Tungane Broadbent is a Cook Islands artist of international acclaim. Her Tivaivai work was selected for the Asia Pacific Triennial, APT5, 2006/07 at the Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia.
Tivaivai is a Cook Islands contemporary art form with substantial foundations. Tivaivai adopts the technique of quilting, its Cook Islands introduction credited to the wives of the original missionaries. In true Pacific style, the quilting technique was appropriated and given a distinctive generic characteristic. Bright colours and Pacific patterns came to dominate the art of making Tivaivai , rendering it visually separate and distinct to its European counterpart. Cook Islands Tivaivai are used for ceremonial occasion, weddings, coming of age celebrations, funerals and other village celebrations. They have become important social statements of place, closely associated with the families that produce them.
Born in the Cook Islands in 1940 on the southern group Island of Mangaia, Tungane Broadbent is a living embodiment of the art form. "I grew up with it, states Broadbent, it becomes part of you."
However, the art of Tivaivai is no longer common amongst Cook Islands family traditions. A consequence of the demanding modern lifestyle and the changing role of women in the community, the labourious hand sewn Tivaivai of old are fast disappearing along with the knowledge and skills used to create them. In response, Broadbent founded the O'oa Fabric & Fibre Arts group in 2007, where a primary focus is to teach women to sew Tivaivai. Broadbent speaks passionately to this point, 'It's important to keep the culture of Tivaivai alive, it's part of our identity as Cook Islanders'.