Telly Tuita

Born in Tonga in 1980, Telly Tuita grew up in several villages before moving to Sydney at age nine. The cultural shift from island life to urban metropolis shaped his fascination with consumerism, reinvention, and the glossy surfaces of Western culture. Navigating complex family circumstances, Tuita eventually entered university, a turning point that laid the foundation for his artistic practice.

Tuita coined the genre “Tongpop”, an intriguing blend of Western cultural icons, music, literature, and pop culture with memories, motifs, and traditions from his Tongan heritage. Working across video, photography, painting, sculpture, and installation, he explores identity, belonging, and self-worth, capturing the experience of living between two realities.

Tongpop embodies both contrast and fusion — the shimmering spectacle of modernity layered with ancestral presence — offering a deeply personal yet expansive lens on diasporic life and cultural identity.

Rosanna Raymond/The SaVĀge K’lub

Rosanna Raymond (also known as Sistar S’pacific) is a leading figure in contemporary Pacific art and culture. Her multifaceted practice spans performance, writing, curation, pedagogy, institutional critique, and body adornment. She is a founding member of the internationally recognised SaVĀge K’lub and a long-standing member of the Pacific Sisters art collective.

Raymond’s work critiques traditional museum practices while creating platforms for dialogue that embody living connections between past, present, and future narratives. Internationally recognised, she has exhibited and presented in major institutions and communities worldwide. In 2018, Raymond was awarded the CNZ Pacific Senior Artist Award for her contribution to the arts, and she is a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Pacific Arts.