Mike Tavioni | |
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Born | 1947 (age 75–76) |
Alma mater | Tereora College Northland College Massey University Auckland University of Technology |
Occupations |
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Mitaera Ngatae Teatuakaro Michael Tavioni BEM (born 1947) [1] is a Cook Islands artist and writer. A master carver, he has been described as a taonga (treasure). [2] His role in the pacific art community is recognised from New Zealand to Hawaii. [3]
Tavioni was born on Rarotonga. He was educated at Tereora College, then at Northland College, Kaikohe and Massey University in New Zealand, graduating with a degree in Agriculture & Horticulture. [4] After working as a public servant in the Agriculture Department, he became a full-time artist. [4] In 2019 he graduated with a Master of Fine Arts from Auckland University of Technology. [5] [6]
He has worked in a wide variety of mediums, including printing, painting, wood, stone, and bone, as well as traditional tattooing. [4] In 1975 he began printing t-shirts using wooden blocks. [7] He experimented with other mediums, but initially found it difficult to obtain tools and materials. [7] In 1996 he oversaw the creation of the Punanga Nui market. [8] In 2002 he published a poetry collection, Speak Your Truth. [9] His work is displayed at the Punanga Nui in Avarua and the University of the South Pacific campus. [10] In 2016 he was commissioned, alongside New Zealand-based artist Michel Tuffery, to create a carved wooden gateway for the RSA memorial cemetery to commemorate the centenary of Cook Islands participation in the First World War. [11]
Tavioni unsuccessfully stood as a candidate for the Unity party in the 1978 Cook Islands general election. [12] He later stood as a candidate for the Te Kura O Te ʻAu People's Movement in Avatiu–Ruatonga–Palmerston in the 2010 election. [13]
Tavioni now runs a gallery and art school in Rarotonga, [14] where he teaches traditional vaka-making. [15] In 2021 he was the subject of a short documentary film, Taonga: An Artists Activist. [16]
In the 2022 Birthday Honours he was awarded the British Empire Medal for services to the arts and to the community. [17] [1]
The Cook Islands is a self-governing island country in the South Pacific Ocean in free association with New Zealand. It comprises 15 islands whose total land area is 240 square kilometres (93 sq mi). The Cook Islands' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers 1,960,027 square kilometres (756,771 sq mi) of ocean.
Rarotonga is the largest and most populous of the Cook Islands. The island is volcanic, with an area of 67.39 km2 (26.02 sq mi), and is home to almost 75% of the country's population, with 13,007 of a total population of 17,434. The Cook Islands' Parliament buildings and international airport are on Rarotonga. Rarotonga is a very popular tourist destination with many resorts, hotels and motels. The chief town, Avarua, on the north coast, is the capital of the Cook Islands.
Waka are Māori watercraft, usually canoes ranging in size from small, unornamented canoes used for fishing and river travel to large, decorated war canoes up to 40 metres (130 ft) long.
Cook Islands Māori is an Eastern Polynesian language that is the official language of the Cook Islands. Cook Islands Māori is closely related to New Zealand Māori, but is a distinct language in its own right. Cook Islands Māori is simply called Māori when there is no need to disambiguate it from New Zealand Māori, but it is also known as Māori Kūki ʻĀirani or controversially Rarotongan. Many Cook Islanders also call it Te reo Ipukarea, literally "the language of the Ancestral Homeland".
Michael "Michel" Cliff Tuffery is a New Zealand artist of Samoan, Tahitian and Cook Islands descent. He is one of New Zealand's most well known artists and his work is held in many art collections in New Zealand and around the world.
New Zealand art consists of the visual and plastic arts originating from New Zealand and comes from different traditions: indigenous Māori art and that brought here including from early European mostly British settlers.
Dorice Reid, also known by the chiefly title Te Tika Mataiapo Dorice Reid, was a Cook Islander tourism official, businesswoman and judge. Reid enjoyed a long career in Cook Island business, politics and tourism from the 1970s until her death in 2011.
Pa Upoko Takau Ariki was a sovereign of the Cook Islands. She was the ariki of the Pa dynasty, one of the two chiefdoms of the Takitumu tribe on the island of Rarotonga.
Rangi Kipa is a New Zealand sculptor, carver, illustrator and tā moko artist.
Te Moemoea no Iotefa was the first exhibition held in a civic art gallery in New Zealand focused on contemporary Pacific art.
James Earnest Vivieaere, a New Zealand artist of Cook Island Maori heritage, was born in Waipawa, Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand. He was a well-respected and significant multimedia and installation artist, freelance curator and a passionate advocate for contemporary Pacific art.
Pepe and the Rarotongans were a popular Cook Island music group fronted by a female singer, Pepe. They were active in the 1950s and 1960s. As recording artists, they had albums released on the Viking and Salem labels.
Anthony Toruariki Armstrong was a Cook Islands politician and member of the Cook Islands Parliament. He was a member of the Cook Islands Democratic Party.
Marumaru Atua is a reconstruction of a vaka moana, a double-hulled Polynesian voyaging canoe. It was built in 2009 by the Okeanos Foundation for the Sea. In 2014, it was gifted to the Cook Islands Voyaging Society. It is used to teach polynesian navigation.
Mere Tepaeru Tereora is a Cook Islands artist and educator. Her Tivaevae work is internationally recognised and displayed in the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. She is also a significant figure in the revival of Cook Islands Māori, establishing language nests for it in New Zealand. She was the sister of writer Kauraka Kauraka.
Mary Tupai Ama is a Cook Islands-New Zealand artist and community arts organiser.
Charles Eldon Fayne Robinson is a New Zealand Māori artist specialising in carving. Robinson has contributed to the carving of buildings on many marae in New Zealand as well as exhibiting his art in galleries and museums.
Te Au o Tonga is a reconstruction of a vaka moana, a double-hulled Polynesian voyaging canoe. It was built in 1994 by former Cook Islands Prime Minister Thomas Davis and the Cook Islands Voyaging Society. It was used to teach polynesian navigation.
Jasmine Togo-Brisby is a South Sea Islander artist known for her sculpture installations and portrait photographs. She currently resides in Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington and is one of few artists that centres Pacific slave labour as the focus of her practice.
Glenda Tuaine is an event, arts producer and promoter based in Rarotonga. Tuaine is Company Director of Motone Productions, a creative production company based in Rarotonga, Aitutaki, Tahiti and Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. In 2019 Tuaine was awarded the Creative New Zealand Special Recognition Arts Pasifika Award. Tuaine is invested in the arts in the Cook Islands and produces tours for musicians, opera events, and has directed an award-winning short film about Cook Island artist Mike Tavioni.