TONGAN STYLE!

Otara's Fresh Gallery held a fine exhibition of five Tongan-born, New Zealand-based women artists. These five distinctive Tongan artist have contributed all there hard work and labour to making a embroidery and crochet pieces all handmade. They helped to bring there unique Tongan style from the small islands of Tonga into the shores of Aotearoa New Zealand. Each piece which was displayed up on the gallery embodiment hard work and effort of labour, and it is within the Tongan background and in there tradition, that they represent their cultural wealth in the form of bed sheets and pollowcases, outfits for church and funerary decortions.
When i was young growing up i always use to see my grandma sew and do crochet, which looked pretty boring to me, but pretty interesting in a way look tongan works of art to view these fine works and also to find that some of the embroidery patterns has their very own meaning to it. if i clearly remember what Ema Tavola (the coordinator at the fresh gallery) quoted that one of the pieces in patterns reperesented an image of a bat taking flight which was also significant to the the Tongan culture, in which thought was pretty cool. As i actually look at some of the piece in the gallery i noticed alot of various kinds of materials used and fabrics seen in there practice, i saw feather, plastic bead and shell. Especially in one of the church outfits i saw "Tefisi Style" which in the women in the Tonga used it to distunguish their position and statue at birthdays, churches and at weddings. Overall i thought this was a great exhibition where we got to acknowledge the tongan artists and all there works of art. I myself also coming from a pacific island heritage from the heart of the pacific known as Samoa, greatfully admire the fine work of my fellow-neighbours Tonga.