Joana Monolagi

Joana Monolagi is a Fijian artist and masi maker, whose work is in the collection of Auckland Art Gallery. She was awarded the Pacific Heritage Art Award in 2015 at the Arts Pasifika Awards, recognising her work in supporting art and culture, her role as Fijian coordinator for the Pasifika Festival, and her own unique artistic practice. She is part of The Veiqia Project arts collective.

Biography Monolagi was born in Ba, Serua Province. She moved to New Zealand in the mid to late 1970s. In 1990 she began to learn how to weave and print masi (barkcloth), teaching herself from memories she had of watching women in Fiji make the cloth when she was younger. In her artistic practice Monolagi combines traditional materials, such as masi and magimagi, alongside modern ones, such as iron-on fabrics. Her works are described as both contemporary art and traditional art – the tension between those definitions is discussed by Kolokesa Uafā Māhina-Tuai with reference to Monolagi's work. Her practice also includes creating Fijian traditional costumes and storytelling.

Since 2001 she has been the coordinator of the Fijian Village at the Pasifika Arts Festival in Auckland.

Monolagi has been teaching Fijian arts programmes since 2002, where she started at a school holiday programme teaching masi. The collective explores veiqia through workshops and the examination of museum collections. Initially envisaged as a nine-month long project, the collective continued its investigations, which included travel to Fiji to interview women who remembered the veiqia of their grandmothers, as well as a multimedia exhibition in 2021 entitled iLakolako ni weniqia: a Veiqia Project Exhibition. Veiqia was banned under British colonial rule and the last records of women receiving it date to the 1920s and 1930s.

The Veiqia Project including Monolagi opened a multimedia show iLakolako ni weniqia: a Veiqia Project Exhibition at The Physics Room, Christchurch in September 2021.

Awards In 2015 she was recognised with the Creative NZ Pacific Heritage Art Award.