Aho Fetu'u: Guiding Stars for Self & Shared Path

Aho Fetu'u: Guiding Stars for Self and Shared Path

Join Mel Aluesi for a day-long wānanga dedicated to re-centering the self and connecting with the community through ‘aati (art).

Morning Session: Filling the Your Cup

Mel Aluesi will facilitate an Oceanic-centric art therapy session. This workshop offers a warm pause - a few hours to come back to yourself, somatically and kindly. Drawing on Ocean-rooted practices, the session is designed to help release tension, restore calm to your nervous system, and provide a space for gentle connection, healing, and rest.

What to bring:

• Personal journal

• Comfortable clothing

• Yourself, come exactly as you are

Afternoon Session: Pouring into the community

The afternoon shifts focus to the collective, offering a culturally safe critique space for practicing artists of Oceanic descent to share and discuss ongoing projects.

It can be difficult to feel supported by mainstream institutions when creating work rooted in our respective cultures. Lecturers and classmates may not always grasp Te Ao Māori, faka-Tonga, fa’a Samoa, or the nuanced lived experiences of being from the Moana. Because of this, institutional critiques can often lead nowhere, or worse, result in microaggressions.

Opening with an artist talk by Mel Aluesi, this session gives practicing artists the opportunity to be surrounded by a community that truly understands the concepts they are tackling. This is a space for communal knowledge-sharing and collective uplift, bolstering the artwork and ensuring it is held to the highest standard of cultural integrity.

What to bring:

• In-progress artworks or finished projects

• Your cultural understanding and artistic perspectives to share
  

You are welcome to join us for the full day or attend just one session. Kai will be provided.

Brown Town is an Ōtautahi-based collective dedicated to weaving communities together. Our mission is to provide our communities with the opportunity to connect through creation, expression, and celebration. This workshop is for our Tāngata Whenua & Tagata Moana whānau.