Ruha Fifita
Ruha Fifita is a Tongan interdisciplinary artist and curator based in Yugambeh/Logan.
Ruha Fifita was born and raised in the Island Kingdom of Tonga and continues to engage with the Pacific region as an interdisciplinary artist, and through her work as the Curatorial Assistant for Pacific Art at the Queensland state Gallery |Gallery of Modern Art.
As an artist, she works closely with her siblings and extended family, developing a practice which focuses on collaboration, community engagement and connection with indigenous methods and materials. Her creative work has afforded her many opportunities to work, engage in discourses and exhibit throughout the Pacific region in settings such as the Auckland Art Festival, Pataka Art Gallery, the National Gallery of Victoria, and the Tjibaou Cultural Centre.
The various endeavours she continues to engage in are linked as she consciously pursues opportunities to learn about how collaborative arts practices and methods of pattern-making can contribute to processes of consultation, capacity building and social change.
Fifita is currently showing in the 18th Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Inner Sanctum at the Art Gallery of South Australia until 2 June 2024. In February 2024, Fifita curated an experimental exhibition at Murray Art Museum Albury (MAMA) with Parallel Structures, from 1 February - 24 March 2024. This was developed with local Gen-Z artists to reflect collective inheritance from cultural and educational institutions.
Additionally, Fifita exhibited at the Art Gallery of NSW for The National 4: Australian Art Now in 2023, with Ivi’s Australia-based lead artists Minaira Fifita and Sheida Vazir-Zadeh. Ivi is a collaboration between artists learning about how collective Indigenous arts practices can be utilised to support community-building efforts that serve the wellbeing of neighbourhoods and communities in diverse settings.
In this video, Fifita talks to NAVA about the turning point of moving to a new country and being conscious of the culture and context within your space, the pressing issues of pathways of success as an artist, and the joy of learning and adapting practice as a co-creator of culture.
Video production by Atypical 2023.
Photo by Sheida Vazir-Zadeh, 2024.
ID: A photo of artist, Ruha Fifita sitting on a large painted bark cloth tapestry on the floor featuring a pattern of diamond shapes in warm tones. A small plate of paint is in front of her. She is wearing a bright turquoise top, is holding a small paint brush, and is looking at the camera and smiling.
