spinofflive
Multidisciplinary artist Moe Laga photographed in Ema Tavola’s South Auckland garage by Tanu Gago (Supplied)
Multidisciplinary artist Moe Laga photographed in Ema Tavola’s South Auckland garage by Tanu Gago (Supplied)

SocietyDecember 11, 2022

In celebration of my South Auckland garage

Multidisciplinary artist Moe Laga photographed in Ema Tavola’s South Auckland garage by Tanu Gago (Supplied)
Multidisciplinary artist Moe Laga photographed in Ema Tavola’s South Auckland garage by Tanu Gago (Supplied)

In response to Chris Luxon’s comment about potential gang members ‘sitting in a garage in South Auckland’, artist-curator Ema Tavola shares some photos of people who visited her own garage over the years.

All photos courtesy of Ema Tavola  / VunilagiVou except where indicated.

National Party leader Christopher Luxon is my MP; I’ve just moved to East Tāmaki, a stone’s throw from Ōtara, South Auckland heartland. Luxon’s Botany electorate includes a pretty substantial chunk of Ōtara, a suburb well known for its strong and youthful working class, predominantly Pacific population. I’ve lived most of my adult life in South Auckland, moving here from Fiji to study, and staying for the opportunities in the arts and culture sector. Having studied and worked here, run Fresh Gallery Ōtara (2006-2012) and taught at Manukau Institute of Technology, Ōtara has been the epicentre of my creative practice, and my service back to the community through the arts.

Before moving to Luxon’s Botany electorate, I lived for almost 20 years in a family home in Papatoetoe, the garage of which was a site for Pacific art parties, talanoa, painting, scheming, haircuts, tattoos, photoshoots and later converted to an art gallery.

While most of Luxon’s position on crime, gangs and punishment is glaringly out-of-touch, conveniently overlooking the inextricable and undeniable connections between poverty, systemic inequality and structural racism, it’s his casual stereotyping that can get right in the bin. It is perhaps hardest to swallow when watching a conversation between two Pākehā men in suits discussing youth criminality and how “we” stop “them” from joining gangs in the first place.

Luxon was interviewed by Chris Lynch on December 1 about crime, the health system and nursing. When asked about how National would prevent youth crime, Luxon said: “If you’re sitting in a garage in South Auckland with your two brothers and you’re thinking about life and where you’re going, consciously or unconsciously, the gang life looks pretty attractive.”

The clip was posted on Instagram this week and commentary from Māori, Pacific and South Aucklanders across social media has been gloriously savage.

There are so many resources Luxon could reference to help him craft better narratives, but he could start with South Auckland academic Dr Belinda Borell’s work on white privilege and structural racism. And while Luxon’s words are simply characteristic of his party’s steadfast commitment to the systems that centre and privilege Pākehā men, I felt compelled to tweet into the abyss: don’t EVER come for our garages!

The South Auckland garage that I’ve known and loved for most of my adult life has been a place of safety and sanctuary, deep creativity and transformation.

In 2002, Tongan painter Samiu Napa’a painted an oil on linen work in the garage entitled Homies. It went on to be shown at Fresh Gallery Ōtara, where Napa’a showed paintings made in this garage on multiple occasions, in addition to working on commissioned portraits.

Award-winning artist and co-founder of FAFSWAG, Tanu Gago MNZM started making photographic portraiture in this garage. His work Daniel (2012), made with South Auckland photographer Vinesh Kumaran, has been exhibited widely and was purchased by the Auckland Art Gallery for the exhibition Home:AKL. Tanu Gago went on to become an Arts Laureate and a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

In 2020, a group of friends and colleagues formed an informal collective of South Auckland-based arts managers and producers called Tū Tonu. We had a common commitment to supporting the participation, development and growth of the intergenerational Moana (Māori and Pacific) communities we are part of, and we are all proud to call South Auckland home. Our meetings in the garage were so incredibly inspiring. In this picture, there are three members of the New Zealand Order of Merit, public servants, teachers and artists. All brown, in a garage, in South Auckland.

Photo by Iokapeta Magele-Suamasi

This humble South Auckland garage was also the setting for this exquisite series of portraits by Moe Laga. Behold… a South Aucklander… in contemplation, in a garage.

Learn more about Moe Laga, this amazing multidisciplinary artist and performer here.

Artist: Moe Laga, Photographer: Tanu Gago

But it wasn’t all award-winning art making. The garage was where numerous event banners came to life, a huge and undocumented economy in the creative ecology of South Auckland. I made this one while at home with a one-year-old while her father, a South Aucklander, was out getting a logistics qualification to later become a shipping agent and not a gang member.

Just to really problematise the misconception of brown people in garages in South Auckland, here’s four photos of VunilagiVou 2.0, the garage gallery fitted out by Ōtara-based artist Sean Kerrigan, where we hosted politicians and scholars, discussed historical portraiture and provenance and held weekly yoga and meditation classes.

