Mother and daughter artists, Sulieti Fieme’a Burrows and Tui Emma Gillies are currently exhibiting their artwork ‘Voyagers: The Niu World’ at the Tautai Pacific Arts Trust, in Auckland. The artists specialize in ngatu or tapa art using traditional designs with modern themes.

Sulieti, who is from Falevai, Vava’u, was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) in the New Year’s Honours 2020 for services to Tongan art and education.

Tui told Stuff [2] that their current exhibition works with COVID as the subject.

“Everything’s happening right now – we’re living it, this pandemic.”

“This exhibition is very much about all of us living into the now, and voyaging into the unknown. We look at our ancestors, they did the same thing without a pandemic – that we know of. They got into their vakas,​​ went into monstrous seas, and hoped for the best.”

Their work is also about family.

“Covid has taught us that if we come together as a team, things can happen quickly. With the earth – scientists have been saying for many years, we need to change our ways, because they’re not sustainable. The pandemic’s told us that if we stick together, we can change things quite dramatically.”

The two artists have exhibited and presented their artwork around the world and sold them to private buyers, including The Royal Academy of Art in London, The National Gallery of Victoria Melbourne, The University of Hawaii Hilo and the Auckland Museum.

Sulieti has created ngatu (tapa) paintings, kahoa heilala (neck adornments) and other forms of Tongan art since she moved to New Zealand in the late 1970s.

Tui Emma Gillies, and her family current resides with her mother at Manurewa.

Voyagers: The Niu World exhibition runs from 20 March to 22 May at the Tautai Pacific Arts Trust, Auckland.