Melodie Turori: Recent Episodes
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ResourcesBooks
- Unsettling Truths by Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah
- Pathway of the Birds by Andrew Crowe
- The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King
- Missionary conquest: The gospel and Native American cultural genocide by George Tinker
NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community* Symposium Videos
Doctrine of Discovery in English
- Dum Diversas (1452)
- Romanus Pontifex (1455)
- Inter caetera (1493) Historical Movements MapMapping different historical points in Pasifika was first part of my doctoral research, a way to visualize different kinds of movement through time and the space of our great ocean. Through the Restorying Pasifika Histories series at the Pacific Island Ethnic Art Museum in Long Beach, California, the map grew exponentially. This is NOT a comprehensive mapping of historical activities from all islands. I’ve focused on adding movement and activity within these guidelines: 1) the map should provide a broad sense of movements that is inclusive of Melenesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. 2) The map should provide relational context for our Pasifika communities in southern California and the Indigenous Peoples whose lands hold us here.Finally, I will note that the map includes specific points from Aitutaki and Pukapuka (Cook Islands) because those histories belong to my family. It is through my papa’anga (genealogy) that I best understand our histories. This is very much still a work in progress that I hope will be helpful to our communities living away from our ancestral home islands. UpdatesIf you would like to receive a direct link to the map and updates about the Restorying Pasifika Histories series at PIEAM, enter your name and email below:
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made to be worn and handledclose up Golden Poppy patternClose up, stitched Tiare MaoriPattern detailsTeina is an ancestor emerging, made to be a sister piece to Masi, with intention that she could be worn and handled in ways the older 19th century bark cloth is not.
Like traditional and some contemporary bark cloth (or tapa, as it is widely known), Teina is painted in earth pigments on 100% cotton muslin. The hand stitched embellishments honor my grandmother who was a tivaevae maker. I see Cook Islands tivaevae quilts as a descending from the tradition of bark cloth, evidence of how culture grows and adapts to environment.
The selection of Fijian and Māori (Cook Islands) patterns share the journey of Masi, the people she encountered, and their practices of care.
Holding the Pimu Grandmother Bowl at PIEAMSigns of wear and handlingWorn by Melodie TuroriThe post Teina appeared first on Melodie Turori.
The ExhibitA rising story at the Pacific Island Ethnic Art Museum, exploring the industrialization of time that has characterized work and rest as opposing forces. Industry values rest as a tool to improve productivity and efficiency, giving rise to a self-care industry that commercializes rest as an individual practice. Our ancestors were children of the ocean and islands, how did they understand what it is to work and rest in community?
Rest in the intergenerational conversations between Pacific Indigenous ancestor pieces, lands, ocean, and artists living in the diaspora. Expect shifts, moving within the space as we enter moon phases, growing to fullness toward a Living Handbook.
This is a story that follows the moon, shifting and changing in phases over several months as it grows to fullness. As the exhibit rises, visitors and community members contribute to the Living Handbook through on-site interactions and Community Offerings.
The HandbookAfter the PIEAM phase of Te ‘Iti Nei Te Marama concluded, community responses were gathered into an ebook to guide ongoing reflection processes to support our collective and individual wellbeing.
Download the Handbook (PDF)Photography
Part of my contribution to the exhibit and handbook are a series of ancestor piece* portraits made in the light of the full moon. These portraits were informed by time spent with the waters of Mi’kma’ki; some of the photos feature in the handbook linked above.
The photographs are long exposures, playing with time and the way being lit by the moon paints a familiar world in an unfamiliar way. It looks like daylight, but also not quite. An invitation to pause, observe, and reconsider what we think the world must be like.
*What we call “ancestor piece” you might think of as an “artifact.” We use this term to honor the role and relationality of “things” in our Indigenous Pacific cultures.
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Festivals & Screenings* Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, 2022 * Pasifika Film Fest (Australia), 2022 * Māoriland (Aotearoa New Zealand), 2023
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Our virtual story circles were a sacred, safe space for the community to gather and participate in the ceremony of storytelling. Storytelling is an exchange of generosities; the teller gifts their experience in vulnerability and the listeners gift their full attention and presence.
In Cook Islands culture, tivaevae are ceremonial gifts that tell a story about place, time, and connections. This tivaevae was made to reciprocate the gifts of story I received from the community. The design is grounded in the nurturing care of taro, the dreams and visions the connect us to our ancestors, golden poppies that open and close with the sun in the way that grief ebbs and flows, and the spirit of the land, the ocean, and the people, which continues to burn.
The plants in the globes will root over the course of the exhibit (hopefully!), reminding us that life grows out of death. The globes are placed in the shape of the moon phase at the time of installation.
