Ngā Kākano: Kạp‘ạki - To Embrace

Sofia Tekela-Smith is an artist of Rotuman descent based in Tāmaki Makaurau. She has built a practice over many years that consistently honours Pacific materials and meaning. Working with mother-of-pearl, cowrie shell, pounamu, and found oceanic objects, her work is held in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum New York, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki and Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland Museum. Rooted in the aesthetics, materials, and philosophies of the Moana, her practice creates connections between ancestral memory and contemporary artforms and spaces. 

Sofia is also the 2026 Matafatafa aho Pacific Artist in Residence here at Auckland Museum. You can see some of Sofia's work in Te Puna Whakarākei: Jewellery as Statement, located in the Level One Applied Arts Gallery.

As a living hanuju of answered prayers, Maluseu Monise carries the voices of his tēmamfua (elders) creating, retelling, and sharing stories that connect, ground, and move people. A bold facilitator and energetic MC, and co-founder of The Far Queue Podcast, he weaves culture and storytelling from the diaspora. A humble grandson, son, uncle, and cousin, born and raised in Saukama, Juju, Rotuma.