Tungane Broadbent

Tungane Broadbent (born 1940, Mangaia, Cook Islands) is a Cook Islands artist, notable for her tivaevae/tivaivai, with her career making tivaivai spanning five decades. Broadbent founded the O’oa Fabric & Fibre Arts group in 2007, Rarotonga, to teach women to sew tivaivai.

In 2006, Queensland Art Gallery commissioned her to produce a Mangaian tivaivai for the 5th Asia Pacific Triennial which is a feature of the Modern Art Gallery, hosted by Premier of Queensland Peter Beattie on behalf of the Queensland Government.

In 2015, Creative New Zealand brought Tungane Broadbent, along with five other senior artists from the Cook Islands to New Zealand to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Cook Islands self-governance. Kaute (Hibiscus) made by Tungane and Vereara Maeva-Taripo was acquired by Christchurch Art Gallery.

In 2023, Tungane designed 'Chandelier and Chalice - Mori Tautau e te Kapu Oro’a ' and the tivaivai was made by the women of Atiu/Enuamanu with support from the New Zealand High Commission funds, and displayed in Cook Islands National Museum.

Tungane's work is held in many public and private collections internationally such as Cook Islands National Museum, Christchurch Art Gallery, and The Arts House Trust.

Selected solo and collaborative exhibitions

2023: Nga Meka Tui Kura (Epilogue) (with Reuben Paterson), Bergman Gallery, Rarotonga, Cook Islands 2022: Nga Meka Tui Kura (with Reuben Paterson), Aotearoa Art Fair, Auckland, New Zealand 2015: Tivaevae (with Vereara Maeva-Taripo), Queensland Art Gallery, Australia

Selected group exhibitions

2023: Te Vaerua O Te Va'ine - Our Mother's Hands, Bergman Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand 2020: Tatou 2, The Story of Us, Bergman Gallery, Rarotonga, Cook Islands 2006: 5th Asia Pacific Triennial, Queensland Art Gallery, Australia