Ink and umea- red earth and 100 year old kupesi stencils from Vava'u; W800 x H600mm
This painting represents a village and its relationship with the ocean. The diamond shaped designs represent the grain of the flesh when you slice open a fillet of tuna. It is a traditional design made in Vava'u. The designs outside the diamonds represent the villagers and they come from another Vava'u kupesi stencil. The people in the villages are worried about climate change and how it will affect the oceans and their main source of food. Often they live very close to sea level and every time a storm comes, the sea washes through the village. This continues to get worse and more alarming as the sea level rises and the storms grow in intensity and frequency.
1. Fonua Mo e Kakai, 2023
$2,200
Sulieti Fieme'a Burrows
2. Makafeke, 2023
$2,500
Sulieti Fieme'a Burrows and Tui Emma Gillies
Rock, Tiger Shell, Pandanus, Tu'aniu, Fau, Kafa; L590 x H90 x W65mm, Cord L1350mm
‘When I was a child growing up in Vava'u Tonga, I used to sit next to my father while he made his makafeke. I would make my own makafeke too. I would then play on the beach or have a swim while my father went out looking for octopuses in his canoe. His canoe was only big enough for one person. Back then I didn't have a watch to tell the time but I think he would be gone only two or three hours. He used to bring in five octopuses, sometimes eight and sometimes nothing. Sometimes only one or two.
I remember I would sing, singing about the feke. We had a song for the octopus and I used to sing it while I waited for my dad. It was a special Tongan song we all knew.’ – Sulieti
When seen from above, the Vava’u island group in Tonga looks like an octopus. The men there catch octopuses by using a lure inspired by an old story.
A rat was on a canoe that was broken up by a storm and as he clung to the debris bemoaning his fate an octopus poked their head out of the choppy water and asked, “What is the problem?”
“My boat has sunk. And I need a ride to my island over there.”
“‘Why would I bother? What do I care if a rat drowns?’
“‘If you take me, I’ll tell you lots of amazing stories.”
“Okay,” said the octopus. “But if at any time I find the stories boring, I will drop you straight into the ocean.”
So the rat jumped on the octopus’s head and started telling stories about how the kava root was discovered and how the great trickster Maui fished up the rat’s home island.
But the trip was taking longer than expected and eventually the rat needed the toilet. He held on as best he could but before too long he was desperate. And when he couldn’t hold on any longer he did the unforgivable. He did a poo on the octopus’s head. The octopus noticed a strange, foul smell. “What is that horrible odour,” he said. The rat said, “Someone must have burned some rubbish on the island.”
The octopus seemed satisfied with that explanation and the rat quickly returned to his stories until they reached the island and the octopus took hold of the rat with a big tentacle and carefully placed him on the shore.
“Thank you for your stories, Rat. They were very entertaining.”
“Yes, Octopus,” the rat replied, “but the best story of all is the one that happened on the way here. I was bursting for the toilet so I took a number two on your head and made you believe the smell was someone burning rubbish on the island. I am going to tell that story to my kids. And they are going to laugh their heads off. And they’ll tell their kids. And their kids will tell their kids. We’re going to have fun with this story for many, many years.”
By now the octopus was feeling around on his head with one of his tentacles and sniffing the end of it and then he started thrashing wildly in the water. “Rat,” he cried, “you have no manners. If I ever see you or any other rats on the ocean again, I will kill you and I will eat you.” And ever since then, the octopuses have been keeping an eye out for rats on the water and whenever they see one, they attack it. Knowing this story about the octopus and the rat, Tongan fishermen make a little lure that they call a makafeke. Maka means stone or rock and feke means octopus.
The fishermen find the right shaped stone. It is usually a very colourful one and the men rub it with another harder stone to get it into the shape of a rat. Then they tie on a couple of shells that have a black dot like an eye on them. Then they get some coconut root that looks like a rat’s tail and have that trailing out. And they dangle it from a string just above the coral reef. If it looks close enough to a rat, the octopus can’t resist leaving their hiding spots and attacking it. And when that happens, the fishermen are ready and waiting.
3. The Cove, 2023
$1,200
Tui Emma Gillies
Ink, acrylic, umea- red earth and 100 year old kupesi stencils from Vava'u; W550 x H520mm
Ink and umea- red earth and 100 year old kupesi stencils from Vava'u; W180 x H185mm
4. Abundance, 2023
$550
Tui Emma Gillies
Fish Studies:
NZ
study, 2023 W220 x H170mm $490 each
x 235mm
x H170mm
x H205mm
W200 x H190mm
x H210mm
Ink and umea- red earth and 100 year old kupesi stencils from Vava'u
5.
Blue Mackerel
6. NZ Hāpuku Groper study, 2023 W225
7. NZ Snapper study, 2023 W185
8. NZ Tarakihi study, 2023 W235 x H225mm
9. Chrysophrys auratus study, 2023 W220
10. NZ Kahawai study, 2023
11. NZ Black Flounder study, 2023 W215
Tui Emma Gillies
12. Feke Two layers of Feta’aki on a synthetic sphere, Indian Ink, Acrylic paint; Dia.290mm
$2,500
Tui Emma Gillies
Details of Uloa
Details of Uloa
Details of Uloa
The ocean is a beautiful but hostile environment full of mysticism and mysteries. I recently visited Kaikōura as part of my research during my time as the Macmillan Brown Artist in Residence at University of Canterbury for 2023. I stayed three nights with my friend, photographer Conor Clarke, at her marae, Mangamaunu. We spent time on the ocean being visited by a pod of dolphins and humpback and fin whales and we marvelled at the abundant sea life under the surface. One of the locals took us out on his boat and gifted us a crayfish and two crabs that he'd caught and we had a feast with the people at the marae that night.
It was during the gigantic super-blue-moon and as I went to sleep in the wharenui of the marae, I could hear the waves crashing on the shore. That night I dreamt about my late father. His face came to me very clearly and I woke up immediately. When I called Mum the next day and told her, she reminded me about an aspect of my father's life that I had forgotten. When he was young, before he met Mum, Kaikōura was his favourite diving and fishing spot and he would get down there as often as he could to go diving.
Uloa is the name of the girl on the boat. It is also the Tongan word for when the villagers spot a school of fish and then get in the sea together at low tide and wave coconut leaves to confuse them and herd them towards the shore. Hundreds of fish can be caught in one uloa.
Island life is a work inspired by being constantly reminded of our village of Falevai in Vava'u through the sounds of my mother's voice, the scent of flowers blooming in spring and the oceans' rhythmic calls.
14. Island life, 2023 Ink, acrylic, umea- red earth and 100 year old kupesi stencils from Vava'u; W810 x H575mm $2,200 Tui Emma Gillies
and umea-red earth and 100 year
I became fascinated with the Tītī while on a recent research trip in Kaikōura and felt very drawn to painting one holding its catch. I was told that during the breeding season (September to April) at night, some of the Tītī become dazzled from the lights of the Kaikōura settlement and crash land around their flight path when flying from their mountain colonies to the sea. – Tui Emma Gillies
15. Tītī (Muttonbird) 2023 Ink
old kupesi stencils from Vava'u; W795 x H600mm $2,200 Tui Emma Gillies and Sulieti Fieme'a Burrows
16. Makafeke, 2023
$2,500
Sulieti Fieme'a Burrows and Tui Emma Gillies
Rock, Tiger Shell, Pandanus, Tu'aniu, Fau, Kafa; L540 x H100 x W70mm, Cord L1350mm; Dimensions on brass stand H285 x L670 x W140mm