Faovale Imperium
Thursday 5 September, 19.00 - 20.30
Book your ticket here
An evening of poetry and music placing Pacific voices in the heart of the Museum alongside objects in the collections...
Join New Zealand Samoan/Welsh comedian James Nokise and DJ Don Luchito for a funny and thought-provoking exploration of the Pacific collections at the Museum. The performance shares a counter-narrative to the epic voyages of Captain James Cook as he encounters the many cultures of the Pacific, spreading ‘enlightenment’ to a people who lived in ecologically sustainable structures and knew how to sail without compasses…
This is a modern and irreverent reclaiming of Pacific storytelling. The two male performers themselves highlight the traditional absence of female representation in the telling of these stories, but contemporary poetry from female Pacific artists fills this void.
Faovale Imperium was originally inspired by the National Museum of Scotland’s Pacific Islands collections, and was devised specifically to be experienced in museum spaces. The show has recently toured New Zealand and featured in this year's Edinburgh Art Festival.
Supported by the British Council’s Connections Through Culture grant programme and Creative New Zealand Toi Aotearoa.
Biographies of the Performers
Multi-award winner James Nokise (NZ Samoan/Welsh), is a theatre maker, playwright, columnist and renowned social commentator, with extensive touring experience, including years on the International Fringe Festival Circuit, performing successful seasons in Edinburgh, Perth, and even New York City. He is the founder of No Fefe Theatre Collective, producing New Zealand’s longest running satire theatre series, Public Service Announcements and in 2016 became the first comedian to travel to the Festival of Pacific Arts as part of the Aotearoa delegation. He is currently a nationally syndicated columnist in New Zealand for The Post.
James has extensive nominations and awards under his belt, including best comedy show at the NZ Comedy Festival and Dunedin Fringe Festival, Best Theatre Solo at NZ Fringe, Best Show at the Chapman Tripp theatre awards and Best Comedian at the NZ comedy awards.
His critically acclaimed mental health podcast, Eating Fried Chicken in the Shower on RNZ, was nominated for the Voyager Media Award 2020. His 2023 podcast, Fair Game: Pacific Rugby Against the World (RNZ) is currently receiving worldwide attention, and lead to him being a pacific correspondent at the 2023 Rugby World Cup, and 2024 Summer Olympics.
This is a performer at the top of his game.
Wellingtonian Rodrigo Pantoja (Chile) aka DJ Don Luchito has been spinning tunes around town since the late 90’s and has played support for international acts like Blackalicious, Immortal Technique and RZA (Wu Tang Clan). He has an eclectic collection of music ranging from Jazz to Funk, Reggae to Hip Hop, Soul to Disco, Dancehall, Dub, 80’s New Wave and RnB with a sprinkling of Rock, n Roll, Ska,Rock & Latin and just about anything that will get the party going. He’s dabbled in sound engineering and mixing and has put his talent to good use at Radio Active 88.6fm mixing an array of local bands for their weekly live-to air segment for the past 3 years.
He’s also the host of The Amplifier Show (10am-1pm weekdays) on Radio Active since 2011 promoting local content and interviewing an array of guests from the music scene, to the food industry, poets, thespians, comedians, authors and astronomers. A fairly good all-rounder by many accounts.