About Toe Fo‘iToe Fo’i:The Return is a community exhibit at Pacific Island Ethnic Art Museum, in collaboration with 5 Pasifika artists engaging the power of storytelling to humanize the numbers behind those lost to COVID-19. March 20 – August 21, 2022
The exhibit builds upon a series of story-circles held November 2021 through the February 2022, which reminds visitors that the stories of those lost are the stories of those who survived. Toe Foʻi: The Return is anchored to the role of artists as healers who move us collectively through this hurdle of misinformation, fear, mistrust, and entitlement. “This process recognizes and elevates our Pasifika artists as storytellers, culture bearers, and healers. It in itself is a return back to indigenous ways of healing,” says Kiana “Kiki” Rivera, Guest Curator.
Toe Foʻi: The Return brings the voices of the community through multidisciplinary art forms. Featuring works by: Melodie Bergquist-Turori, Ālaoi’a Moni Pili, Roldy Aguero Ablao, Mariquita “Micki” Davis, and Jason “JP” Pereira. In addition, an exterior installation entitled Hoʻokahi (Hawaiian word meaning “to make one”) also created by JP will tell a visual story of holistic wellness and resilience.
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Through this mini-residency I had the opportunity to spend a month in conversation with the ancestral artifact I was paired with: the Masi.
From these conversations I created a body of work that included a series of photographs, poetry, and a short poetry film. These works were shared during a live 30-minute presentation on the Pasifika Transmissions Facebook page.
Pasifika TransmissionsPasifika Transmissions is a distance learning program that invites indigenous artists in California to visit the archive of the Pacific Island Ethnic Art Museum and develop a video “transmission” geared towards children and families. This museum is the only institution of its kind in the contiguous United States soley dedicated to Pacific Island descendants. Pasifika Transmissions is hosted by Pacific Island Ethnic Art Museum and funded through the generous support by the RuMBA Foundation of Long Beach.
Melodie was paired with the Masi, a traditional cloth from Fiji, made from the inner bark of the Mulberry Tree. Melodie’s Transmission comes from a pairing inspired by a recent response to the alarming rise in racially charged violence, “In this Pasifika Transmission I reflect on what it means to remember, to move beyond, and to live more presently.”
The ExhibitIt wasn’t an official “exhibit,” but the ancestor pieces who were part of Pasifika Transmissions, and the works inspired by relationship with those ancestors, held the space in PIEAM as the world began to re-open during the COVID pandemic.
For this, I created a “fabric paper” collage to embody the Masi’s poem. Made from different types of paper, muslin, and acrylic paint.
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A visual poem honoring mama moana as the keeper of ancient memories, the one who connects the Pasifika diaspora with our home islands.
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Exploring the Art of Radio and Podcasting This is a talk I gave for a the Saddleback Arts: Live at Home series. We dig in to the two sides of our voices and how voice can be a powerful tool for creation, connection, and change.
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After learning of the passing of my friend I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on the meaningful impact one person can make in the life of another. Radio is how I met Doc Halliday and so it seems most appropriate to remember him with the voice he taught me how to use. You are […]
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The Hawaiian community of Southern California gathered during the Ho’olaulea at Alondra Park on July 20th, 2019, in solidarity with Hawaiians fighting to preserve Mauna Kea. The demonstration began with sign waving on the street before a procession into the festival for prayer and a moment of silence. “We have to fight today. We can’t […]
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Last November I traveled to Auckland to attend the 2018 Pacific Heritage Arts Fono. What a privilege it was to learn from master artists! So many lessons. I’ve been unpacking those lessons ever since. The word I kept returning to was relationship. Pacific cultures are community centered, unlike our individualistically driven American culture. Creating art […]
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I got the chance to watch the welcoming of Hikianalia, a traditional Polynesian va’a (canoe) when she arrived in San Diego. This was meant to be a different kind of video but I had an experience. It was magic; I could have stayed on Hikianalia for hours. 🙂 Have you ever had an experience like […]
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The power of PIFA San Diego is in the cultural villages! Experiencing the peoples of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia at one massive festival has made a positive impact on my own life. It can do the same for yours – come join us next year!
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There’s a particular beauty to the rugged coastline of northern California. Don’t get me wrong, I love my sandy Southern California beaches, but a chilly wind (even in the dead of the July) whipping at your face as you stand on the edge of a tree lined cliff while the pacific ocean swirls violently around […]
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Got up before dawn to catch the end of the super bloom earlier this week. We watched the sun rise over Lake Henshaw and wandered through Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. The crowds were streaming east by the time we left to pick up a treat from Mom’s Pies in Julian and head home.
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I wrote this piece on June 29. Nine days later, mom had a stroke. She is doing great — amazing, actually. I mention it here as a historical footnote of sorts. The timing of the original writing was…uncanny. Suffice it to say that we are all extra grateful to be celebrating our mom this year! […]
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