Cook Islander Nina Oberg Humphries is an Ōtautahi Christchurch based artist. Represented by Bergman Gallery since 2021, her work includes photography, installation, sculpture, video, painting and performance, all seeded from her experience as a second-generation Pasifika - a New Zealand, and more specifically Ōtautahi Christchurch, born Cook Islander. Her exhibition was launched on Rarotonga last week.

Alongside her work as an artist, Oberg Humphries is director and co-founder of Tagata Moana Trust, bringing STEAM pathways to Pacific students and home to Fale Eke Pacific Hub and Fibre Gallery. Her community driven art is fed by the community work in all aspects of her life.

“My grandmother, Rangi Oberg, was a big community leader in education and an advocate for the Cook Islands community in Ōtautahi.”

A lot of her community involvement transferred into the work “I do here; my arts practice has essentially evolved into community and art work,” says Oberg Humphries.

Oberg Humphries was 17-years-old when her grandmother died.

The loss of her family’s matriarch and direct link to the Cook Islands, led to “questions about identity, and belonging and place, and an exploration of Pacific art, especially tivaivai.”

This was strengthened by her mother, Stephanie Oberg, who studied Pacific arts and was closely involved in the local Pacific performing arts scene, with artists often visiting the family home.

Oberg Humphries went on to study at Ilam School of Fine Arts.

She describes her work as, “multimedia work with three components: Pacific history, how the New Zealand diaspora fits into the Pacific context, and then centred in Christchurch where four generations of my family have grown up on the same street,” her work evolving to include her own Cook Islands history.

Taura imagines and reimages Taura Atua, pre-Christian spiritual items (physical representations of gods and ancestors) of the Cook Islands. Embodying symbols of migration by combining material from both traditional Polynesian taonga (treasures) and mass-produced dollar store items commonly used by urban Pacific peoples. 

These stories are encoded in the recreation of a Cook Islands God staff where the act of wrapping, and feather adornment are central to connecting and containing the mana of relationships and the Pacific-Aotearoa experience.

The images reveal a playful exaggeration of the way cultural items become souvenirs divorced from their traditional function.

This intentionally serves as a commentary on the profound impacts of tourism and globalisation, while simultaneously acknowledging the pleasure derived from these influences. 

Taura expresses a personal lament for lost cultural connections and a desire for a decolonised understanding of Cook Islands’ heritage.

By merging traditional and modern materials, Taura raises questions about cultural value systems and the interplay between authenticity and commodification.

It is a personal and collective journey towards cultural reclamation and understanding, emphasising the importance of preserving and untangling the effects of colonisation.

• Bergman Gallery