nui-a-Kiwa. Brunt is interested in the role of art in mediating cross-cultural encounters from the late eighteenth century to the present. Recent publications include the forthcoming book, Mediating Modernism: Indigenous Artists, Modernist Mediators, Global Networks (Duke University Press, 2024). Brunt also co-curated the UK's first major show to explore Oceanic art, at London's Royal Academy of Arts in 2018.