Artist Carl Pao. Photo by Paul Brugman.
Celebrated Indigenous Hawaiian artist Carl Pao is taking new ideas about the Pacific and committing them to canvas, painting a visually stunning and colourful mural at ANU. Mr Pao, the inaugural Pacific Studies Artist in Residence at the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, said the mural was inspired by what young Pacific Islander students had to say about their region and heritage as well as questions surrounding Pacific identities. "We tried to shed our preconceived ideas about what 'Pasifika', or the Pacific, means," said Mr Pao. "We discussed each island group and thought about their unique identities relating back to their place of origin. From that we started to think about grander, sweeping elements within the Pacific like ocean, wind, and current, and not only how those tie the mural together but how they have tied us together over the generations. "We were also inspired by Aboriginal Australian artwork and its use of aerial maps. We have developed a rough map of the Pacific stretching from Australia in the south all the way to Rapa Nui in the east and Hawai'i in the north. Like Indigenous Australian paintings, the artwork has many pathways, connections and parallel lines.
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