As part of Manukau City, the Manukau Festival of Arts showcased all the art, music and performance the city had to offer. Now, as part of Auckland’s Super City, Manukau has extended its reach to all of South Auckland and will this year premiere the Southside Arts Festival.


This new scope has thrilled Otahuhu artist Luisa Tora who, along with her partner Sangeeta Singh and five others, is bringing art to the suburb that traditionally missed out of Manukau’s celebrations as part of Auckland City. 
The group is putting on an exhibition called Diasporadic679, a public exhibition of Fijian artists living in diaspora. Timed to acknowledge Fiji’s Independence Day and pay homage to the Fijian telephone prefix, +679, the artists reflect on Fiji Islander identity and diaspora experience from seven diverse positions.


Collectively, the selected artists’ practices represent investigations into text and urban landscapes, feminism and sexuality, militarism, power and struggle. In the form of posters, the artists’ works are installed in the windows of six venues in and around Otahuhu Town Centre.


Luisa says, “We don’t have art spaces here so we decided to do the exhibition guerrilla-style with posters out on the street, so it’s more accessible to people than a gallery space, which can often feel quite exclusive.


“Everyone has such different styles and practices, and we’re going to smack that on the walls of Otahuhu. We’ve got a hotel, the rec centre, a few other shops and a food court; they’re all very main street. It is going to be an art walk – you can wander through the centre of town and see work from seven artists in six places.” 


Luisa works with poetry and visual art around themes of gender, sexuality, and militarism. She co-curated VASU: Pacific Women of Power in Fiji in 2008 (Fiji’s first all-woman multimedia exhibition), and co-edited the accompanying publication. She also recently started a zine called Diasporadic where she explores all things brown, queer, and female.


The Southside Arts festival is running from 14 October to 6 November. Visit www.mfa.org.nz for more information.