22 September 2026
Announcements

Announcing our Spring Time & Space Resident!

Announcing our Spring Time & Space Resident!

We’re delighted to announce the recipient of our Spring Time & Space Residency for 2026: Tupe Lualua. Tupe is a Sāmoan dance practitioner, choreographer, educator, producer, and founder of Le Moana and the Measina Festival.

Backstage group selfie of dancers at the Measina Festival 2016, smiling and pulling faces at the camera A dancer in a lavalava and shell necklace crouches and reaches out across a blue-lit stage while other performers kneel behind her

2016

Seed planting phase in collaboration with Andy Tilo-Faiaoga and our Whitireia Āiga at the Measina Festival 2016 in Porirua.

Image: Saint Andrew Photography

The work that Tupe will be developing with her collaborators during this residency is a personal one:

“Somewhere between 2015–2026, there is a narrative that is inspired by wanting to know who my Dad was before he became my Dad. It is an honour to be a part of the authentic life experiences of my brothers and cousins and to be privy to the multifaceted role of the woman. Essentially, it’s a conversation between a Bat and a Lizard. For this residency, the goal is to unpack these images through text, my first official script development. I’m a baby when it comes to creative writing, so I would like to prioritise that part of the process. Those are the seeds for this residency, the first eight counts in the dance.”

A circle of young men with their arms around each other and heads bowed, in a room with pale blue walls

2017

Sprouting in collaboration with the Taule'ale'a in my Aiga in Sāvaia Lefaga, 2017

Her acclaimed theatre works include Fatu Na Totō, 1918, and Purple Onion, performed nationally and internationally. Her honours include Sāmoa Artist in Residence (2019), Creative NZ Arts Pasifika Contemporary Artist Award (2021), FAME Mid-Career Award (2022), and Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (2024) for Services to the Arts. She has taught at Whitireia New Zealand, Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School, and Victoria University of Wellington.

Tupe continues to collaborate with Sāmoan artists globally, produce live theatre for Le Moana, and serve on the project team for LIMA Productions.

Women in brightly patterned lavalava sit along a wall laughing and clapping during a Siva Session Women in lavalava dance together across the wooden floor of a sunlit hall

2025–26

Tupe’s current practice in Tāmaki Makaurau – Siva Sessions for Sāmoan women in 2025 & 2026

Credits: Edith Amituanai (2025) and Emily Parr (2026)

Tupe will be with us from 8–14 November. We’re beyond excited for Tupe and her collaborators, and to witness the life this work takes on through the Spring Time & Space Residency.