Our first visitor to Vunilagi Vou 2.0: Greens co-leader Marama Davidson, left
Portrait of Norman Kirk by Johanna Van Massop
Me with MahMah Timoteo and David Garcia, PhD candidates from the University of Canterbury, discussing their doctoral research, May 2021
$5 Yoga and meditation class with Samoan instructor Gamo Farani-Tomlin

Last year, our family house was sold and the last artwork I made was an ode to the garage. This was one of three fleece blankets printed with digital collages inspired by tarot card design and referencing the shift from this house into the unknown. This was the first of the set; the series was commissioned by The Community Reading Room for an exhibition called “Volumes: Bodies of Knowledge” for Metro Arts in Brisbane.

Keep going!
Image: Archi Banal
Image: Archi Banal

SocietyDecember 10, 2022

‘Give them a second chance’: The celebrity dogs looking for homes this Christmas

Image: Archi Banal
Image: Archi Banal

Alex Casey has a VIP meet and greet with some very famous rescue pooches. 

Sinead O’Connor is pissing in the corner, Steve Martin is coming dangerously close to knocking over a potplant and Meryl Streep is slinking around with her belly to the floor. It could be a rowdy Hollywood afterparty at 2am, but instead we’re at the Henderson animal shelter on a drizzly Tuesday afternoon, meeting a slew of celebrity-named dogs in desperate need of new homes. 

There are currently 46 dogs up for adoption across Auckland Council’s animal shelters, but these celebs have had a particularly long wait. “It’s hard for them, a lot of puppies go quickly but the older dogs tend to stick around,” says Auckland Council’s Silverdale Animal Shelter manager Kelsey Purcell, as bull terrier cross Sinead O’Connor halts her zoomies briefly to emit a silent celebrity fart. “Some of them… well, you can see how they might get overlooked.” 

The ongoing fallout from Covid-19 lockdowns has made things even more challenging for shelters, says Purcell. “A lot of people went back to normal life and realised they didn’t actually have room for a dog,” she says. Auckland Council’s Animal Management Annual Report for 2021 – 2022 found that total of 335 dogs were adopted from Auckland shelters or transferred to rescue organisations, which is 2.1% higher than the previous year. 

Sinead O’Connor needs a home. (Photo: Alex Casey)

With so many new dogs coming through their doors every month, staff at the Manukau Shelter get turns picking a theme for their names. These have included Disney (Edna, Dory, Nemo), fruit (Guava, Peach, Currant) and the aforementioned celebrities (also Kelly Preston, Bette Midler, Shirley MacClaine). Staffy cross Shirley MacClaine was found as a wandering stray puppy with her sister, Sally Field. Sally has since been adopted out, but Shirley is still available.

“People often just like the look of dogs,” says Purcell. “Anything small and cute will go out much quicker.” It’s not unusual for larger “bully” breeds to stay in the shelter for several months – the longest reigning was a staffy cross who was in council care for over 10 months before finally getting adopted. “They can be harder work for first-time dog owners, and as soon as you put in any requirements around the home it gets harder and harder to adopt them out.” 

Meryl on Trade Me

We meet a shy girl called Meryl Streep, a whippet cross with an extraordinary origin story. Her mum was found heavily pregnant in the backseat of a car that had been involved in a hit and run in South Auckland. The driver had fled the scene, so she was surrendered to the Manukau shelter where she would soon give birth to a litter of nine, including Meryl. Since then all of Meryl’s brothers and sisters, and even her own mum, have found new homes. 

Meryl nervously sniffs around the room with her belly close to the floor. After a couple of treats and pats, she starts nuzzling into our legs with her ears perked up like Yoda, before sitting nicely to have her picture taken. It is extremely difficult to understand why she’s been overlooked for so many months. “Right now we have a surplus of rescue dogs and less people in a position to take them on, and yet people are still breeding out there,” says Purcell. “It’s crazy.” 

Lovely Meryl. (Photo: Alex Casey)

There is always an increased interest in dog adoption around Christmas, but Purcell says it is more related to the seasons than to Santa. “I think summer helps a lot – nobody wants to adopt a dog in the middle of winter.” For those looking to bring any dog home, she says it is essential you ask some hard questions – “Can you commit to a dog for the next 15 years? Can you afford it if it needs medication, insurance or surgery? Can you promise it the time it needs?” 

The Christmas period also brings with it more surrenders, says Purcell. “People realise they can’t afford their dog on top of everything else, or they leave their dogs alone and go away on holiday and the dog gets out,” she says. Her one hope is that those who are in the market for a dog will consider looking at a rescue instead. “It’s not the dogs’ fault that they are here,” she says. “Give them a second chance, they are just as deserving as any other dog.” 

But wait there's more!