The ancient mariner

Born in the village of Poutasi Falealili on the island of Upolu in Sāmoa, Fatu Feu’u ONZM is recognised as a senior Pacific artist who was encouraged by fellow painters Tony Fomison, Philip Clairmont and Pat Hanly to develop a new direction in his work that drew on his Sāmoan history and fa’a Sāmoa (the Sāmoan way).

Seafaring metaphors abound in Fatu Feu’u’s practice, reflecting his personal migration story and traditional Polynesian navigation. In 1988, he founded Tautai Gallery – named after the role of a ‘tautai’ or expert navigator – a space now known as Tautai Contemporary Arts Trust. The organisation has since become integral to the development and visibility of Pacific art in Aotearoa New Zealand.

The triptych painting, The Ancient Mariner reflects Feu’u’s pan-Pacific aesthetic, drawing on siapo and tatau (tattoo) forms to create a vernacular visual language. A Lapita-inspired mask occupies the left panel, while the remaining sections follow a grid-like arrangement of siapo, combining motifs like frangipani and stylised frigate birds -symbols of navigation that parallel the Pacific migrant journey to Aotearoa New Zealand. These emblems lie beneath a glossy layer of black enamel, hinting at the tension between cultural loss and survival. Like Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa—the great ocean that binds the Pacific—they speak to knowledge carried across time: enduring, unbroken, and deep as the sea.

- Ane Tonga, 2025

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