Sione Faletau
Tuaikaepau - Slowly but surely

Tongan artist Sione Faletau’s multidisciplinary practice spans video, soundscapes sculpture and installation to explore cultural systems and identity. Anchored in Tongan and Moana epistemologies, his work embodies notions of time, space and affect. Central to his practice is ongo—meaning both sound and feeling—a concept that encompasses the deep interconnectedness of Tongan customary practices. In his digital installations, Faletau explores fonua (land, people, womb) and the complexities of human relations and connections with the world our internal and external architectures, environments, and the unseen forces that bind us. Extracting audio data from songs and field recordings he translates their sonic frequencies into immaterial and intricate kupesi–the symbolic patterns used on ngatu (bark cloth)–which hold deep cultural and ceremonial significance.

Tuaikaepau – Slowly but surely features a video and soundscape installation honouring the survivors of the 1962 Tuaikaepau shipwreck on the Minerva Reef between Tonga and Aotearoa New Zealand. Faletau’s hypnotic visualisation draws on the historic composition ‘Tuaikaepau’ by the Tongan Queen Sālote Tupou III (1900-1965), which was originally performed to welcome the survivors home. Faletau’s installation utilises a recording of this piece performed in 2022 by the Mana Scholars of the Mana Academy Charter School for Her Royal Highness Princess Angelika Lātūfuipeka Tukuʻaho, the great-granddaughter of the original composer.

Weaving ancestral knowledge and storytelling with contemporary digital techniques, Faletau bridges the past and present in a rich tapestry of Tonga’s artistic and customary legacies, emphasising the resilience, reimaging and expression of culture.