Samoan Queer Lives

Ahead of the Australian premiere of Yuki Kihara’s critically acclaimed Paradise Camp at Powerhouse Ultimo, hear the artist and other guest speakers celebrating Samoan Queer Lives.

Paradise Camp is an exhibition by Kihara curated by Natalie King OAM opening at Powerhouse Ultimo Friday 24 March. First presented to critical acclaim at the Aotearoa New Zealand Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, 2022, Paradise Camp creates an alternate, queer world that is both confronting and hypnotic in its humanity. Reflecting the perspective of Fa’afafine – Sāmoa’s third gender community to which she belongs – Kihara is camping the notion of paradise in an ‘In-drag-enous’ act.

Released in 2018 by Little Island Press, Samoan Queer Lives, is a collection of 14 autobiographical stories from Fa`afafine and LGBTIQ Sāmoans based in Sāmoa, Amerika Sāmoa, Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, Hawai`i and the USA co-edited by Kihara and Dan Taulapapa McMullin.

Speakers

Phineas Hartson (she/her/suga) is a solicitor working in the areas of Criminal, Civil Litigation, Commercial, Wills/Probate, Immigration and Family law in Gadigal land Sydney. She is a proud Fa’afafine, migrant, advocate, citizen of the world and contributing author to Samoan Queer Lives.

Brian Fuata (he/him) works across the fields of improvisational visual and performance art. He uses multiple registers and modalities of performance to produce, from a given institutional context, a dumb zone of dramatic affects. Fuata was recently artist in residence at AGNSW and is a contributing author to Samoan Queer Lives.

Fagalima Tuatagaloa (she/her/suga) is a founding member and current Vice President of the Sāmoa Fa’afafine Association. She has 15 years’ experience in sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC) activism. Tuatagaloa will also be speaking at the WorldPride Conference in Sydney, 1–3 March.

Yuki Kihara (she/her/suga) is an interdisciplinary artist of Japanese and Sāmoan descent. Through a research-based approach, her work seeks to challenge dominant and singular historical narratives through a wide range of mediums, including performance, sculpture, video, photography and curatorial practice. Kihara lives and works in Sāmoa, where she has been based over the past 11 years.