Julia Mage’au Gray

Julia Mageʼau Gray (born 1973) is a dancer, choreographer and tattoo artist from Papua New Guinea, who is credited with revitalising women's tattoo traditions in communities from Papua New Guinea and Fiji.

Biography

Early life Mageʼau Gray was born in 1973 in the Mekeo-speaking area of Central Province, Papua New Guinea. Her mother was Papuan and her father Australian. Career In 1997 in Adelaide she co-founded Sunameke, an arts performance company with Yolanda Gray, Katrina Sonter and Samantha Sonter. Her work as a dancer and choreographer is inspired by her Papua New Guinean heritage.

In 2014, she retrained as a tattoo artist, building on the interest she had acquired in Melanesian tattooing in her work as a choreographer and film-maker. She was encouraged to learn the art after a trip to Samoa in 2012, where she met the Samoan artist Suluʻape Saʻa Alaivaʻa Petelo. She apprenticed for six months in New Zealand, where she learnt both hand-poke and hand-tap tattooing. In 2017 she tattooed art dealer Lana Lopesi live, as a performance which was part of the exhibition Lain Blo Yu Mi – Our People Our Lines held at Vunilagi Vou gallery. The exhibition was curated by Ema Tavola, and was staged as a tribute to the central role that Mageʼau Gray has played in the revitalisation of Melanesian women's tattoos.

Mageʼau Gray is known for her work tattooing Fijian veiqia designs, for example on artists Dulcie Stewart and Luisa Tora, as well as other members of The Veiqia Project. She also the first person in eighty years to tattoo traditional designs in the Mekeo area, that had been discouraged by the colonising activity of missionaries. The same year, her 2011 audio-visual work Best Foot Forward was acquired by the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art.

Filmography

Best Foot Forward (2011) Melanesian Marks: IG (2019)

Personal life As of 2015, she lived in Australia with her Māori husband.