nobody belongs here more than you is grounded in the founding vision of Fatu Feu’u and the kaupapa of Tautai Pacific Arts Trust, which centres the advancement, visibility, and long-term support of Pacific artists. Over the past four decades Tautai has played a critical role in providing pathways for artists navigating the transition from education into professional practice, particularly within a wider arts ecology where Pacific perspectives have been historically underrepresented. nobody belongs here more than you extends that commitment by offering a dedicated platform for artists at a formative stage.

The exhibition brings together pre-existing works by students from universities across Tāmaki Makaurau. Developed through an open invitation, the project provides a platform for emerging artists to each present one work outside of their respective academic institutions, foregrounding the breadth, diversity, and current concerns of creative practices at an early stage of development. By focusing on existing works and works in progress the project sought to reduce barriers to participation while enabling a responsive and representative snapshot of student-led practice across the region, all the while reinforcing that Pacific connected artists do not fit a single mould.

By convening artists across multiple institutions, the exhibition also addresses the fragmentation that can characterise tertiary arts education, fostering a sense of collective presence and shared authorship among participants. The title, nobody belongs here more than you, operates as both an affirmation, an invitation and a curatorial framework, reinforcing the centrality of Pacific artists within the space while contributing to a broader discourse around belonging, access, and representation in Aotearoa’s contemporary art landscape. This approach is particularly pertinent in the current context, where, it almost goes without being said, it is a very difficult time to be an artist in Aotearoa. This project acknowledges the broader social context in which students are undertaking arts education - one shaped by reduced arts funding and increasingly precarious employment pathways. In this climate, the exhibition seeks to offer a sense of reassurance and possibility, not only for the students themselves but for their wider communities, affirming the value of creative practice despite its perceived instability.

Each of these artists, across their respective mediums and their respective concerns pose alternatives to our sense of what is possible, attempting to direct how we live among each other in our communities. And with the troubles of the world so continually brought to our attention, we need agents that can preserve our hopeful dispositions. The team at Tautai would champion that those agents are artists like Carmel, Ayla, Miro, Isaiah, Teuila and Portia.