Artwork information

Edith Amituanai is an acclaimed artist of Sāmoan descent based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. Throughout her career, Amituanai has created imagery with diaristic intent, depicting people and places at a constant interface between interiors and exteriors, some connected through narratives of diaspora and migration.

Over the last eight years, Amituanai has documented ‘Siren Culture’, a new and emerging street subculture that originated in Auckland in the early 2010s. Here, devotees of the subculture carefully pull apart radios and Bluetooth speakers, wiring them into upcycled and purchased industrial speakers, loudhailers and emergency-evacuation sirens to create portable arenas of sound. Typically, sirens are wired along the handlebars of a bike or double and triple-stacked onto a car roof.

Siren culture is also a form of cultivating community and creativity. There are regular gatherings for siren battles where siren crews compete based on clarity of sound and volume. Amituanai was introduced to siren culture through her close documentation of the West Auckland Crew known as the ‘Switch Hittaz’ and has since expanded her scope to siren battles and crews across Aotearoa.

Through Amituanai’s practice, she has ushered the subculture into prominence. Depicted across this suite of four images are siren battle scenes ranging from 2018 to 2021. The variation of creativity can be seen in Snow White Battles for Siren King where an everyday Toyota Camry has transformed into ‘Snow White’ by stacked sirens on the roof and hood of the car, along with led-colour lighting and text that reads ‘Team West Snow White Switch Hittaz.’

Amituanai says siren culture is uniquely Pasifika, and that’s what fascinates her about it. “Often [Pacific people] are participating in global phenomena,” she says. “When Pacific players play rugby, we just kill it—and we changed the game. But we didn’t make the game. We made sirens.” [Tulia Thompson, Loud and Clear, National Geographic, Issue 177, Sept-Oct 2022]