Panel talk: The impact and legacy of the Dawn Raids

Following on from a series of talanoa workshops engaging pacific voices throughout the year, we acknowledge the stories and testimonies that have shaped our creative project, honouring our communities here in Aotearoa, and the legacies of our people across Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa.

Panellists Oscar Knightley MNZM, Tigilau Ness, Nina Nawalowalo ONZM, Mere (Toroa) Montgomery, and Liana Leiataua reflect on that history and the creation of our city mural project in Te Whanganaui-A-Tara, with the hope towards a brighter future.

This event will be livestreamed.

Panellists

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Oscar Knightley MNZM

Oscar Kightley is a Sāmoan born entertainer who grew up in Aotearoa New Zealand and has helped create critically acclaimed award-winning work for the stage, small and big screens.

He is a Qantas award-winning journalist and has received the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award, an Arts Foundation Laureate, Sir Peter Blake Trust Emerging Leader Award, was appointed to the Council of Creative NZ, and received an MNZM medal from the Queen for his services to television and theatre.

Oscar co-founded Pacific Underground and the Island Players theatre company, is a member of the Naked Samoans and continues to work as a performer, writer and director for both national and international projects.

Along with an all-star cast, Oscar Kightley launches his long-awaited debut play Dawn Raids at the Opera House of Wellington, showing 24th and 25th October in a few weeks’ time.

Tigilau Ness 

Born in Tāmaki Makaurau of Niue Island immigrant parents who arrived in the early 1950s, Tigilau grew up in working-class inner-city Auckland suburb of Newton then moved to predominantly Polynesian slum area of Ponsonby in 1961.

Once a Panther always a Panther. Recruited into the Polynesian Panther Movement in Ponsonby in 1972, straight out of secondary school. The Dawn Raids began in 1974.

After a trip to meet the Minister of Culture for The Black Panthers of America; Emory Douglas, to attend their 50th Anniversary in Oakland California, Tigilau along with a friend along with friend Chris McBride envisaged a mural depicting the connection of the Black Panthers of America and the Polynesian Panther Party of Aotearoa, New Zealand. In 2021 to coincide with the Polynesian Panther Party 50th Anniversary in Ponsonby Auckland, the mural ‘Whakaako Kia Whakaora – Educate to Liberate’, another Panther platform and program, was launched successfully.

Nina Nawalowalo ONZM

Artistic Director and Co-founder of Wellington-based theatre and Film company The Conch. From groundbreaking Vula which toured for 7 years including a three-week season at The Sydney Opera House and a sold-out season at London’s Barbican Centre, to Masi, Marama, The White Guitar and A Boy Called Piano – to direction of Hone Kouka’s The Prophet and Edinburgh Festival award-winning Duck, Death and the Tulip, Nina is renowned for her powerful visual and magical work exploring Pacific stories.

Passionate about the arts as a vehicle to affect social change, in 2013 The Conch established the Solomon Islands National Women’s Theatre Company ‘Stages of Change’ as a means to address violence against women and girls. Her Film ‘A Boy called Piano ’ telling the story of Fa’amoana Luafutu’s experiences as a child in state care in the 1960s won Best Feature Documentary at the Montreal Independent Film festival, was presented at 23 international festivals, Parliament, prisons and youth detention centres across Aotearoa, Fiji, Tahiti, and UK including Wormwood Scrubs.

Nina's most recent film project, supported by the Niu Dawn Raids fund tells a story of the  Dawn Raids era in Wellington where the fight for Justice was taken to the courts and direct challenges to government policy lead by the pioneering work of the first Wellington Pacific Advisory Committee and her father Ratu Noa Nawalowalo as the first Fijian barrister and solicitor to graduate from Victoria University and practice in New Zealand.

Mere (Toroa) Montgomery 

Between the years of 1971–1972 during a gap year, Mere spent teaching English and Domestic Science at Kelana College, Neiafu, Vava’u in Tonga.

In 1973, Mere started the southernmost chapter of the Polynesian Panthers in Dunedin. Most of her family live in Auckland, so over time has travelled between Auckland and the Dunedin often enough to experience many things affecting our Pasifika people.

Completing a BA in Māori and MA in Social Work (Applied) and currently a retired social worker, Mere is still working in an advocacy and social justice capacity. Mere has worked for over 30 years in social work and fostered over 40 children as well as raising three biological children. Since 1973, she has been based mostly in Dunedin, with three years away living in Porirua. Mere has worked predominantly in Dunedin, with secondments to Central Auckland, South Auckland, Invercargill and Kaitaia.

Mere attended Dame Robin White’s exhibition at Te Papa in 2022. Mere is one of the subjects in Robin White's works Mere and Siulolovao, and was interviewed by Art Curator, Nina Tonga (Mere’s cousin) for Robin White’s book, Robin White: Something is Happening Here.

Liana Leiataua – Mural Artist 

Liana Leiataua is the lead artist for ‘Ua Tafa Mai Ata. As a Sāmoan-Scottish tama’ita’i (woman) born in Aotearoa New Zealand, Liana views her work as part of a continuum that bridges multiple cultures. 

She describes her art as ‘Siapo Aotearoa’, a unique, hybrid form that blends traditional Sāmoan siapo with contemporary influences from Aotearoa. Her siapo construction is rooted in the village of Leone, Tutuila, American Sāmoa, where she learned the siapo style from Mary Pritchard and the siapo makers of Leone. Liana studied printmaking under Anne Philbin and Michel Tuffery, and carving under Steve Myer and Owen Mapp. These diverse influences have shaped her multidisciplinary approach, combining traditional Sāmoan techniques with modern practices. 

Liana is the lead artist for the Te Papa-led public mural at the Wesley Methodist Church on Holland Street, and her previous mural work showcases her commitment to community and cultural storytelling.

Liana is an active member of the Samoan community in Porirua, a mother of four, and an educator, dedicated to fostering creativity and cultural connections within her community.

This events are presented by Te Papa in partnership with Wellington City Council, Pātaka Art + Gallery, Toi Poneke, and Manatū Taonga | Ministry for Culture and Heritage. 

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