Episode 46: Latai Taumoepeau

Justine Youssef in conversation with Latai Taumoepeau about her practice relative to climate justice and how the art sector can transform the conversation around climate change into action.

LATAI TAUMOEPEAU, 'Repatriate' (still), 2015. Commissioned by Carriageworks for 24 Frames Per Second. Image courtesy the artist.

LATAI TAUMOEPEAU, 'Repatriate' (still), 2015. Commissioned by Carriageworks for 24 Frames Per Second. Image courtesy the artist. Photo by Alex Davies 2015.

In this podcast, Latai Taumoepeau speaks with NAVA’s Professional Development Coordinator, Justine Youssef, about her practice relative to climate justice and the environmental, ethical and political effects of climate change in the Pacific region. Further to this Latai, shares ideas on how the art sector can transform the conversation around climate change and translate it into action.

Latai Taumoepeau is a contemporary Punake — a body-centred performance artist whose powerful artistic practice tells the stories of her homelands, the Island Kingdom of Tonga, and her birthplace of the Eora Nation, Sydney. Working in durational performance and documenting it through photographs, she addresses issues of race, class and the female body. In her recent practice, Taumoepeau explores the effects of climate change in the Pacific, probing existing power structures and the looming possibility of dispossession that many island communities face.

NAVA in conversation

Logo by Laura Pike 

Music by Marcus Whale  

Editing by Bec Stegh