Opening Speakers:
Hūfanga-He-Ako-Moe-Lotu, Professor 'Okusitino Māhina
Benjamin Work, Artist
In TO‘A MOTU – Island Warrior, artist Benjamin Work engages with the enduring legacy of Tongan warriors—figures who, for centuries, played a crucial role in the conflicts and power dynamics of Moana Oceania. Historically, Tongan warriors were sought after by chiefs across the Pacific, often serving as the vanguard of military campaigns due to their formidable prowess and strategic expertise. As a descendant of these warriors, Work draws upon this lineage to explore the interconnectedness of Pacific cultures and their contemporary expressions in Aotearoa and beyond.
At the core of Work’s practice is a critical investigation into Pacific iconography, particularly its presence in historical weaponry and its revitalization within an urban context. His ongoing research examines the carved motifs found on ‘akau tau (war clubs)—objects that functioned not only as tools of combat but also as vessels of encoded knowledge, prestige, and sacred protocol. By translating these motifs into paintings, sculptures, and public art, Work expands the reach of these visual traditions, fostering engagement with Tongan cultural aesthetics both within institutional spaces and in the urban landscape. His work interrogates ideas of place, belonging, and the ways in which indigenous visual languages can be activated in contemporary discourse.
Reflecting on his artistic inquiry, Work states: "I felt the shift before I could articulate it, causing me to search for a new language—a language to communicate what I was seeing and feeling. I found this carved into Tongan weaponry: bold, simple, masculine metaphors from our ancient martial traditions, closely tied to a warrior’s accolades and sacred protocols. The iconography, strategically placed across the surfaces of these weapons, was both metaphoric and abstract, and has intrigued me ever since."
By recontextualizing these ancestral symbols, TO‘A MOTU – Island Warrior underscores the resilience of Pacific visual culture, asserting its relevance within contemporary artistic and social frameworks. Work’s practice operates as both a reclamation and an evolution, offering a dialogue between historical traditions and the present, between past warriors and their modern descendants, and between indigenous knowledge systems and the globalized world. Through this exhibition, he invites audiences to reflect on the continuity of cultural narratives and the ever-present echoes of ancestral wisdom.
