item details
Overview
This wood art has been donated to Te Papa Tongarewa, Museum of New Zealand by Elisapeta Fononga who acquired it from a relative who made it while incarcerated in the New Zealand prison system. The maker sold pieces to friends and extended family as a means of financially supporting his children.
Project 83: Small things matter
Elisapeta participated in the 2017 co-collecting initiative Pikipiki hama kae vaevae manava: joining our vaka to share our breath or life stories. Working with members of the Tongan community in Tamaki Auckland, Elisapeta participated as part of a Year 13 Tongan language class from Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate in Otara. We held a two-day training workshop with the class that aimed to demonstrate how collections and the museum can be meaningful spaces where their lives and experiences are valued, including contemporary teenage life.
As part of the sessions we encouraged the students to come up with a project name for this youth-focussed collecting that they would be undertaking - Project 83: Small things matter.
This was an opportunity to represent themselves and counter the stereotypical representations of their home town of Otara. The number '83' represents their school 'Hilary Collegiate' taken from the position of the letters 'H' and 'C' in the alphabet. The name reflects the experiences and values they share as 'Proud Otarians'. The second half of the title is 'small things matter' inspired by the story of a small shell in our collections. This tag line represents their collective agreement as a class to commit to this opportunity, and share what matters to them, regardless of how insignificant they may appear to others.
Significance:
This acquisition is significant as it references the New Zealand prison population. In the year 2017, the number of prisoners in New Zealand reached to more than 10,000. The Pacific prison population is 11% of all prisoners (Department of Corrections, 2017), the Pacific demographic is over-represented in both the prison and community offender population.
While in prison, over half of the population of prisoner's participate in work or industry training in areas like construction, farming, nurseries, forestry, timber processing, furniture making, textiles, catering, engineering, concrete product manufacturing, printing and laundries.
The decorated carved object represents the rehabilitation programs run by corrections and a reminder of the links and responsibilities that many prisoner's still have in the community regardless of the fact that they are incarcerated.